Going through my Mom’s papers, I found this travelogue from a trip that she and my Dad took in 1987.

9/12/87 – First day – Montreal Canada. Tommy drove us to plane – uneventful trip – cloudy then rainy. Fancy hotel – Sheraton Centre in Montreal – went to a French mass – long – all in French in beautiful cathedral.

9/13/87 – Took cab to railroad station because of pouring rain. Got in train – Tom hated porter – not much to see except rain.

9/14/87 – Beautiful ride in morning all along coast of Lake Superior – afternoon lots + lots of trees to see – weather improving. Stopped at Winnipeg – disappointed at size of station.

9/15/87 – Beautiful ride today. Saw the sun rise over the Plains in the morning – beautiful farmland – then grain elevators. Finally got in to Calgary – beautiful city with huge train station – converted more money and finally got postage stamps. Next came the mountains – more beautiful all the time.

Ended up at Banff Springs Hotel – looked like a fairytale castle. Gigantic place in gorgeous setting. Walked down to Banff in evening after eating at café in hotel. Watched Canadian Country/Western award show.

9/16/87 – Took general tour around Banff today. Went up on Sulphur Mountain Gondola – beautiful weather – unbelievable scenery. Took a little walk on top of mountain – saw a mountain goat. Ate supper at Phil’s Pancake House.

9/17/87 – Gorgeous day! Drove from Banff to Jasper – went on Columbia icefield – threw snowball at Tom – slipped around on ice – magnificent scenery all along the ride surrounded by mountains, glaciers and here and there an elk* or mountain goat.

*bull elk surrounded by his harem!

Ended up at Chateau Jaspar. Ate supper at Italian/Greek restaurant sharing table with Mary Frances and Dutch from Austin Texas.

9/18/87 – Took ride in boat on Lake Maligne. Another beautiful day – Tom and I rode outside on back of boat to really appreciate the scenery. Just us, a Nipponese girl and the man Tom calls “the talker” or “the jogger.” He’s accompanied by his 90 year old father-in-law and 86 year old mother-in-law. Tom calls father-in-law “Sparky.” He ended up in our room on train – sat on Tom’s bunk and had to be taken back to his room! There are an interesting group of people here. A two-couple plus 1 extra from Virginia – the extra one’s name is Ann Wales – very interesting – has traveled a lot. Also a couple from Cape Cod and one from Maine. Plus others I don’t know where from! Tommy called tonight – he is starting new job at radio station in A.C.

9/19/87 – Arrived at the Pinnacle of our trip: Chateau Lake Louise. We have a large bedroom with attached sitting room looking right smack out on Lake Louise – it is too magnificent to describe! We walked along the waters edge tonight – so peaceful and quiet. I had to buy a disposable camera today as something happened to my camera yesterday + I couldn’t take any pictures of Lake Maligne.