We had a lazy morning watching the second half of a Star Wars movie we started the night before and drinking lots of coffee. The sweet B& B Kid’s made cards for the Js and delivered them at 8am (I’m sure their Mim was holding them back until that acceptable hour. Darin needed to work for a couple of hours so I packed up while the boys played with the B&B kids outside. We started the drive from Revelstoke to Lake Louise around 10:30. It was cloudy, which was a big disappointment since we wouldn’t get to enjoy the scenery. So we read books, played the Simon game, and listened to audio books.
We arrived at the Fairmont Hotel of Lake Louise around 3:30. What a place! We had the perfect room for our family—steps went up from the bedroom area into a nook with seating and a huge picture window overlooking the lake. Darin took the boys swimming while I attended the historical talk on the hotel. There’s nothing I love more than learning the history of a place—I could stop and read every point of interest sign along the highway. There’s nothing Darin hates more—so this was the rare opportunity for a win-win! And because I can’t keep these riveting stories to myself....Lake Louise was named for Queen Victoria’s 4th daughter, Princess Louise. It became a tourist destination after Canada built a transcontinental railroad in the late 1800’s (a promise they made to Bristish Columbia to lure them to become part of Canada.) The railroad cost a fortune and the government decided tourism would be a great way to recoup the cost. Hotels were built throughout the Canadian Rockies along the rail line to house tourists who flooded in from Europe and the U.S. are your eyes glazed over yet? I better stop there🤓.
The boys were thrilled the pool had kid-sized robes!
After swimming and needing out on history, we checked the boys into the complimentary kids room for an hour—I’m telling you—this place is brilliant! All parties enjoyed their time. The boys played Monopoly, hoola hooped, and scaled a climbing wall. Darin and I sipped a Moscow mule while gazing out at the wonder of frozen Lake Louise. We reconvened as a family for dinner at the Swiss restaurant in the hotel, dining on delicious cheese fondue, steak, and chocolate fondue for dessert.
The only candle we had was the one warming the chocolate fondue, so we made do and sang “Happy Birthday” while Jacob and John held their fondue forks and then blew out the fondue candle. They didn’t seem to mind this birthday improvisation—thank goodness they’re not high maintenance:-)
Happy birthday to these sweet boys—fondue style:-)
By the time dinner was done, we were itching for an adventure. So we bundled up in our snow gear and set out for a walk across the lake. There were lit hockey and ice skating areas close to the hotel, but it wasn’t long before we had broken free from civilization and were braving dark and wilderness terrain (we were the only fools to go out on the lake at 8:30pm). We had fun walking to the far side of the lake—Darin, John and Kenny would run ahead and lay down to hide, them jump up and attack with snowballs as Jacob and I approached. Jacob was slightly concerned about wolves, but I told him it was bears he should worry about, especially considering the chocolate fondue he had on his face 😂. We reached the far shore and turned around to find we would be walking into the snow the entire way back to the hotel. The J’s started to get cold and tired so we broke into song singing patriotic songs from their recent 1st grade program: Yankee Doodle, America the Beautiful, The National Anthem, and This Land Is Your Land. We ran out of songs with about 10 minutes left to walk. The fun was over, but they managed to avoid a total meltdown.
It was straight to bed after this late night adventure. The boys were out by 10. Darin and I weren’t far behind. Our “break day” from skiing turned out to be pretty exhausting after all!
No comments:
Post a Comment