Week Nineteen.

Well this past week has been bloody incredible to say the least! We have done and seen so many awesome things that really help me to appreciate where I am in the world. Of course the mandatory double shifts had to be completed before, and boy did they drag when we had so much to look forward to - but it was well worth it!

So on Sunday Danny and I went skiing at Lake Louise and dog sledding which was great! I had been waiting so long and it definitely lived up to my expectations. We did it just in time as well, due to the little amount of snow we have received this season they are stopping doing tours this week, so thank God I booked when I did. I'm kicking myself for not getting my arse in gear earlier as there as so many activities I would like to do that are now not possible, and if we don't get our second year visa I do not know when we will get the chance again. Ah well, positive thoughts, and back on to how frickin awesome this week has been.

For the last six weeks now we have had a three day trip planned for our friend Fabian's birthday, and again it has been hit and miss down to the lack of snow at the resorts, but after a helpful dumping the week before last we took our chances, and boy are we glad we did. Monday afternoon we set off for Fernie, straight to the resort. We booked to stay at the Slopeside lodge, ski in ski out, perfect. I say ski in ski out, there actually was very little snow at the bottom of the hill, but it was pretty nice to think that when I wake up in the morning I only have to roll out of bed and round the corner.

We checked in, dumped our stuff and headed into town for dinner at the Livery which was lovely. Fernie is a weird old town, very spaced out and kinda desolate so it seems, but this restaurant was awesome. The food was incredible and our waitress was pretty damn good too. We had mussels, pork rillette and duck confit leg to start, followed by a bison burger, paprika fried squid and duck breast. God it was good, all washed down with a nice bottle of BC merlot and Fernie beer. Throw all that food in, with a four hour drive and we were all pretty exhausted, so we hit the hay ready for a busy days skiing in the morning.

8am alarm and we were up, showered, dressed and picking up our lift passes at 9am ready for the first lifts. It is so strange to get on a chair lift where all that is beneath you is grass, and get off at the top in some really nice powder where it is dumping with snow. Super weird. I really liked skiing on fresh snow that isn't too deep, I can keep my balance and not be sliding around anywhere, it's cool. Due to very little snow in the lower sections a lot of the runs were closed so the only way we could find to get back to the base was sign posted 'WARNING: experts only' - well that certainly isn't me so God knows why I went along with it. But lets just say it was not fun, and my day of skiing was done after that and I settled in at the bar with a large glass of red and my book.

Once everyone else had finished their laps we headed out to the Lussier Hot Springs, which unlike the ones in Banff, are totally natural, and totally awesome. There are three little pools on the edge of the river separated by a load of rocks, one cold, one luke warm, and one nice and hot - almost too hot if anything. We sat in the hot one for a considerable amount of time, drinking beers and chatting about anything and everything. It's a pretty cool way to spend your birthday - I'm super jealous Fabian. We still had a bit of a drive to go to get to Panorama so we headed on out and God did we get more than we were hoping for from our cute little motel.

A 40 minute drive from the ski resort was Piccadilly Motel, run by a lovely English woman and our rooms were just lovely. It was pretty late by the time we arrived and checked in, so we just ordered pizza, had a couple of beers, gave Fabian his birthday cake and presents and headed off to bed. When we woke up there was the most incredible breakfast spread laid out, buffet style so everyone could just help themselves, it was a great thing to wake up to that's for sure. As we got ready to leave there were these HUGE big horned sheep just chilling on the grass outside the motel, and as we drove off there were even more round the corner. I guess big horned sheep are like Banff's elk - they are just everywhere, but it's still pretty darn cool.

When we got to Panorama it was evident that there was more snow coverage than at Fernie, but definitely not as much powder. The first run we did was super hard packed and icy, but after that we found some lovely softer runs - relatively steep, long and wide which was great to just cruise down and enjoy. We were definitely all pretty sore from two days of skiing and exploring so decided to go to another hot springs to relax - this time the Radium Hot Springs. These ones were much less natural and cool than the Lussier ones, but still a nice end to the day and relieved all our achey muscles before driving back to Banff. Thank you very much to Halie by the way for doing the long drives and organising the entire trip. We have had lots of fun and we definitely need to do so many more day trips and activities like this!

