Friday, June 6, 2008

It rained during the night, but we stayed dry and warm.  We woke up at 7, but it was still drizzling, so we dozed off for a while then got up and had a hearty breakfast with the sun shining down on us.

The showers at the hippy campground were cool…too cool for the girls!  Aleesha was the first to shower in the frigid water.  She reported to Sarah and mom how cold the water was so the girls improvised.  They took turns showering, one in the shower; one getting cupfuls of warm water from the sink.  It worked very well and they were pleased to have a warm “shower.”

We spent some time in Canmore getting groceries, getting online, checking messages, etc.  Lunch was the value menu at McDonalds – everything tasted the same except for the ketchup, which was very sweet.  The girl who took our order was French, and had some difficulty understanding our “eastern” accent. 

After lunch we made our way to Banff National Park, which is beautiful but pricey!  It costs $20 a day to travel in the park.  Add on the cost for camping, which is $36, and it seems a little steep, but they cut the firewood for you and you can burn all you want.  Our campsite is right beside Two Jack Lake (Lakeside), and it is breathtaking!  The showers are great, but there are no electrical or water hookups.  We will camp here until we meet up with the rest of our family who are leaving Kansas tomorrow morning. 

The temperature today is in the 50’s, and hardly a bug to bug us.  We saw several elk in the park. 

We drove into the town of Banff to look around.  It is a very nice tourist town with a beautiful view of the mountains.  We saw a movie in the Visitor’s Center about Elk and they come into town of Banff to eat the grass and bushes in the parks and around homes.  That would be amazing to see although we would probably not respond as the movie suggested.  We are to back away slowly and quietly.  I don’t think the chances of that happening are very good.  The elk we have seen so far have been beside the highways and a good distance from us so that we could see them pretty well but we were not in their space.

Back at the campground for chicken and noodles cooked over the fire.  We even had mashed potatoes mashed with a fork.  It was delicious and very fun to cook over the open fire.  We cooked s’mores for dessert, which is always a hit with our family.  After sitting around the campfire for a while, we turned in for bed about 10:30 and it still looked like 7:00 in Kansas.  We had no trouble sleeping.  God has given the Maddocks the gift of sleeping.  Hopefully we will be able to sleep in Alaska just as well.