Anniversary Trip, Day 2

{Catch up on Day 1 of the Anniversary Trip here}

Friday, the second day of our anniversary trip, was allllllll about laziness and relaxation.

I mean, we had just completed one of the busiest school years of our lives, gone through the home selling process, and moved an entire house's worth of stuff in just two days the previous week.  I think we needed some time to be a little lazy???

We woke up and made the coffee provided in our room's coffee maker.  It wasn't just any hotel coffee, it was gooooood.  We enjoyed our first cup while sitting in our extra large bed and binge-watching two of the last three episodes of Stranger Things that we had remaining in the new season.

By the end of those two episodes we had gotten pretty hungry and so, with great difficulty, we turned off the TV and made our way to the local market for some food.

Check out the view from the market... amazing, eh?

We returned to our room, made our poached eggs

and sat down with them to enjoy the epic season finale of Stranger Things, The Battle of Starcourt.  (Those of you who have watched this series know that you can't just watch the first seven episodes and then stop.  You simply have to finish it.)

We finished up our binge-watching around 12 PM and, feeling sufficiently relaxed, we suited up for more relaxing at the resort pool/hot tub.

Amazing view from the pool as well!

We had brought a guidebook on the local national parks and we thumbed through it as we sunbathed.  We hadn't really come up with a plan of what we wanted to do yet, so we took some time on this day that we had set aside for relaxation to chat about possible plans for the next few days (periodically dipping in the pool as we chatted).  I think that, because of all the decision fatigue that came with moving and house selling in the last month, we had a bit of a rough time narrowing it down.  This area is just so chock-full of amazing things to do.

After much deliberation, we decided on a plan for the next day at least.  We would get up early and drive to Lake Louise to attempt the Plain of Six Glaciers hike.  It seemed to us that this hike would check off a lot of boxes-- a lake, a glacier, a historic tea house, and a good hearty mountainous climb but nothing terribly difficult that would require equipment we didn't have.

I should also mention that we knew ahead of time that Lake Louise was a popular spot, and this was also a popular hike, but having already seen a grizzly bear on the side of the road while driving through Banff the previous day, we decided it was probably better not to seek the remote solitude that both of us would normally lean toward when choosing a hike.  Hiking a crowded trail might be annoying, but taking a bear by surprise on a quiet trail would be far more... um... annoying.  We chose the lesser of two evils.

After a good long soak in the pool and hot tub our tummies started to rumble again and we decided to head out for some dinner at a local Austrian restaurant that had caught our eye in the guidebook.  We also decided to bring our suits and head up to the hot springs pools after dinner.

On our way to the restaurant we stopped by the market again to buy a few provisions for our hike the next day, since we planned on getting a pretty early start, and the market didn't open until 8.  We picked up water bottles, trail mix, and bear spray, which as you might have guessed was $40 Canadian.  It was really hard to drop that cash knowing that we couldn't bring an aerosol can back to the states, but the peace of mind was pretty worth it, I think.  I didn't find out until later that you can rent bear spray.  Oops.  Note to self for next time.

The Austrian restaurant did not disappoint!!!!  One of the highlights of our trip, I think.

A campari and orange, very similar to the Aperol Spritz I fell in love with in Austria!

I had spaetzle primavera, M had a schnitzel with mushrooms in béarnaise sauce.  We traded bites and both were out of this world.

Apfelstrudel, of course.

After thoroughly stuffing ourselves we made the drive up through Sinclair Canyon... hopefully I can post our video footage of that soon because, well... I'll just have to let the video speak for itself.  That place is crazy!  We arrived at the Radium Hot Springs Pools, paid our admission ($7 Canadian, if I remember correctly, so roughly $5 each for adults), suited up in the locker rooms, and commenced relaxation in the hot pool.

I should mention that the pools (at Radium, anyway) are not natural hot springs.  A concrete pool was built in the 1950's here that is fed by the spring waters at certain times of year.  I assume they built the large concrete pool because it was so popular and it became hard to fit hundreds of people at a time in the natural pools.  So here at Radium they have a hot pool and what the lifeguards kept calling the "cool pool"-- just your average 80-degree pool with a diving board and a few slides.  M and I enjoyed the hot pool for a while but then, because it was actually quite a warm day when we were there, I got too sweaty in the hot water and we cooled off in the "cool pool" for a bit.  Then we went back in the hot pool when it got closer to dusk and the air was less warm.  I don't know whether the hot pool was actually fed by spring "medicinal" waters at the time we were there, but it certainly was relaxing!  And we did see a huge herd of bighorn sheep cross the cliffs you see behind us in the picture above.  I didn't get a photo of the sheep because I didn't want to bring my phone in the water, but it was pretty cool!

We headed back to our room around 10 PM (the pools are open until 11!) and crashed, ready for an early morning of fun ahead :)

To be continued!

{Read Day 3 here}