What a fabulous day!!!!  Doug and I seem to get started way to late in the day.  We did a “walk” along what they call the Bow River Loop near our camp grounds.  It actually was too warm and we returned to our site and enjoyed a few hours reading.  I hate finishing a good book.  I have done that twice already on this trip, so have decided to read The Century Trilogy by Ken Follett.  Fall of the Giants is the first of three and I only have 29 1/2 hours of reading left.  Yippee!! Doug is reading a couple of books and sometimes he reads to me.  I love it.

Around 4:30 we decided to do the gondola ride in the ski area.  It was so beautiful, you could see the glaciers above Lake Louise that are not visible from the lake.  The ski area is very nice.  Makes me wish I could ski.

The biggest treat of all was Olivia, bear #57.  We saw her below us on the lift and then were treated to watching her forge all around the perimeter of the lift, actually on a trail we had hoped to hike.   Doug got some very good photos of her.  However the “Interpreter” person seemed quite anxious with her bear spray and Walkie Talkie.  There was a similar electrified fence (as at the soft sided camp ground) there that seems to give the visitors (us) a sense of security she didn’t share. She repeated that this bear had gotten very frisky and social and that if she chose to go through the fence she would simply do so.  I was ready to hop on the lift and head towards home.

Side note…We met a young family and asked them where they were headed…..Redding… to participate in Bethel Church.

How lucky does one get….we escaped with our lives and it started to rain just as we exited the lift.  We decided to reward ourselves with dinner out (we see certainly couldn’t BBQ).  We chose a place at The Post Hotel.  WOW.  We were admitted because we had the bottoms of our hiking pants zipped on….no bare legs in this place…..grubby hikers in a fancy French chateau …so we had chateaubriand and a bottle of wine.  Before you start thinking I am really spoiled…we had soup from WallMart for the previous two nights.  What I want to know is, who really lives likes this?  Andy, we celebrated your birthday for you.

The rain is thumping on the roof of the RV as I write.  I feel sorry for all those campers that expected to sit around a bonfire on a balmy summer night and even sorrier for the tent campers. I also wonder what the mosquitoes will be like tomorrow.