Afternoon Tea at the Fairmont Banff Springs.

Today Danny and I decided to treat ourselves to something a bit fancy and different and something that I have wanted to do for a long time. I LOVE afternoon tea. For as long as I can remember I've always loved tea and cake and back home it's something special for Mum and I to do and spend some quality mother daughter time together. But today I shared my love/slight obsession with afternoon tea with Danny, lucky him! It was a very last minute decision so we had 20 minutes to get out of bed and up to the Fairmont for our reservations, so we got on our bikes and pedalled as fast as possible. Two minutes to spare, we made it.

We were shown up to the upper section of Rundle Lounge to the most lovely looking, posh, sophisticated room and sat at a table with the most stunning views of the mountains. Best table in the room for sure, we are getting pretty lucky with good seating recently. We were greeted right away with a list of 13 teas to choose from. Luckily for us the afternoon tea was all a set menu, so tea was the only decision of the day to be made - I went with Kyoto Cherry Rose which is a green tea, and Danny chose the most Canadian tea he could find, maple maple. They put maple in bloody everything here, family and friends in England something maple based is more than likely to be your present when we come home in September!

So after the tea arrived we were brought a shot glass with strawberries, raspberries and blueberries in a pepper and mint syrup which was so refreshing and lovely. But then came the good part. The first course was a three tiered stand of scones and finger sandwiches. There were two scones each, a sweet and a savoury: orange and dark chocolate, and green onion and cheddar scone served with Devonshire cream and a selection of butter and jams. The sandwiches were delicious: ham, brie mustard mayo and caramelized onion; cucumber, shaved radish and chive cream cheese; smoked salmon, lemon cream cheese and capers on pumpernickel bread; egg salad, alfalfa sprouts, gherkins and chives on a savoury croissant; and curried chicken salad (coronation chicken to us english folk), apple, raisin and watercress. Such a varied and large selection, it was delicious. Personal favourites: the ham/brie/onion/mustard sandwich, and the coronation chicken one. Lovely.

Every time I go out for afternoon tea with Mum we never ever manage to finish the entire thing, and somehow at this point we weren't even close to full, so we ploughed straight into the cakes. Again, three tiers but this time full of sweet and sugary goodness. Now the cakes change regularly due to seasonal produce and new inspiration from the chefs so I shall try and remember as best as I can what we had. We started with a chocolate macaroon and a raspberry macaroon, followed by green tea and honey sponge cakes, a cream filled raspberry finger and an almond biscuit. Then down to the really fancy cakes: a coffee and chocolate ganache cake, a coconut and raspberry sponge cake, and a rosemary and vanilla cake. Of course our eyes were bigger than our stomachs and we had to box up the entire bottom tier of cakes to enjoy at a later time at home. We shall see how long they last in the fridge...

Week Thirty Two.

This week was Danny's 27th birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANNY!!! Now I get way too excited about birthdays. I get carried away with fun birthday plans and presents and try and turn it into as long a celebration as possible. So on Thursday night whilst Danny was at work I turned myself into a domestic goddess and made him not one, but two birthday cakes. Yes I am that much of a good girlfriend. He had asked for a carrot cake which I have never even attempted to make before so I relied heavily on internet recipes for that, and I then took it that bit further and made a candy covered chocolate fudge cake just for good measure. Man it was good. It was so so good. I could have just sat and looked at it to be honest, I was rather proud of myself. Mum and Nan I am definitely taking after you when it comes to baking!

On his actual birthday we were both working for a ridiculous number of hours and barely saw each other, so the main amount of celebration was spent on a little road trip to Jasper for a couple of days which I'm sure you will all have read about in the last post. We had the most brilliant time and got everything on our Jasper checklist done AND saw five bears!!! It was great and so so nice to have some time just the two of us, outside of work and enjoying some time together somewhere other than Banff. We certainly need to take more trips on our days off that's for sure - Canada is a big place, we have a lot to see!

