Canada Trip: Day 3- Waterton Lakes National Park

So much for my smoothie

This day we woke up late and grabbed some breakfast at the townsite.  Mason tried a place called Weiners of Waterton and he got a breakfast dog.  He thought it was pretty tasty, but was sold with their special ketchup.  Theo and I ventured next door and had some waffles.  He got a strawberry waffle and I got the Canadian with some delicious maple syrup-you have to in Canada right? We grabbed some Subway sandwiches for lunch and headed on the road.

Our morning adventures took us to Cameron Lake. I was excited when planning this trip that there were so many opportunities to hop in a canoe and paddle around.  I was confident that Theo would be fine.  In swimming lessons he's swum with a life jacket, and they even went in a small boat one day, so I figured in or out of the boat he would do okay.  Woodrow was the wildcard in my mind.  He'd either be crazy or he'd be so scared he would just sit there and grip the sides of the canoe.  I went back and forth on whether to put him in my carrier, so he's contained or let him be.  We decided to forego the carrier. 

 

Luckily it was an overcast morning and there weren't too many people at the lake (as in, we were able to find a parking spot in the lot).  We signed up to rent a canoe and only had to wait about 10 minutes for one to be returned.  Woodrow had been a bit moody (like most of the trip) and I was afraid he'd meltdown when we put on his lifejacket.  The opposite was true.  He was so excited and couldn't wait to get on the canoe.  I sat in front with Theo behind me, while Mason steered from the back with Woodrow in front of him.  The lake was really nice.  The water was so clear you could really see the bottom well, and there was a nice path right along the lake that many people were walking along.

My babies are both definitely water babies.  They love pools, bathtime, and getting wet.  They were great for the first bit of the trip and then Woodrow decided he wanted to be in the water, or at least drag his hand and arms in the body.  This of course made for a shaky canoe and tense parents.  There was of course whining when he was told "no", then he wanted to walk around.  We'd paddle a bit, and then have to stop, and it was becoming a pretty un-fun event.  He wasn't even being that bad, the poor dude would just have liked to swim alongside the canoe.  Yet, probably would have freaked if we had actually tossed him in in his lifejacket (I think we were both thinking of doing that...or maybe it was just me.)  Anyways...Woodrow and I got the boot!

Cameron Lake

I suggested that I'd get out with Woodrow and walk along the lakeside path and that Mason and Theo should continue and take their time exploring.  I think this worked out well for everyone.  Woodrow wanted to be held most of the time after we got off the boat, but we didn't have to rush back to the beachy area.  Mason and Theo had a good time exploring in quiet (or semi-quiet).  Theo definitely enjoyed his moments along doing big kid things on this trip with his Dad.  And we all had our share of being able to handle Woodrow's two year old emotions and needing space.  One thing that became most frustrating to me throughout the trip was that once we'd exit the car, Woodrow immediately felt the need to be carried.  All.the.time.  So that was a tricky balance, because we didn't want to carry him all the time, yet it would cause more whining.  Ugh!

Anyways, but the time Woodrow and I made it back to the beachy area, there were many more people along the shore with various floating devices and were setting up for the day.  The water was actually pretty warm, and I contemplated swimming, but we ended up just dipping our toes in and Woodrow played in very shallow water.  There was a teen boy skipping rocks near us and it was pretty fascinating to us both.  Woodrow liked to kerplunk his own little pebbles.  Theo and Mason made it back and had ended up having a great time.

By this time is was early afternoon so we decided to drive and find a quiet spot for lunch.  We ended up seeing a short trail (we could still see the car) and stopped to eat our sandwiches on a little bridge.  It definitely seemed like the perfect place for a bear to pop out, so I was a little hyper-aware during our meal.  It started to drizzle by the time we were winding down but we still wanted to do a little bit of hiking.  We ended up back at the parking for Cameron Lake and did a short hike to Akimina Lake (minimal elevation, .6 miles round trip).  It was a pretty little hike and great for the kids.  The little lake at the end looked like a place where you'd see moose, but we didn't see any.  On our way back it really started to pour, so we got pretty wet.

Theo took our picture at Akimina Lake

When we got back to the townsite area it had stopped raining so we decided to check out Cameron Falls which is right by the side of the road.  There's a famous picture where it looks like the water is red, but apparently that rarely happens.  There was a ranger near the falls, and she said she's never seen it red like that picture.  Mason and Theo climbed up to the top for a good view and Woodrow and I stayed at the bottom playing with some ground squirrels (they look like fat chipmunks).  Woodrow thought it was so funny that they wanted to run right up to him.  I heard a man talking about how they'd just seen a bear near the visitors center, and so I signaled to Mason that we should go check it out.  Now anytime we've seen a bear in the wild, it disappears within seconds, it's no wonder people ever see them, but I thought we should give it a try, since it was in an open spot and not down some far trail.

WE SAW THE BEAR!  It was a small black bear walking near the side of the road, and like I said before it was there one moment and gone the next.  We did pull over since we had driven past it a bit, and a bunch of cars pulled up behind us, and sure enough all these people got out of their cars and went chasing after it.  There were a lot of moments on this trip-always with the wildlife-where I thought Darwin sure did come up with some theory.

Cameron Falls

That's Bears Hump...ya know...the one we climbed!

you can see the smoky fire in the distance

The Prince of Wales hotel was nearby to where we were, so we decided to stop there since the rain had lightened up.  Theo and I went to check out the view from the Bluff of the Waterton Lakes while Mason headed the opposite direction with Woodrow...he was hoping for another look at the bear.  I can see why people enjoy that hotel, the view is lovely.  And from the bluff we actually saw a forest fire.  We've been affected by the smoke in Minot and were concerned about encountering the fires/smoke on our trip.  Waterton was the only smoky place we were in and the helicopters were going back and forth non-stop all day bringing water to the fires.

We decided to head back to our room for baths at this point since we were all pretty yucky and chilled.  It was nice to take a quick breather and then we walked around to find dinner.  Waterton was VERY expensive to eat.  It was the most expensive out of all the parks we were in.  We found a little place called Zams, but none of us were really impressed.  We tucked the kids in and send Mason out for ice-cream.  :)  It was funny seeing him sneak back in through our balcony so as not to wake the kiddos.  There are so many reasons why I love that man!