Timeshare exchanges have taken us to lots of fun places.
This year I put in for Canada, Oregon, California, and even Hawaii.
Pretty quick after I put in we were confirmed at a resort, I actually don't even remember where??
Obviously, I declined that one back in April, I got the confirmation of cancellation email, but didn't check it. If I had opened it, I would have seen that we had been confirmed at another resort.
Had I seen it in time to decline this resort, I would have.
For several reasons.
It fell over our Family Reunion.
It didn't look like the nicest resort.
It was 1.5 hours from Banff which is where we wanted to be.
etc. etc. etc.
But I didn't see it in time.
In fact I didn't see we had been confirmed for another 5 weeks.
By then it was too late.
We had to miss 2 days of our week and leave a little early from the Family Reunion.
But other than that, we wouldn't have changed a thing.
The resort was perfect. We were driving tons anyway so it didn't matter we were far from Banff + we got to see more than we would have just going to Banff.
which was FAR more touristy than our resort in Fairmont Hot Springs.
It was a long 12 hour drive, but we headed out early and it wasn't that bad.
Canada is beautiful!
The locals were friendly and helpful.
The weather was perfect.
We loved it.
We spent the first night exploring around our resort.
These are the "Indian Baths" natural hot springs built on tufa rock.
This was our place... not a bad view.
The next morning we hiked these hoodoos.
We tried to do a hike everyday, they were all pretty easy.
But all beautiful.
The Columbia River
Today was July 1st.
Tayler's Birthday!
We wished she was with us!
But it was also Canada Day.
We didn't get to celebrate July 4th... but we did celebrate Canada Day this year.
With a "wild" barbeque at our resort.
bahaha
You had to be there... but there was this funny old man who worked at the front desk.
He informed us that "this would be the party of the year" and "we shouldn't miss it". "The entertainment alone was going to be worth the price."
It was a nasty burger and drink. With NO entertainment.
But we did get to experience "cupcake central" so that made it totally worth it!
We visited several natural hot springs.
We walked to this one from our resort.
We spent the afternoon golfing at a 3 par course.
The whole family, even me.
I'm not saying I was good at it... but I played. hahaha
And that night the resort put on a "not too bad fireworks show".
Right up on the mountain with a ton of trees around.
Not the smartest place for a fireworks show...
Happy Canada Day.
The next morning we headed to Banff.
We were sure that we were going to have a wet, not so great day, based on how it looked on our 1.5 hour drive there.
But it cleared right up and was perfect.
We took our longest hike this day.
The views were TOTALLY worth it!
If you notice... Lydia likes to be her own person in pictures.
I don't think she doesn't like pictures.
Just likes to bug us a little when we tell her to act normal.
hahaha
After our hike we headed to Lake Louise.
SOOOOO many people were also going to Lake Louise.
We picked a good time though and were able to find a parking spot.
(We had been told that you might have to wait for hours for one.)
Beautiful!
That's "Lake Louise Glacier" behind us.
We all wanted to take a canoe out on the lake.
There were plenty left at the boathouse, so we sent Shane to check the price.
We had decided that if we could get 2 canoes for under $60 we'd do it.
Hahaha... I think I know why not many canoes were out.
it was $115 per HALF hour... per canoe. So $230.
No way was I going to pay $230 for a half hour to have to paddle my own canoe!
Kinda creepy Lydia!
We had heard that Lake Morraine was even more beautiful than Lake Louise.
It took about 45 minutes to get a parking space here... at 8 PM.
But we're so glad we waited.
Because yes... it was even more gorgeous than the pictures!
It was a great day!
The next day was Kenna's 16th Birthday.
We started the morning out in Invermere at this cute bakery.
Happy Birthday Kenna!
We then stopped at this little museum.
We're guessing it's not a huge "tourist destination" hahaha
They were happy to see us.
We drove up to Panaroma ski resort.
We'd come for a hike, but couldn't find it haha
So we drove to Radium Hot Springs and found a different hike.
There were birthday burritos.
... and birthday ice cream.
... and birthday presents.
Then more time at the pool.
The next day was rainy.
We felt like we had done everything around our resort, so we drove an hour south to find these hot springs right next to the river.
They are supposed to be "secret".
But they're all over the internet.
The locals that we talked to...
were not very happy about everyone being there. hahaha
We spent the rest of the day swimming and watching a movie.
The next morning we packed up for our long drive home.
I REALLY wanted to drive through Glacier National Park, so we took a 2 hour detour to do that.
Unfortunately the detour I had us go on...
did not take us through Glacier National Park.
But we did see another nice forest.
grrrrrr
Thanks family for not being too bothered about that.
What a beautiful world we live in!!
