Day 29 - Silvertip Golf Course - Canmore, Alberta

They say, “surrounded by 360 degrees of spectacular mountain views, Silvertip Golf Course is a world-class 18-hole championship golf course, which provides a magical golfing experience. I agree! The rating for the back tees is a horrific 74.6/146! My tees were 69.9/140 and I was able to shoot an 87. Janie played 68.8/133 and shot 104. Our tee time was at 4:30pm and we got done at 9:00pm. It was a wonderful time of the day to play. It doesn’t get dark until around 10:30

Day 28 - Kananakis, Alberta, Canada

Today we went about 40 miles from Canmore to what they call Kananakis Country. We had a picnic by a beautiful lake and then went into the little village. This is a beautiful area. Very rustic. We spent the day walking in the woods and just enjoying the day. The scenery is beautiful in all directions, just like everything up here.

Day 27 - Canmore, Alberta, Canada

Three Sisters Mountain overlooks Canmore and is really pretty to see every day. The peaks are called Big Sister, Middle Sister and Little Sister. A waitress told us they are also called Faith, Hope and Charity but we can't find that in any of the literature. Still very beautiful!

Day 26 - Banff Springs Hotel

While in Banff we visited the Banff Springs Hotel. It's a very beautiful old hotel nestled in trees with fantastic views of the mountains, a river and the Banff Springs golf course.

Day 26 - Banff, Alberta, Canada

Today we went to the Banff area and just drove around looking at the scenery. I could post 50 pictures like this one and each is better than the last. The area is simply gorgeous! We also went into the city of Banff (very touristy) but fun to just walk the streets.

Day 25 - Canmore, Alberta, Canada

We're now in Canmore, Alberta (Banff) and have settled in for an eight day stay. The mountains are beautiful but not as tall as those in Colorado. There seem to be many more but smaller. In any case, we're enjoying every minute of them.

Day 24- Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

It was hard to understand why AAA was saying that the Nikka Yuko Japanese Gardens in Lethbridge was a "GEM" until we saw it. During WWII Lethbridge was a prison of war camp for Japanese and this garden is their way of saying that the Canadians and the Japanese are now friends. The garden was built in 1965 and really is beautiful. Lethbridge was also a large coal mining town. This High Level Bridge was built to haul out all the coal and is unique in tha it is the longest-highest bridge of it's type in the world. It was built in 1907 and, as you can see, is still in use today.

Day 24 - Oh, Canada!!!

We're now in Canada for the next few weeks.

Day 23 - Glacier National Park

Today we took a mile and a quater hike through the woods with a park ranger to a beautiful lake view. Along the way, the ranger told us all sort of things about the park and the animals. Once we saw the lake we had to hike a mile and a quarter to get back. We saw a grizzly bear, thankfully from quite a distance.

Day 22 - Glacier National Park

We met a very nice couple from England and have been spending our time here with them. It's been a lot of fun traveling around the park seeing everything. Each vista seems to be more beautiful than the last and there are so many of them. What a beautiful part of the world!

Day 21 - St. Mary, Montana - Glacier National Park

We made it to Glacier National Park this afternoon. We haven't had much of a chance to see the park yet but will start tomorrow morning. Sadly and a real surprise, we can only go 13 miles into the park (it's 50 miles from one side to the other) because the road is closed due to too much snow. They had a lot of snow this past winter and the melt off has been slower than expected. The headline in the local paper today says that avalanches are slowing the clearing of the road. With views like this one, I'm sure we will see all that we need to see. IT'S BEAUTIFUL!!!

Blog Tip!!!

Are you aware that you can click on any of the pictures shown to see a much larger picture? Thought this might be helpful info considering that the pictures are probably the best part of the blog. Hope you enjoy!

Days 18, 19 & 20 - Travel Days

Big Sky Montana...Here's a picture taken to the west? east? Oh it doesn't matter because the view is the same in all four directions. You can get to the middle of nowhere real fast out here. In any case, we're just traveling for a couple of days with nothing really happening for a post here. We're on our way to Glacier National Park and will make our next post from there.

Day 17 - Medora, North Dakota - The Musical

Medora is a small town (and I mean small). Can't be more than a couple hundred people and I think I'm being generous with my count. The only reason the town is here is because of the National Park. The town is famous, in this part of the country, for it's evening "Medora Musical". Our evening started with a pitchfork fondue (steaks put on a pitchfork and cooked in oil). The dinner was good but the steak was horrible. oh well, the experience! The musical show is done outside with the badlands as a back drop. It was really a very enjoyable evening of song and dance with a fireworks finish.

Day 17 - Medora, North Dakota - Badlands

The Badlands of Western North Dakota are vast. They are very similar to the badlands of South Dakota, if you've ever seen them. There are very rough valleys and bluffs as far as the eye can see. It kind of makes you think that John Wayne and the Calvary will be coming around the bend at any moment to save the day. The part that we saw is in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Teddy lived here for some time (We saw his actual house in the National Park) before he was president and owned a ranch here. He was very much into conservation and was responsible for many of our National Parks.

Just A Little Buster Break!

Just thought that we'd let you know that Buster is having a wonderful time on his summer trip. I'm sure you can tell how alert he is to everything that's going on around him. He never misses anything!!!

Day 16 - Bismarck, North Dakota

The North Dakota capitol building in Bismarck is made primarily of granite, which is mined in the area. The building was a shock to us because it doesn’t look like any of the many other capitols we’ve seen in the past. They say it's similar to Sacremento, California. Bismarck is also home to Fort Abraham Lincoln, which is the fort commanded by General Custer and where he lived before leaving for the Little Bighorn. We visited his house and the fort, both rebuilt. It was a nice stop.

Day 14 - Northfield, MN

On September 7, 1876 the Jesse James/Cole Younger gang raided the First National Bank in Northfield, MN. The raid only lasted a few minutes and was thwarted by the town folk but the ensuing gun battle brought the end to this infamous gang of bank robbers. Several movies have been made about the incident. Northfield is also the home to the Malt-O-Meal Company and St. Olaf College (Betty White's character on the Golden Girls always referred to this as her college).

Day 13 - Faribault, Minnesota

Today, while visiting our newphew and neice, we found out that our neice works for Cybex the manufacturer of top quality work out equipment. The plant is in Owatonna, Minnesota only a few miles south of where we are staying so we took a trip down there and took a tour of the factory. It was very interesting. The plant is huge. They bring raw steel in one end of the plant and put workout machines out the other end. They do all of their own fabrication. Their machines are extremely popular in gyms around the world. The company has gone from $40 million to $100 million in sales in the last 5 years.

Day 12 - Austin, Minnesota

We decided it would be unique to visit Austin, which is the home of the Hormel Company where they have a SPAM museum (Yes, the meat). The trip from Albert Lea to Austin was only about 20 miles. When we got there we found the entire town flooded. People were out filling sandbags everywhere we went. The picture shows how close the water was to the SPAM museum and the water was still rising. We don't know if the museum got flooded or not.