Our Last Days in Canada

We truly enjoyed our short stay in Canada. The town of Banff is nestled in the valley of the mountains and is actually a National Park. The only way that you can live there is if you work there or were born in the hospital there. Therefore, Banff has a population of only 9,500 people. It is full of quaint little restaurants and shops. After getting back to hot and humid Florida, I am beginning to believe that maybe I was cut out for mountain living!

On our last full day in Canada, Nate and I decided to go whitewater rafting. I had been before in Tennessee, but there is no comparison to what we experienced on the Kicking Horse River. We decided to do the two and a half hour rafting tour. Nate got in the very front of the raft with me behind him. The trip started off very serene and easy. I was beginning to think that the booking company lied about the rapids and we were only there to sightsee when WHAM...we got smacked by a class 4 rapid! Apparently, this was only the beginning of our freezing, exciting adventure! The last 30 minutes or so were filled with back-to-back class 4 and 5 rapids, which left us a little chilly, a little sore, and very excited. Nate and I had such a blast! Sorry that there aren't any pictures, but it would have been a little difficult to hold on to a camera, paddle, and for dear life.

We also spent more time browsing through the shops, eating Alberta steaks, and making new friends. We had met the Clenneys at the beginning of our airport adventure. They only live about an hour and a half away from us in Colquitt, GA. We also met two brothers and their wives from the Columbia area of SC: Ken, Denise, Will, and Alena Fleming. Together, we all had a great time getting to know one another. Nate and I cannot wait for our next Auto Owners trip to catch up!

I'm sure that a lot of you are thinking "Canada...big deal." That is the same thing that I thought going into the trip. However, I was more than pleasantly surprised with the Canadian Rockies. The temperature was wonderful as were all of the sites that we saw. I highly recommend a trip there if you like the mountains!