More often then not you can find this family of four heading West for a Mountain Getaway of some sort. Maybe it’s because I spent 30 years of my life living in British Columbia and the mountains call me home every once and a while. Or very likely we need a break from the City and the mountains are easy to get to.
Our first stop was Canmore. We admittedly come here a lot. Whether we are camping in any of nearby campgrounds, participating in snow activities, geo-caching, hiking or even just dropping in for lunch and a stop at the candy store, there’s always a reason to immerse ourselves in fresh mountain air.
Our day was simple, get up, pack, hit up a coffee shop on our way out of town and hit the road for Canmore. It was a gloriously sunny day and a beautiful drive. Our first stop once we got to Canmore was lunch and we wanted Poutine. Well maybe I wanted Poutine. Off we went to a place I’d heard many good things about, La Belle Patate Restaurant. I ordered the small “Ian Poutine” which was large and in charge and came topped with sauteed onion, mushrooms, bacon and smoked meat. The boys had burgers and the plates were huge. The girls stuck with variations of fries. My poutine serving was big and I could not finish it all. But tasty.
Next we checked into our accommodations for the night at Falcon Crest Lodge. A lovely little bachelor suite for the four us. We unloaded way to many bags and decided what we would do for the rest of the day. Lots of things to do while in the mountains and since this wasn’t going to be an overly active trip for us as one of the minions was getting over a flu bug, we opted for a walk and perhaps some sledding if time allowed. The enclosed photo of my kid sledding is from the last time we visited Canmore in the Winter. Pure joy on that toothless grin.
As it turns out we arrived in Canmore smack dab in the middle of their Canmore Winter Festival. As we were in Canmore during the week, there wasn’t a lot going on event wise, but they had the Athlete’s Village open and several ice carvings in the area to view. In the Athlete’s Village there were movies at scheduled times, beer gardens, arts & crafts tables, food vendors and a big screen TV to watch the Olympics on. To make you comfortable they had chairs and blankets for you to snuggle up in.
During our wander through town we stopped into some of our favourite shops, Olde Tyme Candy Shoppe, O’canada Soapworks, and Good Earth Cafe & Bakery for a java to go. We ended the tour visiting Kevin at Crush & Cork. After chatting for a bit and getting some suggestions on food around town, Kevin recommended a bottle of Fetish, a Barossa Valley Shiraz. We happily left with our shiraz and decided later we would have supper at a O Bistro as it was a bring your own bottle of wine, no corkage fee kind of night. A lovely dinner and place right on the main drag. The kids sampled and fell in love with virgin Shirley Temple’s and we enjoyed our bottle of Fetish with our meal.
The next morning we packed up, had a late breakfast at The Wood Restaurant and Lounge, and headed over to visit the Canmore Museum & Geoscience Centre. Only to find it was closed due to water damage from a water line break. They are slowly recovering from the damage and sure could use your help so head on over to their website to see how you can help with the recovery process.
A quick family huddle and it was decided to head to Banff, our second stop in our quick Mountain Getaway. But first a stop at Beamer’s Coffee Bar for some hot cocoa and coffee before we hit the road to Banff. To be continued.
This post is not sponsored. All opinions are my own, based on our own experiences.
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