Marble Canyon, Millie's Lake, etc. with the Zoias

Marble Canyon,  where we are camping has a beautiful hike up through the renewed forest, along the light blue Vermilion River and its gorges and waterfalls.  To celebrate Susan’s 70^th birthday, we did this hike

Another breathtakingly beautiful river

It's a long way down

Difficult to explain the power of all this water

They are all 70!  I'm the baby of the crew.

Loved the juxtaposition of light blue water
and reddish rocks.

Yours truly and beautiful man at the falls

Boo was needing a little shade so sat
right down in the Alberta wild rose.

Almost made my stomach turn over looking down

The birthday girl on one of her favorite hikes

....and then we drove down the way a bit to a beautiful unnamed teal colored lake we had recently seen from the road.  It did not disappoint.  We swam through water lilies to the middle of the lake where we could swim and enjoy a beautiful cloudless day.

Susan takes the first plunge.

Even Jimbo got in.

Is that an amazing color, or what!?!

We named this lake, Millie, after Susan's middle name,
Mildred, which we always thought was hysterical.

The birthday girl

The highlight of the day for me was watching the very slender and beautiful dragon flies mating amongst the lilies.  The males are absolutely gorgeous-an iridescent blue.  Seeing these beautiful creatures on this amazing lake was a real thrill.  Wish I had a picture of them.  I believe they are damsel and dragonflies of some kind.

Another find on the way back home:

Poor baby must need a swim herself

Back “home” for a birthday dinner of chicken fajitas, ice cream and a game of charades.  We laughed until we cried at some of the acting, especially by the men!

Not the most flattering picture of me but gives you an idea
of the hilarity of the evening.

David, already 70

Susan 70 today

And, our chef, preparing to warm the tortillas,
with his assistant looking on.

For our last day in Marble Canyon, we had a delightful day sitting by the river, collecting beautiful rocks and wading.  

My elders

My baby

We went back to Banff, where we got a campsite at Two Jack Campground and they got a room, so that they could take off early the next day for Calgary and their flight home.  We made an appointment to get our tire fixed tomorrow and then had margaritas and Mexican Food at Magpie and Stumpys (the food was just OK, but it was on the shady side of the street).

It was pretty hot so we went to Lake Johnson that afternoon so Susan could get in a last swim (You thought I was weird about hopping in any old water-Susan takes it to a whole other level).  We all actually joined her this time as it was really hot.

Johnson Lake

Wet baby

Boo actually swam the doggy paddle in this lake and went crazy again;  he is just not comfortable with us coming in and out of the water.  Poor Boo, I’m afraid, is a tad neurotic.  We were all too tired to handle a last dinner so all went home, took showers (ours, outside) and went to sleep.

Two Jack campsite