O Canada how we love you

It's taken a lot longer to write this post than I had planned, despite always having the best of intentions to keep this thing as up to date as possible, somehow it never seems to happen. The time between being back in internet coverage and now has been eventful, lacking in time with a laptop, (not necessarily a bad thing mind you) and when such time has presented itself, not having a decent enough internet connection to upload photos too, but tonight is the night.

Banff and Jasper National Parks were exactly as we hoped. Driving the Icefields Parkway from Lake Louise to Jasper will definitely go down as one of the highlights of our adventure. If you only ever make one road trip, take the drive from Banff to Jasper, you won't be disappointed. In no particular order, the points we'd like to mention:

• Hiking, hiking and more hiking (12km, 17km, 22km, 21km, 15km and those are just the walks we recorded on Brad's phone)
• A mid-walk post-lunch nap on sun warmed river stones (marred only be Brad's inability to nap, and so pestering me at regular intervals whether it was time to go yet)
• Eating lunch whilst watching avalanches on Victoria Glacier
• The views, everywhere

• A full day spent hiking on Athabasca Glacier (definitely worth the extra $10 and waiting four days to go).

But of course, our time in this beautiful part of the world would not be complete without a few unexpected incidents.

Incident One:

After our second 20km plus hike in as many days, we arrived back at Gil, ready for showers and

dinner, but not so ready for a flat battery. We thought we'd do the right thing and turn on our headlights (all Canadian cars have day running lights, Gil be an American, doesn't), and piled out of Gil in the morning without turning them off. What kind of vehicle doesn't have a warning to remind you you've left the headlights on? Oh that's right, one built in 1998! I was all for calling AAA, that's what we got the membership for right? Brad refused, stating it would take longer for them to come out, than for him to come up with an alternative solution. I was then very impressed, and forced to eat my suggestion when Brad successfully jump started Gil all by himself using some electrical wires (and I questioned why when bought them) and the house battery which he had disconnected from its mounting and carried around to the front... in about 15 minutes. Brad: 1, AAA: 0.

Incident Two:

Two days later, it came to our attention the bathroom door handle would not turn and access could no longer be gained, fortunately there were no occupants and no urgent need to become one. Brad then impressed me again, by removing the handle and rectifying the situation, with a little assistance from me and a pair of pliers. I then wondered why the door knob even had a snibby thing, until we drove off and the door flew open.

At this point you may be thinking I'm easily impressed and I feel it necessary to point out Brad has shown little to no ability to be handy around the home before.

Incident Three:

Several days passed without incident, we then had a day off from hiking and were quite late in drifting off to sleep when a scurrying noise was heard. Shortly after it came to our attention we had a little not so welcome visitor(s), and on turning on the light, Brad saw a mouse scurry into the stove. After a thorough investigation and concluding there was little to be done, Brad bravely offered to swap sides of the bed, in case mid-night action needed to be taken and slept with a head lamp on, for ease of spotting. To our relief, no superfluous holes appeared in food containers or Gil the following morning. It appears our visitor just popped by for a poop party as we haven't heard from him since. Considerable time was spent with the dust buster and industrial strength disinfectant wipes to return things to a state where we no longer felt violated.