Author Topic: Jm1248's Banff Thanksgiving Getaway  (Read 9766 times)

Offline Jm1248

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Re: Jm1248's Banff Thanksgiving Getaway
« Reply #20 on: December 08, 2015, 10:08:08 PM »

Offline Jm1248

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Re: Jm1248's Banff Thanksgiving Getaway
« Reply #21 on: December 08, 2015, 10:11:48 PM »
We got to Calgary about an hour before Shabbos and went to the house we were staying at. There are not really any hotels within walking distance to the shul, so thanks to the wonderful hachnassas orchim committee in Calgary we stayed with a really nice family in excellent accommodations. It was truly a Shabbos to remember - we ate both Shabbos meals by different families and each was its own amazing (& extremely delicious!) experience. There is a really nice shul as well, with a Kiddush Shabbos morning. We were even invited to stay over Saturday night but we wanted to get the driving out of the way so we can have a full day on Sunday.

ETA: To be continued...

Offline yakrot

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Re: Jm1248's Banff Thanksgiving Getaway
« Reply #22 on: December 09, 2015, 12:44:11 AM »
Keep it coming!!

Offline Marco Polo

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Re: Jm1248's Banff Thanksgiving Getaway
« Reply #23 on: December 09, 2015, 08:01:12 AM »
Nice start.
Quaerite et Invenietis.

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Re: Jm1248's Banff Thanksgiving Getaway
« Reply #24 on: December 09, 2015, 09:45:06 AM »
Beautiful pics! Looks awesome.

Offline 3yummyboys

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Re: Jm1248's Banff Thanksgiving Getaway
« Reply #25 on: December 10, 2015, 11:18:58 AM »
Gorgeous

Offline Jm1248

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Re: Jm1248's Banff Thanksgiving Getaway
« Reply #26 on: December 12, 2015, 11:40:15 PM »
Thanks everyone!  :)

Offline Jm1248

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Re: Jm1248's Banff Thanksgiving Getaway
« Reply #27 on: December 12, 2015, 11:42:32 PM »
Later that night we headed up to Banff, staying in High Country Inn which was ok but not too great. For starters, they were supposed to have a parking lot for guests but it turned out they shared that lot with other nearby hotels. We ended up parking 2 blocks away on the street, which is no fun in below zero weather. However, we did receive a $75 voucher from hotels.com for that inconvenience so no complaints.

Sunday morning we drove up to Lake Louise going straight to the Lake Louise Ski Resort to witness the World Cup Men's Event. USA managed to get someone in 4th place and the whole thing was pretty cool to watch. We stayed for about an hour until one of the skiers got injured and the event was put on hold while they evacuated him by chopper. We then went back to Johnston Canyon and made the trek to the Upper Falls which was absolutely amazing in the snowy mountains.

We were glad to get back to the warm, heated car eventually and hit the road towards the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. Unfortunately we had a bit of a mishap on the way as our car got caught on a patch of ice and for a few terrifying seconds we slowly drifted off the road while I had absolutely no control of the car. B"h the only thing that happened is we got stuck in about 4 feet of snow and didn't continue skidding into the trees beyond that. However, we were now stranded on a barely used road in middle of nowhere. Luckily, it was Canada ;) and every person we flagged down stopped to help us without a second thought. Unluckily none of them had a shovel or any kind of tool that could help us out of our predicament, so we tried pushing the car out (4 men) but to no avail. We gave up after about 15-20 minutes and someone called me a tow truck. I hadn't even asked for pricing as I just wanted to get out of there already so we can get to our hotel and relax a bit but they called me back 20 minutes later to ask me for a few details during which I found out this was going to run me about $240! I didn't want to spend the time dealing with credit card insurance and then first waiting for a truck to come so I said it was ok, but as soon as I got off with them I got busy making calls. Turned out Chase Sapphire had an affiliation with one of the companies in the area and would have been able to do it for just $59.99 but I didn't want to wait any longer. As I was about to hang up my tow truck pulled up and it was the same company that the card rep had been telling me about! We ended up sorting it out and got away with paying just the 60 bucks.

We finally arrived at the Fairmont, cold and tired, and checked in. I figured it couldn't hurt to mention our story to the front desk and the lady felt really bad so she gave us vouchers to the bar, which was nice. We got upgraded to a Deluxe Lakeview room so we had a great view, although the lake is completely frozen over in the winter. We then proceeded to blow the electricity by kashering the microwave while running the electric water heater and a burner simultaneously. #toughkeepingkosher :)

Offline Jm1248

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Re: Jm1248's Banff Thanksgiving Getaway
« Reply #28 on: December 12, 2015, 11:45:31 PM »

Offline Jm1248

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Re: Jm1248's Banff Thanksgiving Getaway
« Reply #29 on: December 12, 2015, 11:46:11 PM »

World Cup

Offline Jm1248

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Re: Jm1248's Banff Thanksgiving Getaway
« Reply #30 on: December 12, 2015, 11:46:38 PM »

Offline Jm1248

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Re: Jm1248's Banff Thanksgiving Getaway
« Reply #31 on: December 12, 2015, 11:47:33 PM »

Offline Jm1248

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Re: Jm1248's Banff Thanksgiving Getaway
« Reply #32 on: December 12, 2015, 11:48:29 PM »

Offline Jm1248

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Re: Jm1248's Banff Thanksgiving Getaway
« Reply #33 on: December 12, 2015, 11:49:31 PM »

Johnston Canyon Lower Falls

Offline Jm1248

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Re: Jm1248's Banff Thanksgiving Getaway
« Reply #34 on: December 12, 2015, 11:49:54 PM »

Offline Jm1248

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Re: Jm1248's Banff Thanksgiving Getaway
« Reply #35 on: December 12, 2015, 11:50:39 PM »

Offline Jm1248

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Re: Jm1248's Banff Thanksgiving Getaway
« Reply #36 on: December 12, 2015, 11:51:22 PM »

Johnston Canyon Upper Falls

Offline beeweegee

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Re: Jm1248's Banff Thanksgiving Getaway
« Reply #37 on: December 12, 2015, 11:51:55 PM »
Absolutely beautiful! Cool that you saw the World Cup!

Offline Jm1248

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Re: Jm1248's Banff Thanksgiving Getaway
« Reply #38 on: December 12, 2015, 11:52:21 PM »

Offline Jm1248

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Re: Jm1248's Banff Thanksgiving Getaway
« Reply #39 on: December 12, 2015, 11:53:19 PM »

Where our car went off the road. It is much much deeper than it looks. I was waist deep in snow on one side of the car!