September 23rd, 2024

Our last stop of the day was the natural bridge which is just down the street from Emerald Lake.  It was a short and easy stop that was close to the parking lot.   At one point, I was waiting for a few people taking selfies, to get off the bridge.  When they left, I said to Sophon, “Finally!”, the people next to me heard the comment and added that they had been waiting twenty minutes and were annoyed.   I get it, we want pictures without any other tourists in them.

We headed back to Banff and a place to have dinner.  Banff is pretty town!  Earlier in the day, I had noticed an Irish Pub called St. James Gate. We both love pub food so we decided to give it a try.  We ordered everything family style and shared a fish and chips along with a bangers and mash.   What really stood out was the Guinness Dubliner Cheese appetizer that was served hot with rye bread.   I made it a point to take a picture of the menu and went searching for recipes when I got back to the hotel room.

Overall, a wonderful day, we really enjoyed everything that we saw and did.

September 23, 2024

Overall, the hotel has been a disappointment and expected more from a Marriott Autograph Collection hotel. I went to order two medium coffees and was told that they ran out of medium cups and had to order a large or a small.  I was told that they were out of conditioner for your hair, the housekeepers stopped putting washcloths in the room after the first day. The night before, we stopped at the firepit to get a S’more, the ingredients had all been set out but there wasn’t a fire.

We decided to stop in Banff for breakfast.  The first restaurant we saw had a great menu posted at the door, we gave it a try and really loved it.  I had the Grilled Cheese Benedict and this made my morning!

After breakfast we headed to Yoho National Park.  Lake Louise and Lake Moraine always show up when you are looking at tours – they also tend to be more crowded.  I would argue, that Lake Johnson and what I saw in the Yoho National park was almost as good but without the crowds.

Our first stop was Wapto falls.  Unfortunately, google maps took us to a spot where we could view the falls from a distance.  I did some more searching and found where we needed to turn off the freeway if we wanted to hike to the falls.  It was a pretty hike which took close to two hours round trip.  Although we could have gotten closer to the falls, it involved steep hills, so I opted to the not so close views.