Soap, Snow and Ski Big 3

We woke to our first morning in Alberta and waited until daylight (8:30am!) before we made a move to leave. We took back roads to bypass Calgary via Cochrane through snow covered farming fields of barley stubble.

Roads were clear and we made good time to Canmore, a lovely mountain village on the edge of the National Park. We stopped for an hour or so, explored and finally found some good snow to play in! I was excited to find a great coffee shop, Good Earth were we enjoyed croissants, hot chocolates and lattes.

We strolled the Main Street stopping at many interesting shops along the way. The O’Canada Soap Works was a favourite. Such a quaint cottage with a warm welcome and beautiful scents as you opened the door. There were so many lovely products but we treated ourselves to a full sized bar of soap to travel with rather than persevering with the mini hotel freebies!

We continued onwards then to Banff and arrived early for check in at Elk + Avenue, luckily for us our room was ready. I was very happy to see another Good Earth cafe located in the lobby of the hotel so I was set for my morning latte! There was also a nice gift shop and restaurant chain Ricky’s which quickly became the kids favourite spot for breakfast.

Once we settled into our new house (as the kids were calling our hotel rooms each night!) and finished unpacking and organising ourselves for the week ahead we wandered down town to get a lay of the land and visit the Ski Big 3 Adventure Hub to get fitted out in our ski equipment rentals. We left fully kitted out for the slopes! Luckily, the Adventure Hub had a delivery service to Elk & Avenue and the hotel provided ski lockers so thankfully we didn’t have to carry it all back and store it ourselves. Turns out four sets of ski’s, boots, helmets and poles is a whole lotta stuff!!

Dinner for our first night in Banff was at another North American institution – Boston Pizza. It was Monday NFL night so Ad was very happy to see the restaurant fitted out with multiple TVs all playing either Ice Hockey or Football. After a nice meal it was off to bed to be ready for our first day on the slopes!!