I'm sat in bed now, totally exhausted, of course watching a few more episodes of Pretty Little Liars (I'm addicted) and I am now noticing how insanely long this blog post is compared to any other I've written since I've been here, but I guess I've just got so many exciting things to share with you all that I've rambled on a fair bit. I am pretty tired, and I have got 3 double shifts coming up so I guess I should go to sleep and leave you guys to look at the pictures. Enjoy.

Dog Sledding.

So today it finally happened. After three months of talking about it, waiting for it to snow and to find some time when we were both free, we finally went dog sledding. I literally could not contain my excitement whilst we were driving to Lake Louise. There are so many cool things to do in this country that we will never be able to do back home and I just want to try and cram in as much as possible, the tick list begins with this.

We didn't have to meet with the tour company until 2pm, so we took the spare time as an opportunity to do a few laps at Lake Louise in the glorious sunny weather. I absolutely love that ski hill! It's so refreshing to be somewhere other than Sunshine, where it takes more than three minutes to complete a run. They have a lovely tree run that I really enjoy, and it was actually quite nice to be back on my skis. Don't get me wrong I am enjoying the challenge of learning to snowboard, but it's great to be able to step back from that and just have fun. But before I begin to ramble on about that, I shall get back to the dogs.

So we arrived just before 2pm and got to pet the dogs and learn a bit about them all, then we met our 'team', got in the sled and off we went. My God whilst all the sleds (there were five groups that departed at the same time) were waiting to get going the noise is like nothing you can imagine. Over 30 dogs all harnessed up and raring to go, the barking was insane. I'm pretty sure it induced a slight headache over the two minutes we were waiting, but I was so excited I could not care less. So off we went.

Our guide was called Cody and he was awesome. He knew so much about the area, the dogs, had good recommendations for things to do and just made the whole experience really chilled and great fun. We went up to the Great Divide, took a break there and wandered around and had some more time with the dogs, and then we did a loop and scooted back to the base. There were so many photo opportunities during the trip so I've got a lot to share with you...

Week Eighteen.

My working week starts on a Wednesday so the first 4 days of this week were pretty full on. Work has been nice and busy which is awesome. The time flies by so so quickly, especially at the weekend when I'm run off my feet for twelve hours - plus the money is awesome so I cannot complain. But it's fair to say I was very happy when Sunday rolled around. As you will have seen in the last post we had a lovely day, wandering around town and treating ourselves to a delicious lunch at the Fairmont.

Monday was our full day/night off so we had a lot of bits and bobs planned. We started our day by going snowboarding of course. Now I've got my own boots there is no excuses to not get practising so I reluctantly pulled myself out of bed in the early hours and headed up to Sunshine. We had a nice big dumping of snow over the weekend so the conditions were nice and soft which is great for learning. I had a nice soft landing every time I ended up on my butt - which was a lot. I definitely feel like I'm improving every time I head out, but I just need to push through my fears and everything will be so much easier. I'm determined to give it my best shot, I've only got 2 months left of the season so every day counts!

After coming home and freshening up we went and picked Halie up and headed to Vermillion Lakes to watch the sunset. It is just so beautiful everywhere at the moment now it's clear and sunny but with snow on the ground - you can't even begin to imagine. I'm actually taking scenery pictures rather than just selfies, my Pop will be so so proud. Unfortunately the sun set in a direction that was pretty much impossible to catch on camera but I still got some beautiful snaps regardless. I fully intend to hike up Tunnel Mountain and sit there with a flask of tea watching the sunset, just waiting on that crystal clear sky and not too freezing temperatures. I have my list of requirements.

