Hannah's Senior Trip

We had been saving airline miles forever when we realized that you can't actually take a family of nine on a trip for free. The airlines don't allow you to redeem that many free tickets on one flight. Having tried traveling in shifts once, it became painfully obvious that it just wouldn't work. So we then came up with the idea of taking each of our children on a senior trip when they graduate from high school. This would be a chance for them to be an only child for a few days and Kregg and I could go on seven wonderful trips.

We took Hannah to Banff. Kregg was there on business, so we just combined trips. Hannah and I arrived at the airport in Midland, only to learn that our flight had been delayed. We began to be nervous when the delay stretched longer and longer. They finally put us on a plane, but told us we had missed the last connecting flight out of Dallas for the day. We finally arrived a day late, but just thankful to be there.

We stayed in the Banff Springs Hotel the first night. Spectacular doesn't do it justice. It was completely breathtaking. Funny thing happened, though. After exploring the grounds and having dinner, we went up to our room. It had been a long day and the next day promised to be filled to overflowing, so we decided to get some sleep.  During the night, the hotel alarms went off. It scared us to death! We tried to find out why, but were told it was just a false alarm. We climbed back in bed and tried to doze off again. All of a sudden, the alarm went off again! Once more, we checked to see if it truly was an emergency and were told everything was okay. Back to bed we went only to be awakened a THIRD time by the alarm sounding off. I started packing up. Kregg checked on the situation and told us that everything was fine. Eventually we calmed down enough to go back to sleep.

Daddy and his sweet little girl!

Every evening the bag piper plays.

Behind the hotel, this river served as the setting for an old Robert Mitchum and Marilyn Monroe movie.

This was the trip when Hannah started becoming a serious photographer.

Inside the lobby of the Banff Springs Hotel

The town of Banff is quite picturesque.

Out walking, we saw several deer and elk.

These big horn sheep were not concerned at all by our presence.

We left Banff the next morning and headed north toward Lake Louise. Along the way, there was a trail that followed Johnson Creek. We stopped and explored. It was so beautiful, we were very thankful we hadn't decided to just drive on past.

Kregg and Hannah on a walkway overlooking the creek.

Isn't he adorable?? He was so tame!

Lake Louise has to be one of the most gorgeous places on the planet!

Next we went to Moraine Lake.

You can see along the edge of the water that there is ice floating. We kept hearing a musical sound like little bells and it took a minute to determine that it was actually the pieces of ice jingling together as the water gently moved them.

The ice was crystal clear just like the water in the lake.

From there we headed north toward Jasper. Our next destination was the Numtijah Lodge. It was completely different than the Banff Springs, but it was just as wonderful. Very quaint and rustic, but I could easily live there!

Mr. Raven surveying his domain.

The Numtijah--isn't it wonderful?

We went as far north as the ice fields and rode one of the big snow cat buses out onto the glacier.

After seeing the glacier, we turned around to begin making our way back toward Calgary. Going back through Banff, we rode the gondola up to the top of the mountain. The views from the top are almost not to be believed. 360 degrees of mountains encompass you. It feels like you really are on top of the earth!

A gorgeous shot up the main street in Banff. Kregg took this one. It's one of my very favorites!!

We drove back into Calgary and found our hotel. Because it adjoined the airport, we returned our rental car that evening. We made it home the next day and were eager to begin looking at all our pictures. To our horror, the wallet containing all my CF memory cards for my camera was not in our camera bag. We began retracing our steps making phone calls. The only place it could have been was in the rental car because we knew we had it right before we turned it in and it hadn't been found in our hotel room. The rental people search the car three times before they finally found it. The carpet in the car was dark and the wallet was black. Hannah had accidentally dropped in the floor and kicked it under the seat! I almost wept when they called me back saying they had found it.  Thankfully, it arrived safely and we had our digital memories back!! Our trips always seem to have the potential for disaster, but we still have so much fun! Never a dull moment is our family creed, after all. Ha! Ha!