October 7 – Banff, Photo Tour and Gondola Ride

We were up before dawn cracked today.  We had opted for an early morning tour with a professional photographer.  It turned out we were the only ones on the tour.  Dannie took us to a lake about 20 minutes outside of Banff where we set up our cameras on tripods and proceeded to take photos of the sunrise and the mountains.  She had many helpful tips and we were both please with the tutorial and the photos.  These are some of our best shots.

It was quite cold out but we were both okay except for our toes, which got pretty darned cold.  We were back at the hotel by 9:30.  We walked up to the gondola (a 7 minute walk from our hotel) where we met Jim and Phyllis.  That had taken a bus tour in the morning into the national park. 

We took a gondola to the top of the mountain...

where we had wonderful view of Banff and the surrounding areas.

where we had lunch overlooking Banff and the beautiful surrounding mountains.  And watching the birds land in the trees just outside the windows.

We all opted for an easy afternoon in the rooms and then caught a bus into town for a walk around, dinner and ice cream at Cows.  Very good.

We decided not to do any more touring around the town.  It is very much a tourist town with souvenir shops, eateries and all things catering to tourists.