We got home to an email that Danny has got an interview to be a snowboard instructor at Sunshine Village this winter, which is absolutely bloody awesome. Everyone cross your fingers and toes, and any other limb that it is possible for you to cross in the hope that he gets it. I have every faith in him, and of course this really is the reason that we came out to Canada so it would make all the hard work over the last couple of months so worthwhile and make the rest of our time here all the more enjoyable. Plus then I can tag onto his lessons and finally learn to snowboard and stop being a loser skier. Another aim to add to the ever growing list.

We headed to bed nice and early on Monday, absolutely exhausted after a busy couple of days and dreading the 7am alarm to get us up for white water rafting in the morning. A few weeks ago at Saltlik, a social committee was formed and we have been making more of an effort to get out as a group away from work and get to know the newer members of staff to join the team. One of the more exciting of these events was the white water rafting in Kicking Horse. I was bloody terrified I won't lie, as someone who isn't the strongest of swimmers, I was pretty scared about popping over the side of the raft into the freezing cold water and being swept away. Of course that wasn't that likely to happen and I was completely over reacting but never the less, the instructor didn't do the best job at calming my nerves with her insane safety speech. All I knew was I was holding on for dear life regardless of her commands.

It actually was so so fun. So fun. Some people complained it wasn't crazy enough for them but it was perfect for me. There were a couple of hairy moments and that was enough for me. I was so happy I had done it and tried something new and thoroughly enjoyed it. I do need to make more of an effort to try things that scare me and things that I wouldn't normally choose to do as I may end up finding something that I love. I have no hobbies or passions to speak of right now so that would be something nice to find. Next up: sky diving in Golden. The perfect way to spend my birthday money don't you think.

When we arrived back to Banff, Danny and I went straight into town and had a look around a couple of the sports shops. Danny has recently done a couple of climbing courses at the Sally Borden Centre and has developed a real interest for climbing and so of course needs to have all the gear. The final purchase to allow him to climb indoors without having to spend a fortune on hiring, was some shoes. They are the funniest looking things, absolutely tiny and pretty pointy toes - but he managed to grab a bargain in the sales and went to straight up to the climbing centre to test them out. I put on Netflix, passed out and here I am on Wednesday morning frantically trying to smash out the blog post before I head out for a no doubt delightful double shift at work. So I shall love you and leave you with the pictures...

Belated Birthday Trip To Jasper.

It was Danny's birthday on Saturday and unfortunately we both had to work, being a Saturday in the summer in a restaurant so there was no chance of getting the day off. Instead we took the next two days off and took a trip to Jasper. I drove for the first time, well unless you count driving round the corner to Safeway, but this was my first long distance drive on the wrong side of the road in an automatic car. I didn't crash, we didn't die, so I'm going to take that as a personal win.

The drive is pretty simple, straight out of Banff onto the Trans Canada Highway and then merge onto the 93 Icefields Parkway and that's that. Now we knew that if we were going to see wildlife on our trip, it was probably going to be on the Parkway. Well we are now pros at spotting bears. We saw one grizzly and two black bears on the way in, and one grizzly on the way out. It was our first real sighting of a Grizzly bear which was pretty cool, the last one was nice and close to us as well so perfect photo opportunities.

We stopped off at Peyto Lake on the way. It's just a short hike from the parking lot and the view is beautiful. The lakes here are all pretty stunning as the water is just so blue, so that combined with the fact that the lake is shaped like a fox made for a rather cool view. It was also the perfect opportunity to use the selfie stick that Halie and Fabian got me for my birthday! (Thank you guys!)

About an hour before you hit Jasper is the Icefield centre which is where you can do the Icefields experience and the Skywalk. We had both of these on our Banff ambassador cards so we got to do them for free, which after we did them I was very happy about. Let's just say if we had paid over $80 each, which is the retail price, we'd have been pretty miffed. So the Icefields adventure takes you up to the Athabasca Glacier, which is a pretty cool thing in itself to be standing on a glacier, but when you get there in reality it is like you are standing on a icy covered parking lot. It's really not that great, you can't do anything other than wander round the area in a circle and get back on the bus. It's definitely a tourist fad. We did however get to see some big horn sheep with their tiny baby sheep which was something new and cute and lovely, so there was a small perk. The skywalk was marginally better, purely because of the beautiful views, and directly below our feet were some mountain goats running around. Another animal to tick off of the list.

