Christmas day, Canada style. starts with presents. Santa did find us here. Left the girls small gift and voucher for surfing lessons in Hawaii on way back. Breakfast was waffles and vegemite on toast. Can't miss that one. After we got organised we headed north to Lake Louise via Johnson Canyon. Peter, our instructor from day 1 snowboarding, said it was a must do. We hired cleats and headed up the ice path along with lots of other tourists to see frozen waterfalls and spectacular cliffs. It was a sunny day and the snow on the tree's sparkled like christmas lights. It was pretty good. Only a 15 minute walk to see the first waterfall which I wished I could do some ice climbing on, but just as good to look at. We walked back to the car and drove to Lake Louise. When we arrived we found out that everyone else in Alberta thought it was a good idea as well. We eventually parked and walked to the famous lake. It was -17oC, and I was feeling cold. We stood at the front of the hotel and looked over the frozen lake. There were so many people ice skating we decided to pass and we will find another spot to have a skate. There was an ice scuplture where the girls had their photo taken and we went inside the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise and found a candy shop.

It was too crazy there to buy a hot drink so we headed down to town and found a little coffee shop for latte and hot chocolates. This filled the void for the drive back to Banff. After starting to pack up we got ready for dinner and headed to the Banff Springs Fairmont hotel where dinner was booked in the Riverview room. This was an all you can eat buffet with a seafood, carvery, local meals and desserts. It was chaos to find the start of the line for each section but most people were nice and helpful. After starting with prawns, Alaskan crayfish and cheeses, we ate roast beef and turkey and to finish had cakes, chocolate coated fruit from the chocolate fountains and smores. Yep, they had 1 guy making smores from the fireplace all night long. It was a great place to celebrate christmas.

Tonight we will pack up as tomorrow we leave Banff (unfortunately) and drive across the Rocky Mountains to Kamloops on the way to Vancouver. At this stage the roads are all good. The hardest section is between Banff and Revelstoke which we will complete tomorrow. The last section into Vancouver should be clear.