Tuesday, Day 3 2013 Vacation Funtimes

This morning we awoke a bit more refreshed after having set up our fan to circulate the air, our room was a bit more comfortable. No central air here but I'm sure we'll survive. After breakfast, we decided to go to Minnewanka Lake for a boat tour. It was fantastic. We saved Connor's entry from a coupon in the Student Union Ticket Pack and Norm and Sophie saved from their AMA membership. The boat is enclosed and Paul our guide, was entertaining and informative. We were not aware that during the heavy rains in June that Lake Minnewanka rose 15 ft and they had to open the spillway which carved new routes of the river that normally flowed from there. There is still lots of debris that had washed off the mountains. We also learned that "controlled burn" forest fires are no more, they are "prescribed burns" whereby a shopping list of criteria must be met such as weather patterns/forecasts, relative humidity, etc before a fire will be set. They learned from a 1 km controlled burn that got out of control at Minnewaka back in the 80's. It burned so hot it sterilized the soil and now it is finally recovering and growing vegetation again. After the boat tour, we returned to the condo for lunch then for a drive out to the Spiral Tunnels and Lake Louise. Didn't get to see any trains in the Spiral Tunnels, a bit disappointing but Tim ran in to a former co-worker and had a nice chat. We returned for supper and Tim, Connor and I went downtown for more treats while mom and dad chillaxed at the Condo. Busy day but now we feel like we are on vacation!