(Day 6) Blazing Saddles

“What should we do?” “I don’t know.” “C’mon, what should we do?” “I don’t know. What do you want to do?” “I don’t know, it doesn’t matter to me.” “Me neither. Whatever you think.” This conversation went on for a while. Hours…even days before we finally pulled our crap together and made a decision. For pete’s sake, we were in Ban-fa-fa after all, so we should do something Banff-ish. I made the executive decision that we’d head up to the hot springs and soak our bones, so we did.





As you can see, the view outside the pool was just awe-inspiring. The view inside the pool, however, was another story.




Like I said, black and white photos make everything seem classier.



The pool was fine. As it was too early in the season yet, the pool was partially filled with municipal water. And so really, we were all just hanging out in a giant warm cesspool of diluted spring water (and likely some bodily fluids and skin cells, etc, but that’s par for the course in any public pool.)

Sis and I hung out here for a while and then headed back to the hotel to switch attire for our next excursion. We were on a roll, so why stop now? AND THE WILD WEST AWAITS!





I always imagine that when I finally get around to going horseback riding, I’m going to have a “natural seat” (it’s what my camp counsellor told me) and my horse and I are going to gallop through a meadow, like in those Julia Roberts movies or whatever. So Sistre and I decided to shell out the big bucks for such a session on this day, in Banff. Blazing saddles indeed!








”Beeeee nice to us horses, neeiiiiighhh!”



Well I just siddled up to my horse and was like, ‘What up, pardner’ and he was like, “neiiiiiiiigh” and waved his silky mane in the wind. This was going to be a good ride.


Sis, getting all strapped in for the ride of her life.


Well, this is no meadow filled with tall grass and wildflowers, but I suppose it will do.

Well, as you can guess, the wild gallop through a meadow was more like a slow walk in a straight line. Unfortunately, we were also saddled (literally) with an old fart from Germany who didn’t understand a lick of English and I was stuck behind his pokey horse who kept farting. Worst! I was kind of hoping that my horse would bite the other one’s butt, but I was out of luck. And we plodded along. Slowly.





Sis looks happy, but her horse looks sad. He had to listen to Sis chastise him for two whole hours, an endless stream of questions and directions, neither which he appeared to understand. Sis, you know it’s true! But my horse had an attitude problem, so I think we were about even.














Here! I could break free from the pack, but I think my horse would be deathly confused. I could probably tempt him with some grass though, if I needed to. I’m too responsible.










Ew, my horse looks really kind of fat from this angle. And I look stubby.

So, as you can conclude, the horse ride, in the end, was a bit of a let down. Sis’s horse did a little cantering thing every once in a while, but my just walked. I yanked his head a bit, if that counts. I bet it doesn’t. Poo.

We were so nasty dirty from the horses (seriously, how?), so we settled in for sushi and cleaned ourselves off until the food arrived.




Okay, this isn’t sushi, but I’m such a sucker for tonkatsu curry that I can’t pass it up if its on the menu.



We wandered the shops for a while, tried on a bags at LV, and then we hit up Safeway for some more snack grub. Tomorrow we are outta here and back to Calgary, but there will be more sisterly shenanigans to get into there…maybe some disgusting cake! I’m going to bet $10 on that.