A Great Day in Banff

This is a long holiday weekend for Canadians – Tuesday, July 1 is Canada Day! All campgrounds are full and that also means the town will be even busier than a regular Saturday!

Parking is limited, but there are a couple lots that can accommodate larger vehicles and RVs. We knew we had to be parked between 9 and 9:30. We drove straight to the FREE Parking at the Train Station. You can park for free for 9 hours between the hours of 6am and 11pm. PERFECT.

It was GREAT RV PARKING along the outer edge. There was only one other RV here when we arrived! This was definitely a larger lot including more room for RVs than the lot near the BANFF sign. (Not sure if that one is free.)

We unloaded our bikes to ride everywhere today. We first went to take a picture at the “official” Banff sign.

There was already a decent line. We actually had to wait in line THREE times, which of course got longer each time. Two different people could not get both of us, our bikes and the entire sign in the picture/and or were so far away. Third time was a charm.

I found my moose!!

Well, not exactly the moose I was hoping for! LOL

We headed further into downtown, but before we could begin to look for a Canadian/Banff t-shirt, it started to rain. We locked up the bikes and went into FARM & FIRE for a “farm to table” healthy breakfast.

OMG! This was so unbelievably delicious!!! I got the AVOCADO TOAST- not the typical avocado toast!!
Sourdough Bread, Avocado, Smoked Chimichurri, Two Free Run Poached Eggs, Balsamic Glaze, Chickpea Dukkah. It was served with their house potatoes. (~$16.50 USD)

This is what going out for a meal should be like!!!

Barry got the CANADIAN EGGS BENNY
Smoked Ham, Two Free Range Poached Eggs, Greens, Hollandaise, English Muffin, House Potato. Also very, very good! He said the ham was better than typical. Maybe because it was Canadian?? 🙂
(~$16.50 USD)

Seriously, our plates were almost spotless. No, we didn’t lick them clean, but we could have! LOL Definitely, the BEST restaurant meal for the both of us in a long, long time. I noticed that three out of four people near us also ordered the Avocado Toast! Wonder if they heard me? “I’ll have what she’s having.” LOL

Outside the rain had stopped, so I enjoyed the stunning flowers here at Farm & Fire. There were multiple colors of snapdragons! One of my favorites from when I lived in San Pedro, Ca when I was 6-7 years old. They intrigued me. 🙂

Next it was time to shop for t-shirts! We went into a lot of stores, but finally hit the jackpot in one store. We each got 2 shirts and I found a perfectly fitting ball cap with “Banff” on it. (Youth size).

You may wait a little longer to cross the street, but when the walk light comes on, you can cross in ANY DIRECTION!!! Love when places do this.

The afternoon really got more crowded.

Barry found a bench while I shopped a bit more. I bought us a Maple Dark Chocolate bar. The hint of maple sugar really brought out the flavor of the dark chocolate. Wish I had bought a couple of them!

I wasn’t expecting the town of Banff to be this large. There were all kinds of stores-not just touristy shops. And there were LOTS of places to eat, full restaurants or speedier food options. I didn’t even have time to see all the stores available, but we got shirts we liked, so need to spend more time here.

Then something caught my eye –

I’ve heard of Canadian BeaverTails, but never had one. I didn’t even knew what they were. Since we are trying new things I went in to check them out. Boy, did they sound super sweet, but then I saw one that sounded perfect for us.

Pistach-OH!™
A perfect blend of creamy pistachio spread, drizzled honey, and crunchy pistachio crumbs—once a limited-time favorite, now a full-time must-try!

Oh my!!! It was such a delectable treat. Nice and crispy. I needed to hurry a block or two down the street to Barry to share this with him while it was still warm, AND before I was tempted to eat the whole thing. LOL This was our lunch. 🙂

As we sat on the bench eating our BeaverTail, I noticed a lot more people eating one. Where did they come from? Not that many were there when I was. Wow–There was another BeaverTails right here in front of us. But this one had a huge line! I told a couple people looking at the line that there was another BeaverTails on the opposite side a block or two down the street and it did NOT have a line!

There was a grocery near where we parked our bikes, so I went in while Barry rode back to get Sadie. A full line-up of RV behind us! This wasn’t even the entire lot!

I enjoyed buying “Canadian” products wherever I could. 🙂 When I called Barry after I checked out, he drove over to pick me up with the groceries and my bike.

I thought I took a picture of everything Canadian that I bought, but realized later that I had more. My Canadian honey and a couple other items had already been put away.

As we were headed back to the Tunnel Mountain Village II campground…

Lots of families have arrived for the rest of the long holiday weekend. There were about 7 kids playing soccer between Sadie and their tent sites and vehicles. The sites are parallel along both sides of the camp roads. We were pretty sure it would only be a matter of time before the ball hit us, and it did. It didn’t make a dent, but you could see the clean spot where it hit.

Barry went outside, a mom came out saying “It was an accident.” Of course it was, but that wasn’t the place to play like that. We couldn’t believe that NO one said they were sorry- none of the kids or the mom! She just told the kids to play “softer”. Seriously!?! We knew these boys were not likely to keep the “softer play” after a couple of passes.

We also had yesterday and again this afternoon/evening people who would diagonally cut through our area to go to the bathroom facilities instead of using the path behind our site. We had already put out our orange cone and a lounge chair to signify this area is not a path and is being used by someone. It helped, but didn’t deter it completely.

I knew since it stays light till 10:30pm that we would be on edge and not be able to relax at all this evening as more kids arrived along with more bikes, scooters and balls. They all seemed to know each other. I walked to the ranger station, explained politely what we were experiencing. They would see if anything opened up. About 40 minutes later a ranger came to our door and said they had a different site for us!