return to calgary

our plan, as i mentioned, was to rise early and head back to lake louise for a hike to a teahouse overlooking the lake. this did not end up happening.

we got to sleep a little after midnight, before a night of hell ensued. at least for lorena it was. i slept through the first part of it. apparently, around 2 a.m. some asshole twenty-somethings strolled in, set up camp close to us, and made all kinds of noise, boozing and laughing til about 3 a.m. i don't how i didn't wake up.

they only slept a couple of hours, then they got up at 5 or so and resumed the obnoxious chatter. they were such asses. this is when i woke up. they shut up and split around 6. we guessed they were in and out so quick to avoid paying the whopping $17 (cdn.) camp fee. did i mention they were assholes? well, to make a long story short (i know, too late), our planned rise at 7 a.m. was no longer a good idea. lorena was getting bitchy so i said, "let's just sleep", which we did til almost 11. she needed the sleep, badly. she had been awake almost all night.

so a return to lake louise was scrapped. we made breakfast, packed up our camp, and headed out of banff, along highway 1 east towards calgary.

i told lorena i wanted to stop on 17th ave in downtown calgary for lunch. this is "the red mile" i wrote of earlier, the street where fans party after flames' hockey games. we arrived around 2 p.m. and soon we happened upon the ship and anchor pub. i had eaten there twice, both times alone, when i was there for work three years ago. i had forgotten all about that place, but as soon as i saw it, i said, "we must eat here!". i insisted it be my treat, and lorena let me do so. she doesn't usually when i try to pick up her bill, but she sensed my excitement and let me go with it. after subsisting on campfood for a few days, it felt good to sit back and let food come to us. she got fish and chips, i ordered a tasty veggie burger with fries. we both also got a pint. it was such a nice lunch. we had such a good time. we were both in good spirits again.

as much as i didn't want to leave calgary or even canada, there was still driving to be done, so we headed back out and made our way south towards montana. soon after exiting calgary, the whitecap mountains disappeared, in their place long stretches of flat alberta farmlands.

going through customs was easy. we were the only car! thirty minutes or so later, we arrived at glacier national park in montana. it was getting late, so we grabbed a campsite on the far eastern part of the park, near where we entered. we would venture in and explore the park the next day. by this time, though, we just wanted to set up our camp, make our dinner, and cuddle in our tent. we watched another episode of "peep show" on one of our laptops. lorena loves this show, and during our vancouver stay she hooked me on it. it's a funny bbc show. highly recommended viewing.

of note, i should mention that, while the campground was nothing special, it did provide a beautiful sunset to welcome us to montana. we slept soundly after calling it a day, knowing we would change campgrounds first thing in the morning and then spend the day hiking glacier national park...