Happy Mother's Day

This Mother's Day, I woke to see the campground covered in snow*. It looked magnificent. I woke Miranda, and we pulled jackets over our pyjamas and donned our shoes and I took a sleepy girl to the front door of our caravan. She was all foggy-headed and groggy, but I told her I had a surprise for her. I opened the door, and her face broke into an amazing smile, as she exclaimed, "wow!". We went out for a walk and an explore and it was truly stageringly beautiful to us tropical folk.

It wasn't a heavy snowfall, but it added to the glorious beauty of this special place. So taken with the prettiness around us, it was about 15 minutes before I lifted my eyes toward the peaks that surround us. Veiled in dense clouds, most were invisible and it added to a sense of insulation, of isolation in this place. We took some photos, then went to get Mat and Caelum. Oliver had stirred as well, and came out with the boys, and Catalina joined us a little while later. When we were all finally together, the clouds opened and snow began to fall, slowly at first, and then thicker and heavier. We had pulled on beanies and gloves, and the kids got stuck into the snow. It was two hours before we went inside for breakfast. I couldn't have hoped for a more wonderful start to Mother's Day.

Yesterday we left Jasper, which had been a wonderful stop for several days. In Jasper, we had had gone out to Lake Maligne which was a spectacular drive, followed by a beautiful walk around a lake of snow and ice - in a couple of weeks, they'll be taking tourists out onto the defrosted lake. While I want to see the 'summer version', the wintery (springy?) Canada is more beautiful than I could ever have imagined. We also 'enjoyed' a domestic day doing laundry (I got to go shopping for a special wedding gift for my friends Sascha & Micheal - sorry to be missing the wedding); we had a BBQ with some Novocastrians (the Aussie kind) and some Dutchies; we continued to explore the culinary differences between Australia and Canada (they are not always apparent until the product is opened/meal is served...). On one amazing day in Jasper, we took the Skytram up Mount Whistler and had lunch at a restaurant at the top before playing in thick mountain snow [and taking several thousand photographs], headed down the mountain and out to Miette Hot Springs, about an hours drive away - if you don't stop to take photos along the way! At the Hot Springs, we got out of the car and walked across snow covered car park and gardens to the building (much like a public swimming pool in Australia), paid our entry fee and went our separate ways to the boys and girl change rooms to get out of our long johns and woollies and into our swimsuits. So, practically naked we walked outside again to the pools - two with steam wafting off them. The first pool was a VERY warm 38C, and we soaked and swam and splashed for ages, talking to locals and fellow travelers, as we enjoyed the view of the snow-covered mountains around us. There was another hot pool that I didn't go into, but Miranda said it was hotter, and there were two cold pools - one 11C and one 14C - which insane people use to alternate the hot/cold experience, supposedly for all manner of physical benefit. I was the only Niejalke nutty enough to do it - in the 14C pool - and I only did it once, and not for long!

Leaving Jasper yesterday, we set off down the Columbia Icefields Parkway, which my Lonely Planets guide proclaimed as the world's most spectacular drive. I am not convinced it out-spectaculars The Great Ocean Road drive in Victoria (the Aussie one), but it was indeed spectacular. It is so hard to describe, and hard to capture the grandeur with a 35mm camera, so I'll leave it for those interested to investigate further - you'll find great pictures of the icefields and the glaciers on the net, but I also recommend the 14 hour flight from Sydney and hiring a car to do it yourself! We enjoyed a light hike around the Athabasca Falls. Horseshoe lake, Bow River and most other bodies of water we passed were either frozen over or mostly frozen. We stopped at the Peyto lake and Bow Summit lookout, but even though LP promised a "400 metre wooded trail", we were put off by the deep, deep snowdrifts and fit, spunky looking hikers in Serious Walking Paraphernalia. I did stop to take a photo of the Avalanche Warning sign though.

The end point of yesterday's drive was the Lake Louise village and campground. Lake Louise is a place I remember hearing about, and seeing pictures of, my whole life. My mother was named for the lake, which was where her parents honeymooned, I believe (the family home was/is still called Calgary), and Miranda and I are also named for the Lake. It's incredible to be here. (The lake itself was named for a princess, the daughter of Queen Victoria, and the wife of The Marques of Lorne, the Governor General of Canada - all long dead now). The village is tiny; so much smaller than we'd expected, and very pretty. Today, we are preparing a picnic lunch which we will take out to the lake, which we believe is still frozen over. The Lake Louise Gondola is closed for another couple of weeks, apparently, which adds to the desire to return to Lake Louise on our return journey to Vancouver from Winnipeg in June. Peak tourist season, sure, but there's a reason everyone travels here in summer!

Phew! Okay, hopefully this post appeases the blog-watchers for another few days! We are healthy, happy, and absolutely loving our trip. God's awesome grace has surrounded us, and we feel renewed, uplifted and so very blessed.

* Actually, just the organic stuff. The bitumen roads and campsites were still bare.