Last weekend Warren & I took our 'babymoon' to Banff (if anyone doesn't know, a babymoon is the last 'romantic' trip you take as a couple before your baby is born). Although, I wouldn't call it a babymoon so much as a 'doggymoon', since it's likely the last trip we take with the dogs in tow for a while.
While we were gone, my awesome Dad & Mark The Plumber started renovating our upstairs bathroom (really, our only bathroom since downstairs is basically a toilet in the middle of a big empty room). They started demo around 8:30am, and this is basically the chaos we left behind as we headed off to the mountains:
And this was the serenity that greeted us at the Juniper Hotel & Bistro:
The Juniper takes 'dog friendly hotel' to a new level. Porter & River had shiny bowls, treats & a nice bed waiting for them too:
When travelling with (our) dogs, the main objective is to drive around and search for nice places to go for walks and possibly have a picnic. Whilst driving about, we came across this scene...if this doesn't say 'Banff National Park', I don't know what does:
Here's the knuckleheads resting up after a great bear-free stroll, with River looking content and pleased with life, as usual, and Porter looking grumpy and unimpressed, as usual:
A couple beauty shots from another walk we took, this time after having a bagged lunch outside at a picnic table:
Anyone who knows Warren, knows he is deathly afraid of bears. We were camping with my family one year, when we were woken up in our tent by a Park Ranger walking by warning everyone there was a mama bear and her cub down by the river. Warren pulled a Swiss army knife out from under his pillow and refused to leave the tent. It's a deep seeded fear.
When the bear appeared, out of the bushes, mere meters in front of us, and started to 'gallop' towards us (or so we assumed), the four of us bolted back up the hill in pure terror. There was probably a 10-15 second moment right then when I truly believed I was going to die. That Warren would die. That our parents would find out on the late night news. That is not a fun feeling. As we ran up the hill we began to debate what to do. Going UP the hill meant running further from the hotel. Running down the hill meant running towards the hotel AND the bear. So ultimately I made the executive decision to run LEFT, through the bushes.
Anyone who knows Warren, knows he is deathly afraid of bears. We were camping with my family one year, when we were woken up in our tent by a Park Ranger walking by warning everyone there was a mama bear and her cub down by the river. Warren pulled a Swiss army knife out from under his pillow and refused to leave the tent. It's a deep seeded fear.
On our last night at the Juniper, we took the dogs for a 20 minute 'pee walk' behind the hotel, before settling in for an evening of room service, a movie and the Survivor Finale.
I took this photo of Warren & Porter a mere minute or less before we encountered a BEAR. I'm really glad it wasn't the last photo of them ever taken, only to be found later by a walker-by who stumbled upon our camera and mangled remains. Okay, maybe I'm being dramatic. But it was scary!
When the bear appeared, out of the bushes, mere meters in front of us, and started to 'gallop' towards us (or so we assumed), the four of us bolted back up the hill in pure terror. There was probably a 10-15 second moment right then when I truly believed I was going to die. That Warren would die. That our parents would find out on the late night news. That is not a fun feeling. As we ran up the hill we began to debate what to do. Going UP the hill meant running further from the hotel. Running down the hill meant running towards the hotel AND the bear. So ultimately I made the executive decision to run LEFT, through the bushes.
We ran through those bushes like we were auditioning for the Bourne Ultimatum. The adrenaline made my pregnancy disappear. 10 minutes earlier I'd been slowly climbing the hill like an elderly woman, and now I was leaping over fallen trees and under thick brush like I was Superwoman. We later learned that bears can run as fast as race horses, and our attempted escape would have likely been in vain, if the bear had in fact been pursuing us. But when we came to the clearing, we saw the bear had kept on his/her merry way, unphased by the encounter.
Warren & I were not unphased, however. We bolted across the clearing, continued down & out of a small ravine, back to the hotel. We arrived in the lobby panting like maniacs.
Warren & Amanda: (Gasping for air) We...saw...a bear!
Young Guy at the lobby desk: Really? Just now? Wow! I've been here for months and haven't seen one yet. I'd sure love to though! Did you get a picture?
Warren: Picture? No way...we were too busy running for our lives!
Young Guy: (laughs).
Hmm. I guess one man's worst nightmare, is another man's dream hike.
In retrospect, we realised that when the bear 'galloped', it was simply it's reaction to being startled by us, and it just wanted to pass us by as quickly as we wanted to run away. But it was the 'what ifs' that freaked us out. What if we had turned back 1 minute sooner? What if River hadn't held us up by taking a poop? We would have come face to face with that bear when it came out of the bushes.
Needless to say, we were rattled. We said 'I love you hon!' to each other a lot that night.
To end off this riveting adventure, here is a photo of my second breakfast-in-bed in a row:
2 comments:
That was an awesome description of your bear encounter. I can only imagine. And this story only serves to reinforce my husband's deep seeded fear of bears.
Glad you found the superwoman power to get the heck outta there!
Look how cute you are first thing in the morning! Looks like you guys had a exciting time!
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