So after that fail, the three of us popped up to the Hot Springs for way over the recommended 10 minute time allotment. We sat there chatting and relaxing for way over an hour until we almost resembled shrivelled up dates, but it was so lovely. It's so refreshing to escape the town even just for that one hour and relax and spend time with good people. I don't really know what's going on with me at the moment but I am just craving some time at home with my family. For people who do seasons all the time I'm sure that this seems strange that I've been away for only five months and I'm starting to get homesick but I just am. I'd do anything even just for a couple of days back home, I'll have to see what time off I can haggle with at work...

On a more exciting note though we have FINALLY booked dog sledding for Sunday which I am ridiculously excited about. I've been talking about doing it ever since I got here, and now it's been snowing I just had to book it. We've gone with the one in Lake Louise which is the only dog sledding tour that runs through the National Park, it's going to be the perfect way to start our long late weekend. We also booked up all our lift tickets and hotels for Fabian's birthday trip to Fernie and Panorama, and then ski mobiling in Panorama. It's been an expensive couple of days but there are just so many things we want to do and so many places we want to visit that with the realisation that we might not get our second year visa we are trying to fit as much in as possible this time around.

It's about time for me to head off to work so I better wrap this up nice and quickly. If my family are reading this, which I'm 100% sure they are - I miss you guys so so much, and Nan, I promise I will take you out for lunch as soon as I'm home. All my love, Lou.

Day Off (Kinda).

So Sunday has rolled around nice and quickly and we were both certainly ready for the day off today. We had a nice long lie in, I poured myself the biggest cup of Second Cup white hot chocolate (the best hot beverage ever invented) and we skyped our respective families. Sunday skype day. It was once again lovely to catch up, even more so as it is Mother's Day. Flowers and cards managed to reach both of our Mum's so job well done, not too shabby considering we are over 4000 miles away, but it was definitely strange to not be at home today with all of the family.

As days off seem to come around once in a blue moon we decided to make the most of it and head into town for a wander. We figured that now was a good a time as any to find myself my very own pair of snowboard boots. Up until now I've been borrowing Halie's, which was lovely of her to be so generous but if I am serious about learning to snowboard I need to be going up a lot more often and it makes sense to have my own gear - especially as all the stores are putting winter stock into sale. Bagged myself a right old bargain. Man are snowboard boots SO much more comfortable to wear than ski boots. Cannot wait to cosy my tootsies up in these every day. Fingers crossed they are some kind of magical boot and I will automatically be able to snowboard. A girl can wish hey!

After spending a third of my wages two days after getting them, we decided to head up to the Fairmont Banff Springs, may as well! The past couple of years I have gone out for afternoon tea with my Mum for Mother's Day or a birthday so Danny suggested we try the Fairmont's afternoon tea and send her a 'cheers' picture. Of course, as we went on the off chance, the afternoon tea was fully booked, but we managed to get a table in the lounge for a light lunch and it was so delicious. We shared rootbear glazed beef tenderloin bites which were absolutely incredible, sweet potato fries, and a sausage, bacon, caramelised onion, mushroom and gouda flatbread. I then washed mine down with white pear cosmo which is pear vodka, cointreau, pear and white cranberry juice and lime juice, and Danny had the cascade hot toddy.

Everything was so so good, so much so we want to try to recreate our own rootbeer glaze! Unfortunately it was snowing pretty heavily so the view wasn't as good as it normally would have been. I say unfortunately, it's actually bloody awesome that is finally snowing but in terms of the view from the lounge, it's definitely a hot spot for sunny days - the photographs would be insane!!! As we headed back to the car (yes I made Danny drive) we took a little wander through the woods and down to the Bow Valley Falls to have a little comparison to what it was like before all of the sun. The lake was completely frozen three months ago so it was cool to see it in a different way, though you can't really tell from the photos with all the snow. You get my drift.

I have to be at work in half an hour so I'm trying to type ridiculously quickly to get this all finished before I leave so I better not go on anymore and just upload a lot of beautiful pictures for you all to ooh and aah over. Enjoy.