Another Banff adventure and moving house

In Banff out the front of Whyte Museum

We have less than a month to go until the season finishes here at Panorama. Aaron and I moved into some private accommodation (Toby Creek Lodge) in the lower village on March 1st. We are living with two other girls, Cat and Harlee, but its a lot better than 8 people in our previous accomodation. We also have a lounge room now and our own bathroom so thats good.

Its heading into Spring now so all the ice/snow is melting and falling off rooms (sometimes hitting people in the head which is scary. Everyones ok though) The sun is out all the time and its nice and warm, ranging from -4 to 5 degrees during the day. The layers are starting to come off and they say it is nearly 'Tshirt weather' for snowboarding.

Eagle view of Banff

Aaron and I went to Lake Louise Ski Resort on Wednesday and snowboarded there for the day. It was fun but wasnt the best day. It was snowing so the sun wasnt out and you couldnt see anything up the top of the mountain because it was like a blizzard up there. So we just stayed in the lower parts of the mountain and had a good time.

We stayed in Baff overnight and spent Thursday doing touristy things like catching the Banff Gondola ($29.95 each.. ouch) it was fun and I took lots of photos to make up for the price! It was an 8min ride and it took you to the top of Sulphur Mountain where you could buy souvenirs, have lunch and walk around the mountain.I have put some photos up of the gorgeous views.

The views from the top

We came back only to celebrate St Pattys Day! Which was a great night. Everyone was very merry having started drinking at 10am. They even had green beer at the Tbar!

Our stay in America has changed as we would have been overstaying our 90 day visa. So we are now coming back to Panorama to work for the Summer which I am really excited about. I really wanted to see the place transform. Our managers are both more than happy to have us back in the Summer. We are hoping to rent a place down in Invermere this time round so it will be a different experience. I am also looking at getting a job in Invermere waitressing as Wildfire is only open at night times during the Summer. We will keep you posted..

Other than that not much else has been going on besides the countdown for our roadtrip.. Talk soon!

Aaron and I with our green beer

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Well it has been a very busy week at Panorama with the occupancy level nearing 100%. I have had A LOT more shifts this week. I have done 40hours in the last 4 days with most of them being split shifts although I didnt get to go home on Friday and did a 12.5hr day! My feet were so sore! I have a serving shift tonight so hopefully I make some tips! I had my second serving shift on Wednesday and made $150 in tips!! Its pretty fun. It is like opening a present because you dont know what you will get. I have had one regular, Darren with his two sons come in and ask for me to serve them. He tips WAY too much but thats ok with me =) He leaves today and all up he tipped me close to $300 while he was here. What a nice guy! Aaron and I are using my tips to buy our groceries and then trying to save what we earn. Not that that is much as I only got $90 last pay but that is because I worked little hours. This pay should be better =)

Most the guests will be leaving today so I only have three shifts next week. Two are serving shifts though so hopefully the tips make up for the hours I wont be working..

Aaron and I both worked on Christmas and New Years so we didn't really see much of each other. We celebrated on our day off and went to Carricks for dinner which is the restaurant and Greywolf Golf Course on the mountain. It was so good. It is an Italian restaurant and we had mussels to start and Aaron finally got a chicken parmy while I had some salmon. Yummo!



My first Christmas turkey!

 We have been looking into buying a car so that we can see a bit more of Canada on our days off. We have looked at one car, a Honda CR-V, however it was registered in Ontario so it was a painful process to get it registered in BC so we decided to avoid that road and try find a BC registered vehicle. A guy I work with is selling his Ford Taurus so Aaron and I are going to check it out on Tuesday when we have a day off together. Fingers crossed its good! Aaron and I want to go check out a nearby town, Cranbrook. The bus only runs on Monday and Friday there and Aaron doesnt have those days off so we will never get there without a car. We are also getting the car to use after our Canada adventure to head into our American adventure! Very excited!

We haven't had a chance to go snowboarding again but next week when everything is more quiet we are going to go have a lesson. Most likely on Wednesday as we both have that day off.

Will let you know how it goes!!

The photo I have put up is while I was on the bridge heading to Adventure Centre Carpark. Toby Creek is frozen over now! Oh and it is getting cold again! It was around -4C for a couple weeks but we have just started to plunge into the -20C. It is only supposed to hang around for a week so I hope the week goes fast!

The other picture is of me cutting up my AMAZING turkey that I made for a girly Christmas dinner that we had. It was a massive feast with lots of yummy foods. We went overboard with decorations and we had bon bons too! Yay!