lauren's travels

italy 2008, ireland 2009, germany, puerto rico, hawaii 2010, canada 2011

3 years ago - 10/26/2008 Rome

Three years ago today I arrived in Rome - my first trip to Europe at 25 years old. It's been a few years (and 5 more trips to Europe) but the allure of my trip, or of Italy, hasn't faded. I would go back in a heartbeat. And I look forward to taking my husband (hopefully soonish) for his first trip.

For the next 3 weeks, I'll be posting some of my favorite pictures from my each day.

My only picture from the 26th is of my family in Roma, but, few pictures I took are better than this one. I was so blessed to have them there and to spend time with them - they were so generous in taking me around and getting to know me. Ciao familia!

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Final day!

On Friday, we drove up to Athabasca Glacier to go hike on a glacier. It was about a 3 hour drive to Jasper National Park but we left time to see some of the views on the way up.

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You can do a tour from the visitor center that takes you up the glacier in a tricked-out semi truck (first pic below) but we wanted to get a little more up close and personal so we did a hike. I only wish our guide was as awesome as our guide for the Canmore Cave Tour - this guy did more talking then hiking. At times, it was painful. At other times, it was really painful. But it was also cool to hike on a glacier.

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Moraine Lake

Another day, another beautiful lake! On Thursday we headed to Moraine Lake, about a 30 minute drive from Lake Louise. Moraine Lake used to be the star of the Canadian $20 bill. We did a quick hike up the rockpile for some beautiful views and then we ended up renting a canoe and enjoying the lake. We were the first to rent a canoe that day so the guy told us to take our time! We ended up enjoying our lunch in the Canoe. Note: Josh paddled us around pretty much the whole time so I could take photos - such a trooper! The water is gorgeous but the view from the middle of the lake is amazing!!

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Johnston Canyon

On Thursday morning, we headed out pretty early to Johnston Canyon to do some light hiking (on paved trails) along streams and waterfalls. It's a really popular hike because it's so accessible so we got there early and were almost the first ones out on the trail. There are two major waterfall features and then the "ink pots" - we skipped the inkpots because we wanted to see Moraine Lake, but both the waterfalls were great, as was the scenery throughout!

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Caving!

On Wednesday we went caving with Canmore Cave Tours. Our guide, Lisa, met us and we were thrilled to be the only people on the tour! It was a 30 minute hike up Grotto Mountain to the cave entrance and we learned some geological history about how the cave was formed and more recent history about caving there. We really hit the jackpot with Lisa, she was friendly, knowledgeable, and is a full-time guide - it's not just a summer gig for her.

When we got to the entrance, we got suited up in coveralls, kneepads, gloves, helmet and headlamp. As the website says, this is not a little cave with lights and handrails, this is the real deal, and we were excited!

Here are some photos of the inside of the cave including the formations.

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Lisa also got us into some pretty tight squeezes. We got to do the Laundry Chute, a 15 foot L shaped squeeze and the challenge squeeze - pictures of that one are below. It was pretty tight for me so Josh did a great job of getting through. And he went last so he could help me in case I got stuck!

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Finally we ended up in the Grotto room, with awesome stalagmites and stalactites with a crystal clear pool. It was beautiful! We turned off our headlights for a few minutes and sat in total darkness, also something that we rarely get to do.

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Josh & I definitely agree that this was a highlight for the trip - an awesome guide and getting to go explore a cave!

Lake O'Hara (part 4)

Finally we were back to the Lake O'hara circuit, a nice easy walk around the lake. The colors of the lake were incredible (I'm not sure the pictures do it justice) and even cooler was seeing how far up we had hiked to start the day. We felt pretty triumphant after seeing our tough initial climb!

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We ended our day with the best coke in the history of the world.

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It was an awesome day and we felt really blessed to be able to hike in such a beautiful area with so few people around!

Lake O'Hara (part 3)

After lunch, we hit the second ledges portion of the hike. This was tough for two reasons. One, I thought we were done with the tough stuff and, two, this was more scrambling and boulders AND going uphill, while the previous ledges were more level. But we really enjoyed beautiful views of Lake O'Hara and eventually we made our way closer to the valley floor.

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Lake O'Hara (part 2)

We stopped for lunch at Lake Oesa and enjoyed the sparkling, blue water. It was just a picture perfect day and we really enjoyed a little rest.

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We also saw a mountain goat and some hoary marmots. I may have gone running after the mountain goat for some better pictures, and there's a cute picture of his bum. It also felt a bit like the hoary marmots were posing for us. What do you think?

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