Canada, Day Four

Today was BY FAR my most favorite day!  (And Jaren's too!) I absolutely loved every minute! I've always wanted to go horseback riding- I wanted to go last Summer but we were unable to. So... I asked Jaren if he thought horseback riding would be something we could do on this trip. He thought that sounded fun. This morning I called and made a reservation to go. I wasn't sure what to expect... and I ended up absolutely loving the whole experience! The horses were very gentle. Jaren's horse was named Concho and my horse was Rayleigh. We rode around some very beautiful scenic areas of Banff. We passed a waterfall, crossed a river, and went through some beautiful trails. And of course there were the awesome mountains in the background. I will definitely be doing this again- I don't know when or where- but I will do this again.

Afterward we went back to our hotel and made lunch. Then we headed back out to Canoe! This was something Jaren really wanted to do, and we had a great time! We started at the Bow River. As we paddled a little upstream we could either turn right and go to the Vermillion Lake, or turn left and continue on the river. We were advised to be careful if we headed toward the lake, as some animals can get very protective of their young and aggressive this time of year- and an aggressive elk had been spotted earlier. We decided to go right, towards the lake. As we were paddling we saw several Canadian geese families. There were at least three. They all had 2 parents and at least 3 fluffy little chicks (or goslings- whatever their called). They were so cute and fun to watch. As we came closer to the lake, we saw several different canoes coming back toward us. They were all talking loudly to one another and sounded excited. One of the canoes came over to us and the people told us to turn around! Remember how we were told there was an angry, protective mother elk who had a calf? The elk actually charged one of the canoes and the boat tipped over! We asked if everyone was ok, and they were. So we turned our boat around and decided to go left and continue up the river. Canoeing was so relaxing. It was fun to view the beautiful scenery from a canoe. And Jaren and I made a pretty good paddling team!

After canoeing we walked around a little trail by the river and lake. We ended up at Vermillion Lake and Jaren did some bird watching. He spotted some pretty cool birds. I enjoy this hobby of his because he will find the birds, then let me look, and then he'll tell me about them! After bird watching we went back to our hotel for a little bit, then went to dinner.

When dinner was done, we went to see Maleficent! I had been waiting to see this movie for a long time- and I loved it! It was so fun to see a fairy-tale movie in a place like Banff.