Banff

I spent last week in the lovely resort community of Banff, Canada.  Ron was up there for a geological conference and I went to spa.  Banff is about an hour and a half drive northwest of Calgary and sits within the 2500 square miles that is Banff National Park.   This is a stunning part of the Canadian Rocky Mountains - or at least it is when you can see clearly.

Unfortunately, this year has been a bad one for fires in our Pacific northwest states of Washington and Oregon.  Canada has also had some bad forest fires and taken together that's quite a bit of smoke.  The winds were just about perfect to move that smoke to the northeast across Calgary and Banff.  About mid-week I heard rumors of a controlled burn that got out of hand in Alberta to the south or southwest of Banff but I haven't been able to verify that.  Regardless, there was a lot of smoke in Banff while we were there.  Interestingly, it didn't smell like smoke at all - it just made the annoying haze.  Fortunately it cleared a little bit occasionally so that I could see mountains around us.

The temperatures were just about perfect for this person trying to get away from the heat and humidity of Texas.  The mornings were crisp with temperatures in the 30's and 40's but the afternoons were mild with temps in the 70's.  A sweater or jacket in the mornings and evenings but no need for one during the day.  That sounds fantastic!

I spent some time each day at the Willow Stream Spa at the Banff Springs Hotel.  I was slathered with various oils and creams, massaged until I felt like a wet noodle and steamed and par-boiled.  There were waterfalls to sit in, pools to dunk in and cool cucumber-mint water to drink.  It was amazing and exhausting.  I think I'm pretty much over the spa thing for a while now. It was fantastic but I'm so glad to be back home and doing normal things.

Peggy stayed here at the house while we were gone.  It has always worked out very well for us to have Peggy here and she enjoys being out in the country.  She can feed and doctor all the animals as needed.  I do kennel my crazy dog Sadie so Peggy isn't tied to an animal that needs to be let out on schedule.  This time Peggy was working very hard to get her pony Jazz's eye treated appropriately.  His eye really does look better!  Peggy made the magic continue so I came home to great improvement.