Un deux trois

When Cas and I went to Australia and New Zealand, we had a French tour guide.  She would load all of the members of our tour up on the bus and count the heads to make sure we’d all made it.  Her counting was just above a whisper, but always done in French.  When we went to Greece, we somehow ended up with another French woman as our guide.  She also liked to count heads in French.  Cas and I are making our own path across Canada without a large tour group, so we figured this sort of thing would have come to a stop, but today, we were on a wildlife viewing tour complete with a trip around Lake Maligne.  The woman who drove our bus was a French Canadian named Marie, and when she tallied up all the members of our party, she did so in French.  We were so amused that we had to tell her about our history of being accounted for by native French speakers.  

But, no matter.  We were present in both French and in English for a bus tour out to Lake Maligne.  On the way, we saw elk and a few bald eagles.  We stopped at a beautiful waterfall and took a walk around.  We got to the lake, and our group split into those wanting to go on a hike and those who were going on the lake cruise.  We had opted for the lake cruise at the strong recommendation of a nosy, off-duty employee at the travel booking shop.  Good thing, too, because we managed to see Spirit Island, which was actually part of an advertising campaign by the Kodak company back in the ‘60s.  

Here’s my atttempt at the same photo: 

I hope I did okay...  Then again, with a place like that, it’s hard to take a bad photo.  Spirit Island on Lake Maligne is the photographic equivalent of training wheels on a bicycle.  

The cruise and island visit was about an hour and a half, and after that, we all reboarded the bus, were counted in French, and headed back to Jasper by way of a spot called Medicine Lake.  It’s beautiful, of course, but on the way, we were treated to a real live and totally unusual (if Marie is to be believed) animal encounter.  This little lady crossed the street right in front of our bus: 

None of us expected to be that close to a black bear or see it so clearly, but she was headed across to the patch of berries on the other side- or so we imagined.  It was pretty cool to get that up-close-and-personal with a bear while still feeling safe in a bus.  

When we got back to Jasper, Marie dropped us back off at the hotel, where the staff was kind enough to hold our luggage after check out.  From there, we walked across the street to the train station, got the latest information on arrival and departure time and headed back to the other side of the street to have a snack at a sidewalk cafe.  

We’re back on the Via Rail train now, heading through Alberta toward Edmonton.  It’s 10pm local time and still pretty bright out, and dinner wasn’t that long ago.  

The food on the Via Rail train system is pretty great.  I had lamb chops tonight, and Cas had chicken.  On the way to Jasper, we had salmon and a Yorkshire pudding.  They don’t mess around.  We probably shouldn’t have had a snack in Jasper, though, because we really overdid it at dinner, and it’s not exactly convenient to take a nice walk after a big meal around here or anything.  

We’re getting ready to settle in for the night, though.  We knocked out a crossword puzzle, and I finished reading one of the books I brought with.  We should be in Toronto in a few days, but I think that will be just fine.  It’s a very relaxing way to travel and we are covering some really beautiful ground.