Day 14 - Banff

     Merry Christmas

 May it be white. xxx

It has been snowing pretty much the whole time we have been at Lake Louise. Today is the first time that we have woken up to beautiful clear blue skies. Of all the trips we have taken to North America, this is the first that we have succeeded in having a white Christmas. 

The view from our room. 

Today we went for a trek around the Lake (not on the lake). It looked colder than what it was and we were actually too hot before we had got half way around. We were early enough out that there weren't too many visiting tourists around on the lake. This meant the perfect snow for Belle to make a snow angel.  

At the end of the lake is the frozen water fall. If you squint you might be able to see the ice climber mid way up the largest upper veil.

There is a boardwalk, currently well covered in snow, that goes over the top of stream running into the lake. This was a great opportunity for the kids to dig down to the boardwalk and generally play around with the snow and ice around the unfrozen stream. It was nice to see them play, which had occurred less often on this trip now that they are both older. 

As it was Christmas we were struggling to work out what to do about dinner. We were a bit over going to the Alpine Social, which is a casual bar. Don't get me wrong, the food was great, but there is only so many nights in a row that we could eat the same burger. We had previously looked at the chateau traditional Christmas dinner prior to arrival, but baulked at the price and fear that it would not accommodate the pallets of our either Joshua or Isabelle, both of whom would need an adult ticket. I think over the course of this stay, Steve had made a further three enquiries to try and make a booking. I think for Steve, the heart wanted to go ahead with the 0900hr booking that was finally secured, but the reality of the price and hungry kids won out (plus sensible wife may have been a bit convincing). As a compromise we managed a very lovely dinner booking at one of the fancy bars over looking the snow. It was casual enough that we could continue our Uno championship, but fancy enough that we felt like we were having a special dinner. 

Belle and I needed to repeat a photo taken on our previous visit under the light arch by the lake. A quick run out into the snow (no jackets) to take some last Christmas photos in the snow. It had just started snowing again so it was a perfect photo replica, with the added bonus of Steve and Joshua tagging along. 

Joshua, happened to look up at the falling snow and with the lights highlighting the snow, he noted, and reminded me, of what we had observed last trip. Looking into the falling snow actually does make you feel like you are moving through a galaxy. The below photos are just some fun photos by Belle and Joshua that I couldn't help posting. As Belle so aptly reminded me tonight, this would be Joshua's last Christmas as a child. 

Merry Christmas everyone with all our love from the Summers xxx 🎄