After grabbing a coffee and a bite to eat, we carried on our journey up the Parkway and stopped off at the Athabasca Falls. This was one place that we were strongly advised to go and check out during our time in Jasper, and it was pretty awesome. Just a little fact for you here, Athabasca Falls is the most powerful waterfall in the Canadian Rockies! See, we learnt things too!

We decided to be savvy with our money and stay at Whistler's campground which is just outside the town of Jasper, so nice and convenient. We had a nice little pitch in the sunshine with a bench and a fire pit, so we quickly set up the tent and headed into the town to grab something to eat and have a wander around. It's so similar but so different to Banff. There's lots of tourist shops and pubs, surrounded by mountains and bike trails, but it is SO quiet, which is a welcome relief from the bus load of tourists that have descended on Banff. After eating we went to one of the many tacky souvenir shops, bought a pack of cards and headed back to the tent. Danny taught me how to play "Shithead", so I now know two card games, well done me. It was bloody freezing so we took cover under the five blankets and had an early night as we had a lot to get through the next day.

Bright and early we packed up camp, headed into town to grab some breakfast and pick up a little picnic for lunchtime. We were recommended a little sandwich shop called Patricia's Street Deli where they make sandwiches to order. I had a turkey, cranberry, goats cheese salad one and it was so so good, so much better than having to buy a generic packaged sandwich from the supermarket. So with food in our bag we headed off to Maligne Canyon. The guy in the sandwich shop recommended that we park at 6th bridge and hike to the canyon rather than going to the crowded parking lot with the rest of the tourists, so we did just that. We decided to cycle the trail as we were on a tight time frame and it was around 6km each way. Obviously when it started to get very rocky and off path I gave up and just walked as briskly as possible behind Danny who was of course, in his element. It is a really lovely trail along the river and it was nice just to take in the views and be somewhere different - the sunny weather added tremendously to the experience also.

That ticked off the list, we jumped back in the car and onto Maligne Lake. I really wish we had more time in the day as I would have loved to have gone canoeing or in a paddle boat here as it was such a beautiful day and the people who were doing various water sports looked to be having so much fun! As it was we just sat on the side of the Lake, enjoyed our lunch and got back into the car to go and check out the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge. It's nothing compared to the Fairmont Banff Springs but being settled right on the side of Lac Beauvert is pretty impressive. There is a really lovely, very flat trail all around the Lake which is a nice relaxed wander, and again more water activities to try. We lay and sunbathed for a little while on the famous red chairs that you see everywhere around here and made our way to the next destination. Sunwapta Falls.

This was the last place that we had been recommended to go check out. We were told that this time of year is the best time to go as the might of the water is so much better due to the glacial melt. They weren't nearly as impressive as the Athabasca Falls, not by half, but still a waterfall is a waterfall and they are so cool to just sit and look at.

And that was our trip done. We stopped off at Bow Lake on the way back just because it was so beautifully sunny and the Lake was so blue and divine, and that was that, we were very sleepy and homeward bound. It may not sound overly exciting when written down but the pictures will give you a little insight into just how lovely Jasper is and how much of a great time we had. We will definitely be going back in the near future and trying to get done all the things that we unfortunately missed out on this time.

Week Thirty One.

Again I'm coming to you a day late, as last night we were in Calgary until the early hours of the morning after going to see Ed Sheeran at the Saddledome. My God was it good. I have wanted to see Ed Sheeran for so long, so when the opportunity came up to get tickets, I jumped on it! We ended up getting really good floor seats, so I was so bloody excited for June 17th to come around.

The day started off early, which both Danny and I are no longer used to. So pumped full of Tim Hortons coffee we headed to Calgary in the pouring rain. As we were going for the concert I booked all of my doctors appointments as part of my visa requirements. To work with children you have to have medical clearance from a Canadian certified board of doctors to say that you are fit and healthy to work with the young and vulnerable. So I had to have three separate tests, at three separate places all over Calgary.

