Banff National Park

Saturday July 1, 2006

Happy Canada Day everyone! In celebration of Canada Day, I’ve come up with the 5 things I like about Canada:

5. Tim Hortons. The Dunkin Donuts & Starbucks of Canada, all rolled into one.
4. The CN Tower in Toronto. The tallest structure in the world, and it’s got that great glass floor.
3. “O Canada”. The Canadian’s national anthem is stirring, short, and bi-lingual. What’s not to like?
2. Their love of hockey. Though I do have to take a few points away from them for being the home of Don Cherry.
1. The Canadian flag. What a great and simple design, looks the same from the front or the back, and always makes me hungry for flapjacks and maple syrup whenever I see it.

Today we woke up a bit late as we were going to hang by the TV to watch the England/Portugal World Cup game. The game was pretty exciting, but the English blew another penalty kick shootout, and they’ll have to wait another 4 years before another choke. After the game we drove across town to the Banff Gondola for a trip to the top of Sulfur Mountain. It was way overpriced, but the trip included free Canadian flags, so that was something. The view from the top was pretty amazing…the mountain is right next to the town of Banff, so you get an incredible view of the entire area. After soaking up the view for a bit we headed back down the mountain where it started to rain. Considering the rain we (I) decided we should go back to the condo and just relax. (Translation: I really wanted to see the Brasil/France game which was just about to start.) So that’s what we did and we watched France upset Brasil on a Thierry Henry goal.

After the 2nd game we headed back into town for a late lunch/early dinner at the Rose and Crown pub. We then got some seats on the curb for the big Banff Canada Day parade. I’m not much of a parade fan, but this one wasn’t horrible. Plenty of flags, horses, and of course Shriners in stupid little cars. After the parade we made our way back to the condo where it got a lot busier. Whereas the last 2 nights it’s been only half full or so, tonight it looks like a packed house. We took it easy the rest of the night, watching a movie and doing some reading.