Friday morning was quite pleasant after a great night's sleep on the comfortable bed at the Buffalo Mountain Lodge. I got up relatively early and went OnManeuvers in the town of Banff. I located Phil's Diner (sense the theme here?) that Jon recommended and proceeded to tear in to a smoked salmon omelet. It was stuffed with cheese, cream cheese and caramelized onions. And you can forget the toast and hash browns! I ran in to Travis and Julie there and started to see some of the wedding guests roaming about town. I reconned the town and located the fire station, of course, as well as a few other necessary stops I had to do later. I also checked out the Bow Falls in town which is like a mini version of Great Falls back home.
Back at the lodge I met up with Tommy who had driven from Calgary that morning. I filled him in on the power outage fun and what I'd found in Banff before I headed off to a groomsman's lunch at the Fairmont Banff Springs hotel. Not that anyone I know could afford their room rates, but they welcome visitors to their lobby and lounges. If you anywhere close, I highly recommend it. As Alex said, "it looks straight out of Harry Potter." The lunch was excellent and we tried not to run in to the ladies who were doing a Bridesmaid's High Tea upstairs.
Tommy and I explored more of Banff, I got my hair cut and we located a bike rental place and a few gear shops to check out. Back at the Lodge, the Grizzly Adams had to go. It took a while and was only mildly painful. Sufficiently cleaned up, the welcome party was set for the Bear Street Tavern. It's fair to say a good time was had by all. The party continued back at the Lodge, and, well, those details I'll leave up to your imagination. I'll just say that at least we didn't get attacked by the cougars (four legged variety) that are roaming nearby.
Next morning was a little rough for me, but I rallied to do a morning bike ride along Lake Minnewanka. Back at the lodge it was time to get ready. All spruced up in our suits, we met up with the Smoking Hot Bridesmaids and the Bride and Groom to take some pictures at Lake Minnewanka. I'll upload those in a bit, but you're going to love it. The pictures were an adventure with changing weather and technical terrain to deal with.
Back up at the Lodge it was time. We gathered at the Tunnel Mountain Meadow across the street and formed up for the processional. The ceremony was just perfect. It had everything, tears, laughter, rain, even snow and finally sun. The groomsmen did their due diligence and had planned for the rain, sheltering the couple with umbrellas. We even had a plan in case of a cougar visit, but thankfully didn't have to implement it. They said their I dos and their hand written vows which brought out more than a few tears. The sun came out and shined on the couple as they were pronounced husband and wife. Now, time to party!
The reception, held in the Wapiti Lodge, was amazing. My camera batteries had died during the ceremony so I'll have to get some pics from others, but the lodge was incredible and the setting was perfect. Of course I took pictures of the food, which was delicious, so I'll share those as well. Speeches were made, toasts given and then the dancing. The newlyweds stepped out for a bit to change and came back in a traditional Chinese wedding outfit. All too soon it was last call and we all turned in after an amazing day.
I hope to have some pics up soon.
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