A Waterton Sabbath

We spent Sunday in Waterton Lakes. Unlike Glacier, inside the park boundaries of Waterton Lakes there is a little townsite with shops and houses and even churches. I discovered that our Church even has a little chapel in Waterton Lakes, and a congregation that meets during the summer only. That was one of the reasons we worked it out to be in Waterton on Sunday--it made it easy to attend church and still have time to take in some nice scenery.

So in the morning, we got up and ate our "self-catered" breakfast from the B&B, then drove down the dusty dirt road to the highway and then down the highway to Waterton townsite. Our B&B was about 30 minutes north of Waterton. I *tried* to get us lodging right in the townsite, but everything was either booked up or else cost $300 a night! The place we stayed was actually pretty pricey too, but not *that* bad. It was a fantastic place, out in the middle of nowhere. It was this big, fancy, spacious cabin with a kitchenette and living room. And a wood-fired hot tub, which we LOVED. The cabin was in the midst of rolling prairie land, overlooking a river below (with the mountains in the background). No cell phone reception, no internet access--just sitting under the stars relaxing in a silent hot tub with the river babbling below you...Ahhhhhhh.....

Anyways, I digress. Where was I? Oh yes--we went to church. We went expecting a tiny little Branch, but the place was packed! I guess they have a lot of tourists and summer employees that attend throughout tourist season. I was surprised to find that they only had Sacrament Meeting and Sunday School, though--so church was only 2 hours instead of 3.

After church we had a picnic lunch and then drove over to check out the "Prince of Wales" hotel (remember that $300 a night price tag I was talking about earlier?) We sat in the lobby and enjoyed their live piano music as we looked out across the lake. We could see a bunch of people having the $30 "High Tea" service, with lots of fancy pants pastries and stuff. We chilled for a while in the lobby and enjoyed the same views but minus the pastries.

Next we drove to a place called Cameron Lake. Kevin skipped a few rocks, and we walked around the lake shore. Cameron Lake was really lovely--and you don't even have to hike to it. Big payoff with little work! :) We also did a short walk through the woods to a smaller, less impressive lake called Akamina.

We drove along a roadway in the park just for a nice scenic drive and saw our first bears--a momma and two cubs. They were walking along the road. Being that our car top was down, Kevin didn't want to get too close, so our picture looks mostly like brown blobs. But they are bears, I promise!

We took a drive through the "bison paddock" too, but they were all hiding in a grove of trees and we could barely see them. AND I forgot to bring my binoculars--dang! I was sad.

We were about ready for dinner by this time, so we headed back to the B&B. We had bought stuff the day before to cook on the outdoor grill for dinner, which we did with much success...EXCEPT for the part where we melted the grill brush that was sitting on the upper rack! Oops! Kevin worked reeeally hard to get the plastic all off of the grill so that it wouldn't be ruined, but there was no hope for the brush itself. The owner was really nice about it, though. I think it helped that the occupants of the other cabin had just broken a whole coffee table, and the grill brush paled in comparison.

Grill brush snaffu nothwithstanding, it was a really nice Sabbath--relaxing, inspiring, and all-around pretty perfect.