We crossed back into Canada and headed toward the city of Calgary for some "city" time after the parks. We took time for some maintenance on the car and enjoyed free wi-fi at the mall. We explored Calgary a bit, and found Chinatown to be a cool part of the city. We treated ourselves to lunch at an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant.
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| Ricardo demonstrating his flair for using the chopsticks |
In the evening we found ourselves at the Oak Tree Tavern listening to some awesome live music from Diana Pearson. I loved it!! She is a talented vocalist/pianist with a Regina Spektor-kind of style. She writes her own music and was so passionate performing them! We had some drinks with her and her friends afterward - they were lots of fun and we learned a lot about Calgary and Canada from them. To hear and download some of Diana's music, go to http://dianapearsonmusic.com/ .
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| Diana sings her heart out |
From Calgary we went to the pretty little ski town of Canmore, just outside of Banff. We found out through Facebook that one of Ricardo's old college friends, Vero, was also in Canmore visiting! What a coincidence! We made arrangements to meet up in Banff the next day.
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| Canmore |
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| View from the top of Grassi Plains hike in Canmore |
We did some sight-seeing and then met Vero and her boyfriend Roberto for a night out in Banff. We had a great time with them!
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| Banff |
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| Ricardo, Jocelyn, Vero, Roberto |
That night we camped in an empty parking lot in Banff that seemed to be designated for RV's (there was a sign!) - and we ended up getting kicked out at 8:00 the next morning by a park ranger! Yuck! Apparently, though meant for RV parking, the parking lot does not allow camping. This was our first experience getting kicked out of anywhere we were camping - but at least we got to sleep through the night.
Since we were up early, we did some more sightseeing and short hikes in Banff, though we weren't in top shape from the night before!
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| Lake Louise |
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| Johnston Canyon |
We left Banff in the early afternoon to head to Invermere, another small town just across the provincial border into BC. Incredibly, while we were visiting Canmore we came across more friends from Chile! Pablo and Caro are living in Invermere, but just happened to be driving through Canmore when they spotted our car/camper and flagged us down. We couldn't believe what luck to have run into not just one, but two sets of friends from Chile in this area of Canada. Since they graciously invited us to their house for the evening, we of course accepted! We had a delicious dinner, conversation, and even some music since Pablo also plays the bagpipes!
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| Gaiteros |
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| Caro y Darko |
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| Music session |
It was a wonderful time - so great of Pablo and Caro to have us over. We can't believe how lucky we were to have spent our time in this part of Canada with so many good people - and each one a surprise! This is just an example of how we never know what our trip will bring. Next stop: Vancouver!
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