The first was a physical exam. This was all I knew before I went and I was absolutely terrified as I had no idea what she was going to do to me. As it turned out she asked me about my medical history, checked my breathing and that was it. $225 in the space of 5 minutes, those doctors must make a killing! Then it was urine and blood tests, my least favourite but after last years stint in hospital I'm actually pretty good with needles now, there were no tears or tantrums so I'll take that as a personal milestone. And lastly, a chest x-ray. I have no idea why or what they are looking for there that determines my eligibility to work with children, but fingers crossed everything is good and I can get back into a job that I love and stop killing off my brain cells serving people food!

After the stress of doctors appointments and getting completely lost in a strange city, we settled down for lunch at Craft Beer Market in Calgary. It's a pretty cool place, with over 100 beers on tap (unfortunately only one being English) Danny and I had a lot to choose from.  We both had a local Albertan beer which was sooo good and shared some BBQ wings, and a chicken sandwich with mac and cheese. YUM! Mac and cheese in Canada is so bloody good, and you can get it everywhere! So yummy, though I do think the one at Saltlik is the best!

We then went to MEC which is an outdoor store that sells camping gear, climbing gear, bikes etc. So we had a good look around at things we might need for Summer camping and treated Danny to a couple of bits for his birthday. Some bike lights, and a head lamp which of course, being Danny, he was very excited about. They will be getting a lot of use throughout the Summer I am sure! So after that little bit of shopping we headed to Last Best Brewery to meet Sarah, McKenna and Alyssa for a bite to eat before the concert. Our friend Josh who used to work at Saltlik now works there so it was nice to see him and have a few shots to get us even more excited to see Ed!

And boy should we have been excited, he was so so good! He sang every single song that I wanted him to sing, and some new ones I didn't really know. I find it pretty cool that he can stand there just by himself with his guitar and give such an awesome performance! I loved every second and I would 100% go and see him again if I had the chance, it was incredible.

Other than that our week was pretty boring. We have been working a lot to allow for us to have the time off to go to the concert, and we are going away on Sunday for Danny's belated birthday trip so we've got to get the money in for that somehow and unfortunately that means having very little of a social life. These next few days are going to be so so fun though, I'm looking forward to writing next weeks blog post.

Week Thirty.

After just over a week we are officially all settled in our new home sweet home. The furniture is up, the textiles are in and is it like our own little sanctuary. I am so happy we have moved into a smaller, more private house and really look forward to the next few months here. Sunbathing in the front yard, barbecuing in the back and watching a ton of greys anatomy on our new TV. It's a pretty good life I've got to say!

Danny and I seem to have turned into some kind of party animals this week. Three times we've been out drinking, three! I don't know what has happened to us. I think the stress of work has all got a bit too much and the only way to try to rectify that is to all go out and drink a couple of glasses of wine each. It's actually really nice to hang out with everyone from work without actually working, you discover you do work with some really nice people when you aren't all running your arses off trying to keep an entire restaurant under control! Or is that the wine talking?

Our day off on Monday FINALLY rolled around, and we made the most of the sun by going on a bike ride to Canmore. The Legacy Trail is such a nice ride, pretty easy, no steep hills but still a nice little distance. I did find myself almost falling off my bike several times as I ended up just staring into the distance at all of the mountains and beautiful views I was going by. We sat out on the terrace at The Wood for a couple of drinks and a light lunch before wandering around town and enjoying the sunshine. Obviously I was too busy sipping on my mojito to think about putting on suncream and now have some delightful tan lines across my back. Such a good look I'm sure you'll agree. Danny went on his climbing course at the Sally Borden indoor climbing centre which of course he excelled in and loved every second of. I am going to try and get him to write a post for me on these climbing things and Patagonia bits because he has loads of interesting things to say that I couldn't possibly begin to try and write down, so watch this space.

And then came Tuesday. MY BIRTHDAY!!! And it was certainly a different one. It was my first year not having any kind of celebration with my family and it was super weird, but I've got to be honest it has been an absolutely amazing one. I am so incredibly lucky to have Danny, he made every single moment of the day special and like a home away from home. It was such a fun and interesting day, I definitely have a lot to live up to when his birthday rolls around in a couple of weeks time.

