Just around Banff.

Yesterday's (8-23-17) adventure was not exactly what we had planned but turned out well.   We headed up to see the Upper Hot Springs just out of Banff. We ended up taking the Gondola up to Sulphur Mountain.  It was breathtaking going up that high, I got butterflies and couldn't look down.  We got off and Jan and I took off on a boardwalk going over the mountain to a viewing area.  Lots of Stairs and walking, it was a climb.. Skip and Cheryl decided not to go and stayed around the museum area.  When to finally got close to the end we saw two red chairs, with people sitting in them.   I remembered hearing something about the red chairs so I told Jan we had to get our picture in those chairs.  He says,"there are people sitting in them"... well that's not stopping me, so I just asked them if we could get our picture in them and they laughed and said sure no problem.  I said it'll only take a minute, so we did and they were fine with it.  Lol.  We got a picture.  You know we are all just people and most are very friendly and don't mind helping you out.   Anyway, at the top was an old cabin looking structure, it was an old cosmic ray station constructed back @1956.  Pretty cool, it was put there because the mountain was one of the highest places in the area.  The view from up there was beautiful.  Oh there was also a walking/hiking trail going up there, if you want to spend two hours going up a very steep mountain, which a lot of people were doing.  Ok, Sulphur Mountain ✅, now on to the Upper Hot Springs.. We went in to this nice building only to find out you had to go downstairs to get a towel to soak in the springs that you could see from outside that looked just like regular swimming pool.  I thought I was going to see a natural setting of a hot spring but that wasn't the case.  So we didn't bring bathing suits so we declined that attraction.  Found out later about the "Cave and Basin National Historic Site.  (Which we did today.  That was more of what I was expecting.). After the Upper Hot Springs enlightenment we decided just to ride on The Bow Valley Parkway looking for animals, well none showed so we came back to Canmore to find supper.  We were famished for sure since we had only ate breakfast that day.     Well yesterday was my birthday so I picked Patrinos Restaurant and had filet mignon and two desserts to celebrate.  The servers sang Happy Birthday to me and put a sparkler on my cheesecake, which I posted a pic yesterday.
8-24-17- Today Skip had to get a tire for his trike and Cherywanted to do laundry so Jan and I went site seeing by ourselves.  Went into Banff and went to the Cave and Basin site.  It was so hot we had to shed jackets and chaps, but glad for the nice weather.. We toured the area and found it to be very interesting and had some natural hot springs that you could see and feel.  This site is the birthplace of  🇨🇦 Canada's National Parks.  I found that pretty exciting.  I think this is worth your time to see.  By the way this year was Canada's 150th park Anniversary so all the parks have been completely FREE, which is awesome.   Next we rode to Lake Minnewanka and Two Jack Lake, both have that turquoise color and are beautiful.  And we found two more Red Chairs, got a pic.  Met a couple from Israel that told us to come and stay with them and he would give us a tour of Israel.  How cool is that.   Hey and we actually saw some animals, bighorn sheep 🐑 and 🦌 deer.  Hoping to see an elk and I would love to see the Northern Lights... pictures will come if I can get my phone to work.   It was a good day.  Had a few sprinkles of rain but nothing to be worried about.