Lake Louise!!

Hello friends!! To be perfectly honest, I sit here typing up this post in a hostel in Calgary. However, I will likely be at my sister’s place in Ottawa when this post actually goes up.

I’m a tad sad that my mountain adventure has drawn to an end. I’ve had a fabulous time exploring new corners of the world with people I’ve never met, yet already know will be good friends with forever.

My recaps of the trip thus far can be found here, here and here. It’s been an experience I’ll never forget – and I feel the need to recap it not just for my readers, but so I have a record of it all for myself.

Let’s get to it – shall we? ;)

Today’s post is all about probably the most beautiful spot we visited here in Alberta – Lake Louise.

Holly, Karen and I started early Sunday morning after a rocky nights sleep in the tent. We didn’t buy many additional groceries for camping, so I threw together a mishmash of things to make a decent breakfast.

This would be an almond butter sandwich on the Silver Hills bread. with the lovely addition of straight up soy protein powder. Yes, I sprinkled it right onto the sandwich. I’m weird, because I really dug this.

Now please prepare yourself for a slew of earth shattering scenery.

Meet Lake Louise. A lake located about an hour from the town of Banff.

The area is just simply stunning. I love how the mountains on either side come down to frame the lake, and the white-capped glacier in the back. Of course, there’s also the signature turquoise water…

There’s a trail that leads to the back of the lake and you can hike up to the glacier. We ended up walking an hour along the lake, soaking up the sights.

Fuelling up with some Canadian made protein bars along the way ;)

This is the view from the back of the lake. That’s the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise off in the distance. Can you imagine staying there and waking up to this view every day??

The lake wasn’t the only eye candy. The shirtless rock climbers didn’t hurt ;)

By the time we made it back to the other side of the lake, we decided we were much to hungry to wait and find a cheap place to eat. I mean, when you’re at the Chateau Lake Louise, you might as well live it up.

We chose the tea room upstairs to eat, and were seated on the balcony with this stunning view:

Holly, Karen and I all talked ourselves into getting the Afternoon Tea… but appaaarently you need to book that sort of thing in advance. So we just settled on individual pots of tea.

I got the cinnamon apple spice. Usually, my favourite kind of tea, but there was a lot of sweetener already in the tea – honey probably.

Pip pip! (It’s what the English say Holly!!! :P )

We didn’t just drink tea though. Ohno. For we were also here to feast. Expensively.

I went for the Smoke Gouda Reuben: thinly sliced brisket, braised red cabbage, dijon mustard on light rye bread, caraway & ale mustard dip.

When in Lake Louise, right?

SO GOOD. I tried a brisket at the beginning of the trip and was still kinda “meh” about it. But this brisket was smoked. I love any and all smoked meats. Especially on this sandwich.

Soon after we said goodbye to Karen (sadface!) who had a job to return to (jobs?? what are those? :P ) Holly and I trekked along without her.

Starting from Lake Louise, we hiked up one of the side mountains to Lake Agnes. Mostly because there was a teahouse at the top. How cute is that!?

The hike wasn’t that bad. A little steep, but only about an hour long. Let me tell you, nothing like a trail on an incline to remind you just how in shape you really are.

But we made it!!

There was tons of snow at Lake Agnes which made it even more fun.

And a waterfall on the other side pouring down the mountain.

Every mountain should come with its own quaint teahouse at the top.

Holly and I were actually too hot to drink tea and were pretty bummed when we found out they were all out of lemonade. Boo!

We chose the trail less traveled on the way back down. Erm, it may be less traveled for a reason. But we found some new pretty views!

On our way down, Holly and I had a very serious discussion about what to do for dinner back at the Lake Louise campsite. All we had left on us were items we brought for snacks. With our imaginations combined, we came up with grilled pita pizzas.

Ohyes my friends.

On one side we have a pita with an almond butter sauce, topped with green apple and dried apricots.

On the other side we have a pita with an almond butter sauce and chocolate cherry trail mix topping.

Sweet melty action. Omg.

And because a dessert pizza requires a dessert…

Maple fudge!

We then fell back into a food and sugar coma and watched the clouds pass us by.

Another perfect end to another perfect day in the Canadian Rockies!

Thank you for indulging me in my vacay recaps!! I’ll be back with our final day in Banff and a fun blogger meet-up in Calgary. And of course – all the fun goings on here in Ottawa!! I’m in Ottawa until the end of the month before I move to Toronto, so let me know if you’re in the area and up for a meet-up! :)

Question of the Day: What’s your favourite kind of tea? Spiced apple is mine! Chai and peppermint aren’t far behind though.