We were up relatively early again and debated over whether we should go out for breakfast because checking out of our hotel for the drive to our next stay point, Banff. On the way we’d planned to stop at a mall so I could get a shopping fix!
In the end we decided that we weren’t that hungry after our lovely dinner of the previous evening, so we’d go to the mall and grab something at the food court there.
It was a fairly easy drive to the Chinook Centre. We’d checked in advance that it had the stores we were interested in - basically the chains we don’t have in the UK like Old Navy, Sephora and Bath and Body Works.
Before we hit the shops, we headed to the food court. I let DH pick the food and he went for the Japanese counter and teriyaki chicken and shrimp with rice. They asked how many scoops of sauce we wanted, which we’d never been asked before - we went for two! This was around $13 (CAD obviously not USD). It was nice enough - they actually cook the shrimp to order.
We then started to shop! B&BW were selling their three wick candles for c$14 and by signing up to the Canadian B&BW emails I’d got a choice of $10 off $30 spend or a 20% off voucher, so I picked up a couple of candles and some antibacterial gels. I also bought a bundt loaf tin from Williams Sonoma - I love baking. They were having a 20% cookware sale for Victoria Day and I’m not sure if it was supposed to apply to bundts but they gave me the discount anyway, which was great.
We spent an good hour or so shopping and then decided more food was required - I love frozen yogurt and DH loves key lime pie so key lime pie frozen yogurt it was! This was nice, I can’t remember how much it was but it didn’t seem ridiculously expensive.
A quick bathroom break followed and then we were back on the road. Again we had a debate about whether to head straight for Banff or stop off somewhere on the way. I had a guide book that mentioned the town of Canmore as a potential alternative to Banff, and a quick google brought up a trail that sounded interesting. We decided therefore to head to Canmore and walk the Grassi Lakes trail.
This was not a quiet trail - although it turned out we could have parked a fair bit closer to that trail head than we did (we just saw a bunch of parked cars and found a space). We’d read there were two ways to get to the lakes - the “easy” way and the “more difficult” route - and everyone commenting seemed to recommend taking the more difficult route up and the easy way back. So when we came to the fork in the trail, that’s what we did!
The more difficult route was definitely correctly named, but it wasn’t too tough - there was one incredibly steep section by the waterfall, but it was stepped and fine as long as you took your time, and I definitely think going up that way was preferable to trying to come down it! To get a view of the waterfall is why you go that way.
The lakes at the top were worth the trip!
And the easy path down was paved and gently sloped. We did the round trip in about 90 minutes but stopped frequently for photos and took our time at the steep section as it was muddy and wet - you could do it faster. We took some pics at the lake at the bottom then walked back to the car to head for Banff.
We stayed at the Fox Inn and Suites in Banff - it’s of a similar theme to the Wilderness Lodge but not quite so fancy! Having stayed there before however we knew that it was clean and had parking, and most importantly...there’s a Chili’s onsite!
If you read my Florida report you know I love Chilis so that is where we headed for dinner. First order of business:
Holiday margarita!
I will say that unlike the US branches, there were no deals available at this branch so it does work out a much pricier meal than it would in Florida - we shared nachos to start, then with two mains, DH’s Pepsi and my drink, it came to (I think) $90 including tip. Not entirely sure it was worth that, but we enjoyed it so we didn’t worry too much - hey, we’re on holiday!
But it was enough for the evening - we headed back to the room for the night after this!