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| This awesome machine was parked at the foot of the gondolas up Sulphur Mountain. |
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| The gondolas |
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| Birthday Boy! |
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| The great view from the gondolas on the way up! |
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| Mountain sheep. |
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| Views from the top...... |
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| Birthday Boy!! |
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| Vermillion Lake. |
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Oh dear. It's pouring down!
...but happily, the downpour reduced to sporadic drizzle and Jack's birthday did not have to be "cancelled" :-)
Our first stop of the day was Banff hot springs where we spent some time luxuriating in the outdoor, 40 degree thermal springs. Nice!
Next, we took the gondola up Sulphur Mountain and continued on foot to the top. The cloud was low but we could see patches of mountain and valley through it, making it interesting, visually.
At the foot of Sulphur Mountain Jack and Bekky were delighted to find that the obligatory souvenir shop also stocked one of Banff's speciality products... 100s of varieties of fudge! We ended up buying a pound and a half of the stuff in 6 different flavours!
From Sulphur Mountain, we drove a few miles to Vermillion Lake to sit and eat lunch. The lake was characteristically beautiful and reflected the clouds and mountains in its surface perfectly. It was set some way back from the mountains though and surrounded by leafy, green wetlands. Most tranquil.
It was now around 2:30pm and the next scheduled event was the cinema at 7pm. So we headed into Banff town and Martin, Bekky and Jack went shopping (Jack got some money for his birthday) whilst Marina dealt with laundry (lucky her!). When the laundry was done, Marina went off with Bekky to look at clothes and Martin and Jack went in search of an internet cafe so that Martin could catch up on business emails. By the time all of this was done it was around 6:30 so we went to the cinema, bought our tickets for the new Bourne Ultimatum movie and took our seats.
The movie was the usual action packed Bourne stuff. The final event of the day was to take Jack to the restaurant he had chosen the day before, the curiously named Magpie and Stump, which specialised in Mexican food. An excellent meal was had by all (though the huge portions defeated everyone.... except Martin) and at that, around 11:30pm, we headed back to camp.
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| This awesome machine was parked at the foot of the gondolas up Sulphur Mountain. |
|
| The gondolas |
|
| Birthday Boy! |
|
| The great view from the gondolas on the way up! |
|
| Mountain sheep. |
|
| Views from the top...... |
|
|
|
| Birthday Boy!! |
|
| Vermillion Lake. |
|
|
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