By popular demand, I am posting pictures from the first days of our first western road trip.

After dropping Maddy and Mackenzie at the airport last Wednesday morning, Ben and Ella and I headed south toward Calgary before turning off at Red Deer and driving west toward Rock Mountain House, AB. I wanted to see what it was like to enter the national parks in between Jasper and Banff.

Armed with a dozen of Fiona’s ripped movies, over 7000 mp3 songs, 2 DS gaming systems and a WII that can be connected in the car, we set out for 20 hours of driving over the next two weeks.

By midday, we were in Kootenay National Park approaching the Icefields Parkway. The Kootenay grasslands were beautiful and surprising – precisely the reason I wanted to go this way.

We entered Lake Louise late in the afternoon and stumbled around a bit trying to find our hotel. The Lake Louise Inn was nothing to write home about, but it was just what we needed after a long day of driving. It had a swimming pool, so we started there and ended up back in the room too tired to do anything else.

The kids wanted to order from room service and eat in bed – a luxury they had discovered when we were in transit last year between Toronto and Edmonton. The Westin is a much nicer place to eat dinner in bed, but they still enjoyed it.

In the morning we got out of the hotel quickly and grabbed a quick muffin and juice at the local coffee shop.

The plan was to spend the morning walking and seeing some of the local beauty before heading to Kamloops for dinner. Though, I was torn about where to go. We had come to Lake Louise and we would do well to see the lake and its grand chateau. Yet, a number of people had mentioned to me that Maligne Lake was even more beautiful and urged me to visit. Since the road to Maligne Lake is closed during the winter, I decided this was the place to visit.

Maligne Lake is famous for being pictured on the back of the old 20 dollar note. (Excitedly, I had taken a 20 from my pocket to show Ella where we were going – only to find the bill was a new one and didn’t have any mountains or lake on the back.) And it did not disappoint. The lake was an unreal blue colour and the surrounding mountains were dramatic and picturesque. The best part (for the kids) was the short hike on the Rock Pile that allowed us to get some elevation and better vantage points.

After an hour, they were ready to leave. As a seven year old, there is only so much beauty you can handle. The drive out of the park toward Field and Golden was lovely and only a bit hair-raising. They didn’t have the attention span to see the Spiral Tunnels and we had a lot of driving ahead of us.

While the kids enjoyed a movie, I listened to an audio book reading of Trust Agents by Chris Brogan. The scenery combined with the book was an awesome mind-opening experience about which I will be writing more soon.

After Revelstoke, we encountered the first of the smoke from the BC fires and it continued all the way to Kamloops. Thick and foggy, the air smelled of acrid forest fire smoke. It wasn’t long before I was starting to feel it in my upper chest. Sadly, we were unable to see the scenic mountains as we arrived in Kamloops.

But it was a joy to spend some times with old friends. I met Joel when I was about 16. We were both running for leadership of our youth organization (NELFTY) and we met in the men’s room just before our campaign speeches. The friendship we forged during those years has been enduring. In 1991, Joel and Nuala were married in Vancouver and they stayed there for about 10 years before moving to Kamloops. We had seen them and their family over the years when they visited Toronto, but never been to Kamloops.

Our visit was short and fun. We shared a few great dinners around the family table, went to the Kamloops Museum and took a dip in the Thompson River. Ice cream (just before dinner) at Marble Slab was a highlight for the kids (and Joel).

By Saturday morning, it was time to hit the road. We had to get to Kelowna airport to pick up LA and start our last week of summer vacation high atop Lake Okanagan with Frank and Hanna and Bowen and Leah.

The 2 hour drive from Kamloops to the airport seemed like it would be easy.