Majestic Alberta (Part 3)

Day 7

Alot of driving today. We checked out of our hotel in Banff around 7am and bolted down to the Columbia icefields about three hours away. WY was nice enough to get up at 5 to pack healthy breakfast and snacks for the crew. 

We stopped by for coffee at Tim's and that place too forever. We barely made our 10:15 appointment. The whole crew was excited. This was my wife's most exciting part of the whole trip - to set foot on a glacier.

We were bused to the base of the glacier where we boarded these huge diesel buses with ginormous wheels (we were told they are getting converted to hydrogen). These monster trucks are design for climbing steep glaciers. Scientists in the south pole also uses them. Naturally, LL was excited about them. Come to think of it, why didn't any of us bring boots and snow pants?

Anyway, walking and seeing a glacier is awe inspiring. We hear about glacier melting all the time. To see in person is a completely different ordeal. It puts you in the driver set to make your own decision. Drinking a bit of glacier water was cool too. After a few pics, we headed over to the skywalk.

Skywalk was incredible. There was this tall Australian park ranger guy who kept answering LL's million questions. He was professional about it too. "What's the difference between mountain goat and a mountain sheep?". "What do you do when you see a bear?". On and on and on. It was quite funny. As we made our way through the skywalk. I, who get the gitters when it comes to height, was getting a bit nervous. Nevertheless I pushed through and took a few pics with LL. 

We then had lunch with a view of the glacier and the mountains. Yet another sunny and georgeous day. Perfect to be on the road. After lunch, we start our journey back home. We drove back to Jasper and checked into a hotel where we will stay for a night before heading to Grand Prairie the next day. Dinner that night was great. We found this Chinese place and it was just wonderful to eat some Chinese cuisine after quite a few days of having western central stuff. Such a treat. The kids had fun playing at the restaurant as well. 

The next day was a long day. We made the long drive back to Grand Prairie. On the way, we saw a black bear on side of the road. This was special. First bear sighting! And happening on the final day was epic!

We had a quick pho for lunch and after a bit of rest in a Tim's parking lot, we headed to the airport. Only to find that our flight was delayed... Then cancelled altogether.

People were furious. And airline didn't make arrangements quickly either. Ended up not leaving the airport until midnight. Got to the hotel around 1. We were so hungry (and hangry) that we got cup noodles at the hotel. My Aunt made the noodles for us and delivered to our room. That was the sweetest thing anyone could do at that hour after this ordeal. We slept at 2am only to wake up at 6 the next morning and got transported back to the airport for our flight

Flight was fine this time. Though it was still mask on at all time. We landed at Pearson safely. We boarded our taxi and looked forward to a nice long shower and sleep in our own beds.