I won't lie, I started off the day pretty hungover from last nights antics and was brought tea and breakfast in bed (he's a keeper I know) and then a lovely Skype call from my family. Mum had made me a cute little cake, and Libby tried her hardest to blow out the candles which was pretty entertaining for us all. She also did a great job at singing Happy Birthday, even if it wasn't quite directed at me, and more directed towards the strawberries on the cake - but she tried and it put a huge smile on my face. She's pretty good at that!

We then pulled ourselves out of bed, picked up some picnic items from the store, and cycled to Two Jack Lake. On the map it's really not that far, but half way there you encounter a rather large hill, and then another, AND another one. It's fair to say I wasn't best pleased but I persevered and boy was it worth it, the views were just stunning and made for a birthday setting I will never ever forget. We sat and drank ice tea, had fresh fruit, took some picnics and Danny decided to tick skinny dipping off of the bucket list. It was pretty entertaining, from his reaction the water was extremely cold!

It started to drizzle a bit so we got on our bikes and headed back, which of course took a third of the time to the way there as the entire journey was downhill. Obviously we had worn ourselves out so put on a movie, had a nap, and got all dolled up ready for dinner at The Three Ravens. My God the food is out of this world, by far and above the best meal we have eaten in Banff.

And finally today. We are absolutely exhausted after the last couple of fun packed days so we had a lovely long lie in, rolled out of bed and had a little look around the farmers market (no where that does hog roast sandwiches like Oundle though). We then popped into The Park Distillery, a new restaurant in town, for a drink on the balcony in the glorious sun. Then onto the boring stuff like food shopping, bill paying and now off to work. Cross your fingers that it's not too busy for us, I'm not sure I'm ready for that just yet.

Birthday Dinner at The Three Ravens.

Today I turned the tender age of 23, so Danny and I dolled ourselves up, put on our good shoes (or in my case totally inappropriate heels to walk up a dirt track in) and treated ourselves to the most amazing dinner at The Banff Centre. The Three Ravens is one of the top rated restaurants in Banff, and it is no wonder why, as you are about to find out. Prepare to get very very hungry!

We started off with a bread and a platter of four separate homemade butters which we were left to guess the flavours of. These consisted of classic salted butter, pesto butter, cranberry butter and apple butter - pretty impressive! This was then followed by a rabbit terrine and tiny pickled tomato amuse bouche which was bloody delicious. Then the appetizers. I had ricotta stuffed eggplant tempura with noodles, edamame, mushrooms and a really yummy broth and Danny had tuna confit with cucumber consommé, melon, strawberry caviar and taro chips. I cannot explain to you enough how amazing those dishes were, both for the tastebuds and the eyes.

Following the appetizers I had vanilla bourbon glazed duck with potato pave, kumquat chutney, seasonal vegetables and a grand marina jus; Danny had the Alberta lamb duo which was a friction taste sensation. This involved a tandoori spice crusted lamb chop (probably the best thing I've ever tasted), garam masala braised lamb shoulder, saffron rice, cucumber yoghurt and a curry garlic jus. I'm aware I'm going into way more detail than you are probably even interested in but I just want you to get an idea of how much thought and effort has gone into all of these dishes and how much we loved it.

Lastly we had a sharing platter of desserts, which I think is a super good idea. I don't know about you, but when I look at a dessert menu there are usually at least two things that I cannot choose between, and this eliminates that issue. Our tasters were a dark chocolate delice which is kind of like a really rich chocolate mousse cake with 24carat gold on it(!!!), rosemary semifreddo, an orange panna cotta, and then the lovely waitress threw in the spiced zucchini cake as an extra little birthday gift. We washed everything down with a delicious bottle of Marlborough Pinot Noir, which of course was good. It's wine, what could go wrong!?

I know I've written an insane amount about one meal out, but it was just absolute perfection from our greeting at the front door, to the waitress helping us put our coats on as we left. The food is the best I have ever eaten, the service was so much fun and incredibly helpful and the views of the mountain were just stunning. It is certainly the best place to go for a special occasion, and I am so happy we managed to get a reservation and had an unforgettable evening. But now I will shut up because I have said more than enough, and I shall just leave you to drool over the pictures...