Johnston Canyon Hike (Banff).

In the summer while some friends from Amsterdam were visiting we decided we'd show them the beauty of our cold Alberta and take them on a hike to Johnston Canyon. This blog will definitely have more pictures than usual but that is because I want to convince you to visit this hike if you are visiting! It's absolutely gorgeous and very well known. I'm serious when I say it's very well known and that's the main unfortunate thing. It's very busy and people aren't very patient when it comes to taking pictures. I really recommend going on it though not only because it is gorgeous but because it's more of a walk than a hike and you won't be wiped out by the end, but you will be tired enough to treat yourself to some ice cream that they sell at the bottom.

There's also a lodge where you can get the things above^^

The boardwalk you have to go on. (let me note these are all my pictures)

One of the falls

The cave that you walk through to see the waterfall

One of the waterfalls

Top of a waterfall

The squirrels are unbelievably tame, you could almost touch them.

Warped Tour '10.

Warped Tour 2010! I would have loved to have made it in 2009, but I was away so! I decided this year would be the year. Warped tour is a large day where thousands of teens come together and see their favourite bands. Honestly it mostly consists of emo kids, metal kids and indie kids, but it's all fun. We left really early in the morning, around 10 or something. It went from 11am-11pm but to be honest, we only lasted a little more than 3 hours because it must have been at least 30 degrees. The unfortunate thing is that there is no place to cool off. No fans or anything, your stuck out in the heat, becoming hotter with everyone else's body heat, relying on water to keep you hydrated. You're not allowed to bring in bottles or bug spray of any sorts and when you enter, police men with dogs sniff around. The other thing is that there is no re-entry. We would have come back but as soon as you leave you're not allowed in again. (I find that really dumb).

SO moving on.

This ^^ is the band line up. Although you can't see it really closely here are some bands that played.
:: Mayday Parade, Emarosa, Bring me the horizon, Alesana, Attack attack, Automatic loveletter, Breathe Carolina, The casualties (whom were eating at the same restaurant as us one night!), Eyes Set To Kill, In Fear In Faith, Parkway Drive, Pierce The Veil, Riverboat Gamblers (Whom I have seen before at the No Doubt concert I believe), Sum 41, Suicide Silence, We The Kings, Whitechapel, You Me At Six, and NEVERSHOUTNEVER! who was supposed to be there but for some reason either wasn't actually scheduled for Edmonton, or just canceled which is really disappointing because they are one of the main reasons I wanted to go, I love Mr. Drew!

Alesana

Alesana Crowd Surfer

* let me note that there are a bunch of different stages you can go to and that the bands are split up. 

Other than a bunch of bands playing, there is a few skate parks set up and a ridiculous amount of tents set up. There are tents for the bands, and there are tents for things like bracelets and just random merchandise.

A well known campaign to end suicide and depression

<3

Stickers where if you gave them a dollar you could take as many as you could get in a handful. Some people gave him a smoke and that worked too haha.

Now here are a few pictures from warped tour. I met up with a bunch of friends that I haven't seen in forever, some I didn't even know were there! A few we ran into each other.

West Edmonton Mall.

This one may include lots of pictures (and will have a video up later) because really there's more to show then say. The drive from where I'm from to Edmonton is about 3 hours and it's a really boring drive. I don't find Edmonton the nicest place in the world but West Edmonton Mall is always fun. (Whenever it's highlighted like that, it generally means to click it, because it will direct you to their main site). The mall is huge and has almost any store you could desire including American Apparel and Forever 21. It has a skating rink, a water park (a crazy one with tons of water slides and a wave pool at that), and a themed park. You can also get "themed rooms" at this hotel like an "African room", an "Igloo room", a "railway room" and many more. We stayed in the Polynesian room.

Polynesian Room

The Tub in our room.

The only thing that you have to be careful about when staying in these rooms is that there happens to be many hookers that go here, and for some reason people think they can do drugs here. The other thing that me and my family have found is that the rooms are not all necessarily cleaned well (as any hotel). My father once had to actually change hotels because the room stank of dirtiness and febreeze. The least they could do is change the sheets.

So. Moving on now, we didn't make it to the water park this time (although I have been there millions of times, and you can search it on their website as I linked above). The water park is pretty well made. I'm not entirely sure how clean the pool although they use chlorine, so that part freaks me out a bit but it depends what does and does not bother you. You have to pay to get into the water park if you are not staying at the hotel (you get coupons for that and galaxy land if you are) and you have to pay for a locker, and a tube if you plan on getting one. It's all expensive but that's how it is. The water slides are all different levels. IF YOU'RE SCARED OF HEIGHTS you will definitely not like this. You have to climb a ridiculous amount of stairs that are slippery, and you can see through. It's honestly terrifying to climb them. I could hardly do it. The slides are really fun though once you get on. It's a really cool theme and I think that if you've never been to West Edmonton Mall you have to go at least once.

GALAXY LAND! Love this theme park. Although there's not a ridiculous amount of rides, the ones you do go on won't disappoint. The main roller coaster  is huge and if you're afraid of heights (again) I don't think you'll enjoy this one all that much. There are tons of rides though, some of which ridiculously scary. Being someone who's been to Disneyland and other places millions of times, these rides are really hxc. Fun though! There's even a new addition of a 3D ride, which is so much fun. Its located underneath the roller coaster. 

We went on the little kid train for fun ahhaa!

