A Stay Inside Kind of Day

Woke up yesterday to a real nasty kind of morning with the plan of just hanging out here with John while Brenda went to her doctor’s appointment. It was raining and it didn’t let up until late in the evening.

John and Brenda came over around five o’clock for some of Gina’s chicken & sausage gumbo. After we finished eating she served us some of her strawberry dump cake with vanilla ice cream on top. Dinner and desert all tasted great.

This morning we are packing up our home and traveling down the road about 100 miles with John & Brenda. We are going to boondock / dry camping for a few days to tour and experience the Colombia Ice Fields. This area is too far to make a day trip out of it. John suggested we just take our homes and boondock for a few days. The only down side is we will not have any Internet service while we're out there. From what I see on the Internet of the ice fields I’ll take the views over the Internet for a few days. That means no blog updates. We should have Internet service again by Sunday evening.

I found this image online so all of our faithful followers will know what's in store come Sunday evening.

Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.

Gina Sees Her First Bear at Banff Park

We woke up to a hazy and partly cloudy day with a temperature of 33 degrees. It looked like it would be another Louisiana winter kind of day. The weather wasn’t going to stop us as we were on the road at 9:30 heading to Banff National Park of Canada. Banff is the oldest national park in Canada and the third oldest in the world. It was established in 1885.

We took 254 pictures today and after our editing we uploaded 60 of them to our online photo album. If you desire to see them all just click this link: online photo album

Gina's first view of a bear in the wild


We're heading to these mountains


Welcome sign to Banff National Park


Castle Mountain (9,390 ft)




Check out this old gas pump it's still working


Different view of Castle Mountain

The mountains in Banff are beautiful. We were in awe of the majestic views. As we drove down the road we came upon a black bear. Gina has been trying to see a bear in the wild since we arrived in Montana. Well she got her wish today.

Just had to include one more picture of this fellow

Our first stop was Lake Louise. The beauty was unbelievable. The green hue of the lake was astonishing and so clear.

Lake Louise


What a backdrop for a photo


Gina, me, Brenda and John


Gina just loved these uniforms

From there we drove to Moraine Lake. It is smaller than Lake Louise. However, the views were still just as magnificent.

Moraine Lake


This little chipmunk was quite content eating

By this time we were hungry and drove to the town of Banff. We ate at a place named St. James Gate Irish Pub.

Welcome sign to the town of Banff


For you Rickey, a true Irish pub with excellent food


Mount Rundle (9,675 ft), absolutely beautiful

The food was excellent and afterward we walked through town for a few minutes.

One of many street views in Banff


This is the first bridge I've seen for animals to cross the highway


Valley of Ten Peaks
(clouds prevented us from seeing the ten peaks, all ten peaks are over 10,000 feet high)

We left Banff and were on our way to John & Brenda’s church, Cowboy Trails Church. What a wonderful church. Some of you may be wondering why Tuesday night since I was too. This is a true cowboy church. Most of the congregation didn't have time on Sunday morning because their ranch required their time. So when the church was established they decided on Tuesday night. This day and time allowed all of the ranchers / cowboys and their families an opportunity to attend church. This is a cowboy church like no others for sure. “eh” (as Canadians say “A” to everything) Gina and I really enjoyed the service.

We arrived back home around nine o’clock. We walked over to John & Brenda’s home for a few minutes after we let Angel and Zoey out. We just cannot thank John and Brenda enough for giving us such a wonderful day and showing us one of Canada’s most beautiful parks.


Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.

Brenda & Gina have a Girls Day Out

We woke up to another beautiful morning with clear skies and 35 degrees. Brenda and Gina were driving to Cochrane, Alberta to spend the day shopping. On the other hand John and I were just going to spend the day relaxing. However, first off my morning was spent editing 342 pictures we took from the day before and posting an update to our blog.

Around noon John and lit a fire in their chiminea and we sat around all afternoon chatting until the girls got back home around five o'clock.

Gina didn't buy anything but she said that she had a great time looking at all of the shops down mainstreet. She did tell me that her highlight was a beautiful handmade bookmark Brenda gave her and eating ice cream at MacKay's. They have been making ice cream since 1949 and she said it was the best she had ever eaten.

Looking down mainstreet in Cochrane, Alberta


MacKay's Ice Cream Parlor

Brenda cooked Lasagna for dinner and Gina cooked green beans and a loaf of homemade bread. Like always Dinner was great and afterward we all grabbed our chairs and sat around the chiminea to stay warm and talk. Once it got dark and it was getting colder we knew it was time to head inside. We thanked Brenda for another wonderful meal and told them that we would see them in the morning.

We are off this morning to Banff Park in western Alberta. It's the most northern part of the Rocky Mountains. I'm sure it will be another exciting day so stay tuned as we continue our Canadian adventure.

Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.