July 28, 2022, Banff
We visited Banff both yesterday and the day before, but for a very short period of time. 2 Day ago we were in the cinema to watch “Thor – Love and Thunder” and yesterday we walked around the downtown looking for a place to eat, but Barak was very stubborn and at the end we went to another place to eat sushi.
Today, we took the gondola up to the mountains above Banff – and all I have to say is WOW!!! In my opinion it is one of the most beautiful places we have been to during this trip, maybe even the most beautiful of all.
Our turn was at 11:50 (you can order tickets online, then you will be allowed to park in the nearest parking lot, if you did not reserve a spot online – you will have to park in the far parking lot and somehow get to the building from which the gondola departs). Inside – a line is arranged as usual and moves very quickly…
Each car can hold up to 4 people (and it doesn’t matter that in the car before us, 4 people who weighed more than we all weigh together…), so we got on in two cars: Zeevik, Yoav and Ella, and in the second: Kfir, Barak and I. The view is stunning even from the car when you go up in the gondola, and if I didn’t have a fear of heights, I would be sitting with my face glued to the glass. Instead, I tried not to be a stressed mother and I didn’t demand that BArak & Kfir will sit all the time. I just asked them not to rock the cart too much and I prayed that the car wouldn’t stop and we would remain suspended between heaven and earth. On the way, I coouldn’t hold back and called Orna (my sister). I wanted her to see this stunning view. Just as we were talking to her, we passed the highest pole holding the gondola’s cable – the one that raises the cars above the height of the treetops – and for a moment I stopped breathing….
When you get to the top, there is a lookout with an amazing view of Banff, with the river that runs through the town and surrounds it, until it flows into a small lake that flows into a large lake. After 4 weeks of traveling, I was able to see the scenery for real. We drive for hours in the landscape, and see the mountains from below, but only today – we saw the view from one of the high peaks, and it was simply stunning!
From the building to which the gondola arrives, there is a wooden boardwalk that leads to another peak, not far away – the view from which overlooks an area a little more distant from Banff – truly breathtaking. We walked all the way to the other side, and went up to the building that was built there several decades ago. I admit that I only skimmed over the signs with the explanations, because this time the view was much more interesting to me than the history.
Yoav has been feeling leg weakness for the past few days. It might be that he had COVID some time ago and we didn’t really pay attention to it. Up until today he had no problem walking and even running all the routes that Zeevik chose for us, but today he was really low. And yet, we went there and back along the boardwalk, returning to the gondola building, which has some information about the nature and landscape around us. We saw Banff’s promotional video (not one of the best in our opinion) and went back down. We got up around 12 and got ready to go down around 2pm. I was already very hungry…
Instead of going to the cave that Zeevik wanted to go to, we decided to go back to Banff itself and go eat. Banff has a small-medium downtown and it has all kinds of restaurants that are nice to sit outside. We chose a restaurant with a nice variety named: Three Bears. Zeevik ate a hamburger, Kfir a large pizza (5 cheeses – which came without sauce, probably that’s how it should be), Yoav took a “steak on a stick” – lamb ribs that sit for two days in a pomegranate marinade – he tasted it and said he didn’t like it ( Barak also said the same, only Zeevik enjoyed it), Ella ordered a pizza without sauce from the children’s menu and Barak complained that he had nothing to eat. But agreed to wait until the end of the meal to go get sushi. It was nice plus, but I would prefer that we continue the culinary experiments and go to an Indian restaurant 🙂
When we finished eating, we went to buy sushi for Barak at a nearby sushi restaurant. We left Zeevik, Barak and Yoav to order and I went with Ella and Kfir to see if there was a place to buy a shirt or two with an inscription related to Banff at a reasonable price. (An explanation moment – everywhere we’ve been there’s a souvenir shop where you can buy shirts, some are nicer then others, but refuse to buy t-shirts at the price of $50 Canadian per shirt. And even though both of Ella and I are upset not buying it, the only thing I’m willing to buy at these unreasonable prices in these souvenir shops – are magnets for the fridge, because it’s something that will stay with us for life and remind us of where we were).
We went into a store called BIG BEAR and there, much to my surprise, were t-shirts for $15 (Canadian) that looked very cute. We immediately chose shirts for Zeevik and Kfir and continued to walk around the store. When I saw that there was a really nice selection, and also a sale (2 shirts for $25), I sent Kfir to the hot weather outside to get Zeevik, Barak and Yoav. We roamwd the store for more than 30 minutes, measuring, trying on, changing – in the end we left with 7 shirts (for Kfir, Yoav, Ella and Zeevik) and – 2 sweatshirts for Kfir and Yoav – all this for $180 Canadian (which is something like $140 American). When we left the store, I talked to Ella who keeps wanting to buy and buy in the souvenir shops – and she realized that for the price of 3 shirts in the souvenir shops, we bought a lot more in this shop.
I have something to say to the god of American capitalism (or just to the owners of various souvenir shops). It is true that if you sell a shirt for $50 you earn much more on that shirt than if you were to sell it for $15. But on the other hand, if you were to sell it for $20, you would also make a profit, and many more people would buy your shirts… and for the record – the amount of people that were in this store today was 20 times more than any souvenir store we’ve been to (even in busy places) and everyone was walking around with at least one item. And when I checked out the hoodies/shirts, I noticed that I’ve seen a lot of these shirts on people walking around the Rockies the past few days. It may be that the shirts were not bought in this specific store, but it seems to me that they were…
We entered one more store, bought two funny shirts (for Barak and me) and pants for Ella and continued on our way. Although there is a lot more to see in the Banff area, Zeevik made a decision and chose to hit the road and drive to our hotel in Calgary. There was a good vibe in the car after the food and shopping, and I think that Zeevik is tired of Barak and Ella’s complaints about having to get out of the car to see the scenary.
So we drove for an hour and a half (which left us only another hour and a bit in the book we’re listening to now) and arrived at a hotel that has a pool with a very nice water slide. We immediately went down to try the pool. After 5 minutes, I realized that I really had nothing to do there. Zeevik stayed with his phone, the children went up and down the slide and I went up to the room to rest. Everyone came back at 9, showered and immediately connected to the electronics. At 22:40, when we said we were going to sleep – Barak and Ella remembered that they were hungry. Zeevik went to the car, brought them bread, butter and carrots and that was the end of the day…
Tomorrow – a small amusement park and some more time in thr pool…