Calgary

Our last day in Canada was spent exploring downtown Calgary. First we went to the Calgary Tower for its 360 degree panoramic views of the city. As we walked around the observation deck you could see Calgary, the surrounding prairies and even the Canadian Rockies out in the distance.

Near the Tower is Stephen Avenue Walk, which is a pedestrian mall during the day lined with shops, restaurants and entertainment venues. If you have the time you can do some shopping and then grab something to eat from a wide range of restaurants along the walk. 

We ended up spending the majority of our day at the wonderful Glenbow museum, which has a variety of art and history exhibitions across three levels of its building. My favorite exhibition was Kaleidoscopic Animalia, which was designed and curated by fashion designer and Glenbow Artist-in-Residence Paul Hardy. He combined original fashion designs with animal inspired artifacts and artworks from the museum's collection to create thematic department store style windows. It was a very unique way to put things together, and the exhibition had a playful and humorous undercurrent in many of the displays. It is on until 5 September 2016.

There were also two exhibitions focused on Canada's First Peoples with Native Cultures from the Four Directions, and Niitsitapiisini: Our Way of Life which focused on the history, traditions and values of the Blackfoot people from their own perspective.

On the walk back to the hotel to pick up our rental car I took one of my favorite shots from the trip - reflections of the sky and surrounding skyscrapers on two glass skyscrapers downtown. This trip has shown you can find beauty both in nature and urban environments.

We drove to the airport mid-afternoon to make sure we would beat the traffic and check in on time for our early evening flight to San Francisco. In what was a first for me, we actually went through United States customs in Canada. Unfortunately the international terminal is currently under construction, so it was very cramped with a lot of areas blocked off. We did manage to grab a table to eat a late lunch/early dinner at The Pub before boarding our flight home. On the way back to Marin we encountered some of the thickest fog I've ever seen driving through San Francisco and across the Golden Gate Bridge.

Banff

Today we explored the town of Banff for our last day in the Canadian Rockies. The downtown area along Banff Avenue is the shopping boutique and restaurant strip with a mountain village feel. The Bow River flows south of downtown, which you cross to get to a few tourist attractions around town.

Our first stop was Sulphur Mountain and the Banff Gondola. The fully enclosed gondola cabins hold four people and glide up the mountain quietly during an eight-minute journey to the top. Unfortunately the upper terminal building was under construction (it's due to open later this summer), but the 360 degree views at the top are pretty spectacular as you walk along the one kilometer ridgetop boardwalk. There are not only great views of the town of Banff, but also all the surrounding mountain ranges. We had brief periods of drizzle and sunshine as we walked around and even saw some ground squirrels and mountain sheep before heading back down the mountain.

Next we went to Cave and Basin National Historic Site, the birthplace of Canada's national park system. In 1883 three railway workers discovered the hot springs and tried to make a claim for the land, which the government turned into a reserve in 1885. There is a boardwalk around the basin and hot springs, which flow down the hill into a mineral pool with different colored algae. Here you can also find the endangered Banff springs snail (which is why you are not allowed to touch the water).

The Buffalo Nations Luxton Museum along the Bow River looks like a log fortress. It is Alberta's oldest museum and has artifacts and life-size dioramas of the traditional life of the First Nations people from this region. I found the articles of clothing and related artifacts to be the most interesting part of the displays.

We then bid farewell to Banff, driving east on the Trans-Canada Highway to our next destination, Calgary. The Canadian Rockies slowly disappeared in the distance and the landscape became more flat plains. We made good time and knew we had hit the outer limits of Calgary due to the traffic. On our way into the city we passed Canada Olympic Park and the ski jumps that were used in the 1988 Winter Olympics. We managed to navigate our way to the International Hotel of Calgary in downtown where we are staying tonight. Tomorrow we will explore Calgary and then fly back to San Francisco.