Hayley & Shaun in Canada: Lake Louise, AB

24th Dec - 26th Dec 2010

Merry Christmas from Lake Louise!

We are now in Alberta!

We arrived at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise at about 2:30pm on Christmas Eve and we were immediately greeted with that lovely white christmas feeling. There was snow everywhere and christmas decorations covering the whole inside and outside of the hotel and the hotel itself was HUGE! For those who don't know, the Fairmont is a very fancy hotel chain, normally with castle-esque hotels and providing old-fashioned decor and service. We were both very excited to be having a white christmas and especially at such a nice place. It was very christmas themed, with lots of activities going on everywhere. We checked into our room and went and had some lunch at the deli, one of the many food establishments throughout the hotel. We went for a walk around as there were many different parts to the hotel and soon after that it was time for our first activity. The hotel through a "welcome reception" for all guests in one of their lounges providing lots of yummy canapes and drinks. It was lovely and a nice way to spend the start of the evening. We made the most of it and ate enough to last us for dinner haha!

After that it was time to get ready for our next activity. Before we left for Canada we had booked in to "Lake Louise by Moonlight". We met some other people (mostly from australia!) and our guide in the 'guides cabin' at about 7pm and went snowshoeing up and down a mountain close to the hotel, in the dark! Both of us had never been snowshoeing before so it was definitley a great experience! It was better going down than up though! And we all had little head lights on, like we were going into a mine ha ha, But our guide was great and he even gave us his card at the end in case we needed help with jobs once we got to Canmore, so that was nice. It was something really different and fun to do on Christmas Eve. When we returned to the hotel, the staff put on christmas carols in the lobby and they were all singing on the staircase and everyone else could stand around and join in. They even had hot chocolates and egg nogg and it was really nice and festive!

After talking to everyone on Skype (as it was xmas day for all of you!) we went to bed and woke up the next morning ready to celebrate Christmas Day. The hotel had left a christmas stocking on our door with a christmas card, some cake and cookies, a slinky and some playing cards. This was really cute and exciting!

We then went and had a late breakkie in one of the restaurants which was very yummy and then headed outside and watched some people do ice-skating on the lake. Then it was time to go on our sleigh ride. Lucky they had blankets coz it was pretty freezing! We were on a sleigh with two massive horses and about 15 other people, and there were about 4 sleighs all up. It took us all the way to the other end of the lake (that was all frozen) and we got a great view of the hotel from the other side, the mountains and some frozen waterfalls. It was a really lovely thing to do for both of us. After that we had some hot chocolates in the cafe and went for a dip in the hot tub. We then got ready for our christmas buffet dinner that we had pre-booked already as well. We headed to the function room at about 6 and it was a massive room full of buffet tables and beautiful xmas decorations. We ate ourselves stupid as usual and had some festive drinks of course! It was beautiful food and lovely atmosphere. We had a nightcap at the Glacier saloon and went to bed. It may not sound it when its written out like this but we had a lovely relaxing christmas day!

The next day (boxing day) we woke up and packed our bags again and had lunch in the cafe. We then had a quick ice-skate on the lake. Shaun was much better than me! I only lasted a few laps as the ice was obviously real, so much different to ice-skating at home and there was nothing to hang on to!! Bit scary, but cool to think we were skating on a real lake. After that we had booked into to make our own gingerbread house. We headed to yet another function room and we were given the kit with lollies (or candy!) and icing and got to build and decorate it however we wanted! We got to take it with us toom so its been travelling along on our road trip and I haven't let shaun eat it yet!

After we finished that we had to get going to our next destination and we were both very sad to leave such a beautiful magical place. Lake Louise in the winter was truly beautiful and we were very lucky to have such a fantastic christmas. Wish we could do it again, Although at many times throughout the day, we both missed everyone at home and wished we could all be together at christmas time too. We hope you all had a great festive season!

Now on to Jasper!

Love Hayley and Shaun xx
Photos Below