Wednesday morning, July 7

Early morning here and a big day ahead, but observations to date are worth putting on paper. Or is it on screen?

The drive up into Canada was so interesting yesterday. We quickly left the snow-capped mountains of Glacier/Waterton, and were in treeless plains with beautiful animals grazing everywhere. Really beautifully put together cattle of all colors.........white calves suckling on their Black Angus mothers. And the horses, so many of them, and also multi-colored. Truly painted ponies. And so interesting to observe their postures and apparent motivations. One area had large pastures on either side of the road with a tunnel under the freeway connecting both. This herd of hundreds of cattle was rushing from one side of the freeway to the other, for no apparent reason. Was it "cattle see as cattle do"?

Then we approached Calgary. A huge city spread out over rolling plains. Lovely sky line in the distance. We only skirted the city as we aimed for Banff. We are actually staying in a town just outside of the Banff National Park. Very cute. Very "newly quaint". Very mountain chalet-like. At least half of the commercial businesses are the same as we see at home. Lots of Subway sandwich shops, Dairy Queen, A & W Root Beer, even Safeway and Starbucks. And most spectacular, almost unnerving, is the "set" outside our front window. Majestic snow-capped mountains that I am sure are just a Hollywood set. I think they are made perfectly out of styrofoam. On second thought, no human could have designed such grandeur. I feel so privileged to be able to take this all in. I'll probably miss lots of beauty, just trying to remember the last beauty just seen, but I'll try to do it justice.

And now for my morning coffee here in the coach before heading off for a gondola ride....with a Starbucks at the base. Are we combining natural beauty with creature comforts here?

You have a good day, too, and I'm sure you have natural beauty all around you as well.