Canada Trip - Part Six

See? Sunshine! Jasper was exponentially more beautiful with the sun peering over the snow-capped mountains. Thursday was our day of departure, so after we packed up our things and checked out of the Best Western Jasper Inn & Suites, we drove over to the highly rated, SnowDome Coffee Bar. SnowDome's concept is quite peculiar but amazingly logical. It's part coffee bar, part laundromat, part internet cafe. I mean, all of those things compliment each other perfectly, dontcha think? We didn't try their washing machines or their internet, but Chris' latte was delicioso.

As we left Jasper, there were a few cars pulled over on the side of the road. Everybody wanted to see some elks having breakfast.

Driving down Ice Fields Parkway in the sun was a completely different experience that it had been a few days prior.

Tangle Falls

One of the most beautiful drives in the world.

Finally, we saw some Bighorn Sheep!

Pictures don't do them justice. They were so funny looking! They were right on the side of the highway, eating the salt deposits in the dirt.

Bow Lake

It was nuts, we got out of the car to take some photos of Bow Lake (on the west side of the highway) and there were a bunch of people taking pictures of the east side of the highway. I was like... "dudes, the lake is behind you." But then we looked closer and there was a grizzly bear up on the hillside.

Our final stop in the mountains was back at the Castle Mountain Chalet. I bought another bag of All Dressed Potato Chips and we enjoyed a quick picnic lunch before finishing the trek to Calgary.

Returning the rental car was a bit of a hassle. Driving around downtown Calgary the day before the Stampede, during rush hour = not the best idea. But, we made it! When we left the Avis building, I looked up, and we were directly under the Calgary Tower. Not a bad view.

Our walk to the grandparent's condo from the Tower took a bit, so we ended up being rather late to dinner with the fam at The Keg. My Chicken Oscar was fantastic, by the way. After dinner, Chris and I walked a few blocks further to Beer Revolution and Brewsters Brewing Company. We tried about 14 beers between the two bars.

Around 11pm we started walking home. Oh right, the sun was just setting... kind of surreal.