Canada trip - Day seven

Today we decided to split up. Arwen and Daddy were going to rent bikes and ride up to Moraine lake (17 miles total), while Mama and Lorien and Morgen went sightseeing around Lake Louise.

Arwen and Daddy got their bikes, which were named Sven and Kimi. They biked all the way to Lake Moraine in 1 hour and 45 minutes, taking pictures all the way. The lake was beautiful, and they once again fed the chipmunks on the rocks. Then they biked back down in 30 minutes, taking a mountain biking trail past the train tracks and down to the visitor center.

Meanwhile, Mama, Morgen and Lorien were relaxing at a local cafe, drinking tea and eating crackers with cheese. Soon they were on the road, headed down the mountain on a sightseeing spree. First, they stopped at a tiny playground by a lake in an equally tiny town called Field (very original name, I know, especially considering that there wasn’t a field in sight!). Anyway, Field was just about the most adorable town known to man. All of the houses looked like Thomas Kinkade paintings brought to life.

After leaving Field, Mama, Morgen and Lorien moved on down the mountain. Their final stop of the day was the “Spiral Tunnels”, which were a series of train tunnels that made spiral shapes through the mountain. These were built to keep the trains from having to run straight down the mountain. For the rest of the ride up, Mama and Lorien sang “Wreck of the Old 97” and pointed out mine shafts to each other. This brought up the story that Mr. Rinker had told us a few days ago about why so many miners died. Black lung was a horrible disease that ran rampant among miners, where the coal dust would settle into the miner’s lungs. If left unattended for too long, this was deadly to the miners. The only way to get rid of black lung was with a shot of whiskey. But that presented another problem - because of the frequent use of whiskey, the miners often became alcoholics

After Arwen and Daddy returned from their excursion and were picked up by the rest of the family, everyone ate a quick supper, jumped in the car and headed to Lake Louise. The sky was sort of cloudy, but the lake was still a beautiful turquoise color. We could have stayed out and gazed at the lake for hours, but the cold air was making Lorien cough, so we finally went inside the huge, water-side, castle-like hotel. It was very fancy and very expensive, but we had a lot of fun looking through the shops. Inevitably, Arwen and Lorien found the bookstore, which sidetracked us as the bookstore was filled with quite a few of their favorite books. Eventually, though, we had to leave the hotel and lake, promising to come back and canoe on Lake Louise if the weather stayed nice. At this point it was around 8:30 pm, but still looking like it was 5:00 pm, so we drove for a while on a lovely, scenic road until Morgen’s head drooped and we decided it was time to head back to the hotel.

Lake Moraine!

Morgen hugs a bear!!!