Calgary and Banff – Day 1 can be found here.
I typically use my iPhone 15 for photos. It has the benefits of being very small, easy to use, and a decent camera. But we have some serious trips coming up, and I just couldn’t see myself shooting penguins in the Antarctic or leopards in Sabi Sands on my iPhone.
So, I did the sensible thing and bought a camera that was way beyond my ability and experience level – the Nikon Z7ii, to be specific. I did some very thorough research before buying this camera, which is to say that I saw a post on reddit with pretty pictures and asked the photographer what kind of camera they used. Job done.
Thankfully, there are a wide range of resources available for people like me, even if the very basic “how-to” video still included words like “aperature”, “exposure”, and “saturation”. These seem like terms you’d use when building an elaborate trap designed to murder James Bond, not a camera.
But I digress. My goal here is to learn how to take pictures of animals, so I went to the nearest place with the most animals – the Calgary Zoo.
And I got some pretty good photos:
Our kids asked an interesting question when we arrived, which was whether the Calgary Zoo was closer to the Toronto Zoo or the Dublin Zoo in terms of its layout and construction. The Toronto Zoo is fine – and getting better – but the Dublin Zoo really set the benchmark for what we consider to be an exceptional zoo.
And I’m pleased to say that the Calgary Zoo is much closer to Dublin – the exhibits are large and well-designed, and they blend in well with the surrounding environment.
They also have some truly epic playgrounds:
But really, we’re all about the animals:
I’m still working on figuring out how to easily edit / transfer photos to my phone, but here are two ‘close-ups’ that I was happy with:
Much like this tiny, confused gorilla, my photography is a work in progress
At this point we’d been at the zoo for close to three hours – and nine thousand steps – so it was time to grab a quick lunch at Subway and head to Banff.
Something I remembered from childhood trips to Banff was the manner in which the mountains come into view – gradually at first:
And then suddenly, all at once:
It really is a stunning drive.
We soon arrived at Banff’s Hidden Ridge Resort, where we’ll be staying for the next three nights.
We’d originally been booked into a one bedroom with a loft overhead, with a total of three beds. We noticed that they’d dropped the rate shortly before our arrival – and that they had some of the larger units available – so we asked how much it would cost to upgrade.
They initially came back with a quote of $130 plus taxes per night for the upgrade to a 2 bedroom, but we thought they might go lower given the sale prices on their website – so we waited until check in to follow up, and they offered us a 3 bedroom with games room for $80 per night instead. Sold!
The grounds here are lovely, with easy access to walking trails – which we hope to explore tomorrow.
And there’s some great amenities here too, including a sauna and hot tubs:
And barbeques:
The hockey game in the basement looks amazing, but unfortunately we can’t seem to get the puck to come out. So we asked maintenance to come out and have a look.
In the meantime, I headed into town to do some grocery shopping. It was about as busy as expected, but I still managed to snag a parking spot and pick up the odds and sundry we needed for our 3 days in Banff. (We have a lot trips coming up, so we’re trying to eat somewhat healthily on this trip.)
I got back, and the kids headed off for a dip in the hot tub. The maintenance guy arrived soon thereafter and – despite never having seen one of these games before – managed to get it working again. We still have to shake the game whenever we want the puck to come out, but at least it works!
The kids came back from the hot tubs and had a shower, and I made chicken alfredo pasta and a garden salad. We built a fire in the fireplace, watched a documentary on Rapa Nui, and then roasted some marshmallows for s’mores.
It was a great day – but it wasn’t done yet.
The northern lights had been making an appearance over the past few nights. We initially thought it would be clouded over – but then we looked up, and lucked out:
We woke the kids up long enough to have a look, and then sent them back to bed. We hung out on the couch to watch some TV and enjoy the fire with a glass of wine.
But it was soon time to head to bed – tomorrow would be a busy day of hiking and horseback riding.
Continue reading Calgary and Banff – Day 3.