Jasper

Coming to Edmonton usually means a road trip to either Jasper or Banff. Each are over 200 miles away and so require sleeping over; it's the perfect set up for the typical loading up of cars with people and food which us Asians are oh-so-good at.

This time we decided on Japser. Due to the wedding and how holidays have been booked, we only had two days and one night to play with - the first day was a bit of a wash out, both literally and due to the inefficiencies of traveling with 18 people (things like eating and peeing each take a while).

Although it was around ten years ago that we did this tour (last time I came we chose Banff instead), it was all so familiar. The roads, the trees, the lakes and mountains were all the same as they were. We snacked on the same food, listened to the same type of music and fell asleep on each other just like we used to. We even stopped at the same picnic spot by the same lake (there are many to choose from). As such, all those feelings from such a long time ago came flooding back; it was as poignant as it could get and I felt like a kid (even though I was 20 when I last came).

Our stop at Mount Edith ended before we even stepped out of the cars due to rain, a shame since I wanted to compare it to what I so vividly remember. Instead I got my memory fix at Athabasca Falls; this really was just how I remembered it. I even tried looking for my name that I had carved into the wooden railings so long ago. Apart from that failed attempt we didn't really do much on the first day; it ended with us cooking dinner indoors at the lodge we booked, hanging out and playing poker.

Weather-wise, day two was much better. We drove south to the Colombian Icefield, an awesome concept in theory if not in execution (the tour doesn't take you to the actual field itself) and then on to Lake Louise. I won't bother going in to too much detail since most of the pictures will be going up at some point and it'd be better to just check those out.

We ended the day with an awesome outdoor dinner of BBQ'd burgers and sausages, lamenting how quickly the two days had passed. With so many people a lot of time was inevitably wasted just moving around and so we didn't get as much done as the millage on our trips indicated, but this wasn't that much of an issue since it was all about the company anyway. The five hour drive home didn't seem that long, although to be fair I was sleeping for most of it.

I look forward to visiting again in a couple of years. Perhaps there'll even be new people in the group with which to experience it all with then.