The other kind of cool thing about the hotel is that once all the stores close and they turn off the lights, people staying in the hotel can roam around. They don't close the restaurants till decently late either which is kind of nice. The only thing is that they are trying to clean at night. I think a huge game of Hide and Seek would be so much fun haha.

We sat in the running elevators at night (they are glass) and just relaxed. Haha! There was no one using
 them so why not!

I'm going to post about WARPED TOUR 2010 in another blog as to make it easier to read <3

Vernon, British Columbia.

   

This past summer me and my friend Kaylee made a roadtrip to Vernon, British Columbia.  It's about a 7-8 hour trip there but luckily the drive is beautiful. The only unfortunate part is that there has been an unbelievable amount of construction that may slow you down an hour or two. Anyways. Once you near Vernon, and I'm not exactly sure what town this is in, there is an excellent little flea market that me and my family have stopped at ever since I was little. There's tons and tons of vintage jewellery, records, anything you could want and it's all amazing. It's something that your eyes wont miss if you are traveling from the East. Once I find out what town it is in I'll be sure to post.

The resort we stayed at was The Strand which is by far the best place to stay. I loved it there. The rooms are huge. We had two bedrooms, a kitchen, a balcony, two bathrooms. It was awesome. We also had a fridge that we later went and stocked with all our favorites. I've stayed at this resort twice and it's absolutely amazing. There is a pool, a hot tub, and the lake right behind the hotel. There is also a dock that lights up at night which is really beautiful. Me and Kaylee would go out every night and sit there for hours. You can see the city lights, the stars, and the moonlight on the lake. The only downfall about this is that there are spiders EVERYWHERE. It was really hard for me to accept because of my huge fear, but you get used to it considering the spiders stay inside the lamps on the dock. It's just terrifying because they are really really large.

A look at the hotel from the dock

View from our room, the pool.

The whole week we were sort of lazy, relaxing in the room. We slept, ate and played video games a lot. We also went shopping, went sea-dooing, go-karting, boating, tubing, went to the arcade, kayaking, layed on the beach, and swam. We also went to see Inception while it was in theatres, which is just in town. This movie theatre is totally awesome. I have a past in Vernon though, because me and my family used to attend the french camp BCFFC (or so i believe it's called) and we'd go Earl's for dinner than this movie theatre as a tradition.

Go-karting. I believe this was just outside of Kelowna. Click Here

Kal Beach (one of the more well known beaches)

Boating. It's unbelievably hard to actually rent a boat in Vernon. We have a guy that just rents his to us, because it's so hard to find one. Sea-doos = easy. Boats = near impossible.

Tubing. This was the worst tube of all time. Here's a tip. DO NOT GET A FLAT TUBE. You have no where for your feet to hold onto so your legs fly off, which makes you fly off! worst and most painful tube I have ever been on.


I want to post about this awesome hemp store we went to, but it's not letting me post pictures so i'm just gonna tell you about it. You'll notice this shop in downtown Kelowna because it has a huge hippie van in front of it. Here it smells like Jasmine and I bought wrap skirts, headbands, a hippie bag, feather earrings, rings, money pouches, hemp bracelets. It was my heaven. Definitely go to this shop! I tried to find out what it's called but I just can't remember.


OKAY so, I'll post the videos that I took as soon as I put them all together. I've been meaning to do this but I just haven't gotten to it yet, so wait up for this because it's a mash of some things we did! A vlog :)


Hope you enjoyed! <3

Banff Springs Hotel.

Just recently, me and my mom decided to peace right out of our town, and spend a lovely weekend at the Banff Springs Hotel. Now I'm going to warn you right now, if you're expecting to stay at the castle, you better be expecting to pull out a wad of money and be around (some) snobby, wealthy people.
This place is truly amazing, but since it is so expensive we just stayed over for a night, and in the morning went to the spa and returned home.
Some history about this castle may suggest that it is haunted, and I heard that sometimes when you enter the elevator, you may be greeted by a bellboy who turns out to not truly be there, or a ghost of a bride walking down the stairs (who had tripped and fallen to her death). Who knows?

The Lobby

Then there's Sam, the former bellman, who swore he would come back to haunt the place. Shortly after his death, a mysterious bellman fitting Sam's description and dressed in an old-style uniform, suddenly arrived to rescue two elderly ladies who were locked out of their room.


There've been many famous people to grace the Banff Springs Hotel halls, including the beautiful Marilyn Monroe, when she stayed there to shooting a movie.

Then there was the time in the early 1950s when Marilyn Monroe twisted her ankle while filming River of No Return.

"The bellmen would flip a coin to see who would be the lucky one to push her around in her wheelchair," Moberg says.

There are 770 rooms, 12 eateries, four lounges, a spa, tennis courts and a 27-hole golf course

The Spa Lounge

The mineral pools at the spa.

I definitely recommend staying here if you are traveling from far away. Its worth it considering how breath taking this building is, but it's not crucial to stay here because Banff is gorgeous by itself.

If you go to lunch in the hotel, make sure you order the salad with goat cheese, grapes and nuts. It's the best thing i've ever eaten! 

Enjoy :)

The Traveling Blogger.

My name is Meghan and I'm from a small town in Alberta, Canada. I want to write about places I travel to (because I like to get out of this freezing place as often as I can), post pictures, write about what I did and didn't like, and give you some serious spots to hit.
That's that.

Upcoming Blogs
-My trip to the banff springs hotel
-Vegas in December
-Vancouver, if I can dish up the money.
-Disneyland in February

Myself.