Last Day with Rodney

We found one more hike on the Bow Valley Parkway for Rodney and then drove back to Banff. We had lunch at the Spaghetti Factory (Rodney’s favorite). We went shopping for 20 minutes on Banff Ave for shirts, etc. so Rodney could find last-minute souvenirs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Banff

Ahh the famous Banff Springs Hotel as seen from Tunnel Mountain Drive.

Okay, so I had a little fun while staging that great selfie. I was taking practice shots getting the right angle with the tree framing it and the hotel in such a location that people wouldn't block it out. And I caught a little action in the background. Karen, you can thank me later for deleting the ones with not-so-graceful poses.

 

 And then we got into town. What a great tourist town/ski town! It's so picturesque. Turns out that mountain in the background is Mount Rundle. Rodney later saw it in a photograph in a gallery and asked about taking pictures of it. The young woman in the store not only knew the name of it, but told us where to go to photograph it.

 

 

 

 

(We didn't eat here, but I just liked the looks of this restaurant.)

 

 

Karen and Mari chat and walk at the same time down this main street in Banff.

 

 

 

 

Starting Out By Stocking Up

It's going to be a L O N G trip at this pace. But if you're in Huckleberry country, aren't you required to stop at a place called The Huckleberry Patch? We needed to stock up on the essentials: souvenirs, huckleberry fudge, a day pack, postcards, and a selfie stick. 

Our first selfie. Ooops, I think we've created a monster. This pic was a little too much fun in the making.

8/15/2011 The Gallery

"The Family" (Rodney, Dain, Sara, and the boys) have lived in Aurora for almost exactly a year now. Dain and his dad have done A LOT of remodeling and fixing up on this house. It's been fun to see the change and improvement over time. But Rodney has never really made his room "home." Now he was ready to do that, and I was thrilled to get to be a part of it. Yesterday, we went to Michael's and picked out some really nice frames (on 40% off sale and then found a coupon for 25% off that price). Last night, he went through his photos (he has a LOT of photos) and set aside about 20 that he really liked. He had to like the look as well as like the story that went with it or the emotions that it evoked. Instead of trying to narrow down from 20 to 9 while looking at them on his laptop, we just sent all 20 to WalMart's online photo shop and had them all made into 5x7 prints. This morning while he was in school, I picked them up. It worked out perfectly! We had choices and could work with groupings and figure out what looked good together and what looked good in these frames. He ended up with 3 pics of the Oregon coast from 3 different trips (from when he lived in Oregon), 4 that represented each of the seasons, and 1 that was just very special. AND we got them all hung. You can't see the amazing photography in these pics, but you can see that we accomplished a great thing. My favorite part? I got to keep all the 5x7 prints that didn't get picked to go on the wall!!

8/9/11 Dealing with Delay

We were up and at 'em at 5am in order to be ready to leave at 6am to be at the bus station (fighting downtown morning rush hour and a long walk from the only available parking we could find the night before) by 7:15 for our 8:05 train. But we called the number the lady gave us last night and guess what. Our train is delayed. . . . By nearly 3 hours! It's now scheduled to leave at 10:50.

What do you do when you're already up and packed and ready to go? Rodney had heard about a great local restaurant famous for its breakfasts, so we decided to enjoy a big breakfast instead of the breakfast-on-the-run that we had planned. Sam's was awesome.

And the bonus for me? They're famous for their green chile. So I got the breakfast burrito supreme (and trust me, it was BIG) that was delicious. And smothered in green chile.

Next stop: The new IKEA which just opened 2 weeks ago. We arrived at 7:55 for the 8:00 opening only to find out they don't open until 9:30. Better check your own website, IKEA. We left there and headed downtown to REI. Rodney had an errand to run at REI and it's only minutes away from the train station. REI is always a good time, but this one was especially special as it was built in an old power plant. They did a great job of keeping the look and feel of the historic building while making it a viable store space.

3/6/08 Souvenirs we didn't buy

For everyone I know that loves pink and is a princess girl (MRM, Dana, Lizzie, . . . ) here's your new china and housewares collection.

a rhinestone tiara, no less!

To my family and former office mates to whom I always bring a pencil back from wherever I go (they're great souvenirs because they're inexpensive, useful, and don't take up much room in your suitcase going home), here are some of the Las Vegas souvenirs you won't be getting this year.

For Dr. Mari's cow collection, I did not add these piggy/cow banks to her collection.

For Buster and Tina, 2 of the cutest Scottie Dogs I've ever dogsat for (and in honor of Annie, who preceded them), I thought of you but did not get this for your mom and dad.

For my own teammates, Beth and Grace, personalized tins to hold your mints in your purse. I should've indulged but I didn't.

For Dr. Mari, whose cat Rusty (an orange tabby) just had butt surgery twice in the last three months, I did not get these refrigerator magnets. There were also cat butt coasters (wouldn't you like to set your drink down on one of those?) and cat butt stickers. What I loved about the magnets was, in the lower right hand corner, you see a cat's head and the caption says, "Guess which one is mine." In the lower left corner is a magnet with an ugly mess on it. It's labeled "FREE!" and says, "Real hairball magnet with every set!" Don't you wish you could've been there to buy your own magnet set??

ME: 8/5/07 The Mecca

We made it to Freeport! We found the L. L. Bean outlet store. They're open 'til 8 and we made it. Marty found some great bargains. Then we went to THE L. L. Bean store. It's retail heaven. They're open 24/7/365 . . . there are no locks on the door. I'd been there before, but it was great to be there again and it was a hoot to watch Marty's reactions. It really is a must-see.



And for Dana (who loves pink) and ML (who loves pink and green), check out the latest fashion colors in L. L. Bean:



We stopped at Friendly's for dinner on our way out of town . . . a classic . . . my mother went to Friendly's when she was a child living in Washington DC. Unfortunately, the service wasn't so hot, but the food was good and the ice cream even better.