Okay, so... This is a week's worth of posts, all rolled into one. Mostly because I'm seriously out of the groove of blogging every day, and this is the best way (for me) to get started again. A lot happened, and I don't really have a clue what I did from day to day. Not much in the creativity realm, but inspiration, adoration, and all in all, a wonderful and joy-filled week.
First of all... I got married! I am now a happy wife to my best friend and favourite person on the planet, my beloved Jeff. Our wedding day was amazing, and everything we could have hoped for. We're so thankful for all of the generosity and help from all of our wonderful friends and family. Everyone made it so special, and it was comfortable and relaxed and just beautiful. The events and everything leading up to the wedding were just insane, but thanks to all of the people that we know, it worked out, and we were able to have one of the best days of our lives. Lots of tea, delicious food, and the best company that we could have asked for.
After the wedding, we had a mix up with our hotel, and got it sorted, and then were finally able to relax and unwind in Banff. It was marvelous, and such a nice break from all of the previous chaos.
We built a fire in our hotel fire place.
We adventured through Banff, including the Cave and Basin National Historic Site (it smelled really bad, but was very fascinating).
We rode a gondola up a mountain, enjoyed the sights and the weather tower built in 1903, ate bison burgers, and then felt really faint from being at a +7000 feet altitude. Afterwards we went to the hot springs and enjoyed the naturally warm water (it was delightful).
We experienced the finest of quality dining. We enjoyed high tea at the Fairmont Banff Springs (including eating cake with edible gold leaf), and we had a fondue and hot rock experience at the Grizzly House. We ate exotic meats including ostrich, bison, venison, shark, alligator, rattlesnake, and frog (my favourite was alligator- seriously delicious).
We did some amateur ghost hunting at the Fairmont. This meant going to the staircase where the bride died (and allegedly haunts) and going to the 8th floor. The Fairmont has numerous hauntings, the most famous of which center around Room 873 and the Staircase where the bride haunts. Until recently, both were closed off. Now room 873 (which does not have a door and for all intents and purposes does not exist) is part of room 875 (which... if it was that haunted because of grizzly murders, you'd think that they wouldn't make it part of another room, because ghosts don't adhere strictly to a room number...). We viewed both places. I had terrible feelings around the staircase the first time we went to it, so we left, and later we returned and the terrible feelings were mostly gone (after the Prince House occurrence at Heritage Park, I'm trusting my intuition more, but still not fully believing... though I become more anxious around allegedly haunted places because I can't tell the difference from if I'm being influenced by legends or if what I'm feeling is real). We went to the 8th floor, and, well, frankly, that was like going through a maze. In two of the shorter hallways, I felt extremely anxious and nervous. We managed to find the elusive missing Room 873, and one person working at the hotel told us about room 846. It was in one hallway with three rooms (one of the hallways where I felt most anxious). There is no room 846. There is room 844, and 848, but in the middle there is a blank wall, sealed over. To make things creepier... It is the only suite in the Fairmont that has shutters on the window. In the photo above you can see that the window beneath the tower is darker, and that is because of the black, slanted, window shutters that cover the glass. Even creepier... No one in the world seems to know about this missing room. No one has written about it on the internet. Is Room 873 simply a red herring to deflect attention away from the room that is truly boarded up and hidden away? Eerie... Make eerier by the hotel staff member who was in the hall when we were trying to find 846, and he said (in a very ominous way) "Room 846? No... we don't have a room 846."
We saw the infamous and mysterious Merman, who resides at the Indian Trading Post (one of my favourite places ever... So many furs and tails and such glorious taxidermy).
And taxidermy. Lots and lots and a buncha buncha cruncha taxidermy. Banff is one of my new favourite places, strictly because of the amount of fur and taxidermy everywhere. I just like the combination of dead things and mountains. I found so many wonderful crystals, and I found a beautiful coyote pelt. I didn't believe my friend when he told me, but coyote is actually softer than fox. The tails are more matted and coarser, but the main fur is so soft. I might be condemned for liking fur so much, but it's truly a totem thing, and a desire to be immersed in the spirit. Hard to explain. I have weird credos.
After Banff, we took part in the SC Entertainment 30th Anniversary Festival. I attempted to play one song...
But, naturally, I got too nervous because I haven't really played for a while, so I forgot all of the lyrics to the second half of my song. Embuhrrassing. The festival was really fun, though. I like the SC Entertainment folk. They're some of the most interesting and talented people I know, and it was fun to hang out in a basement, watching movies and listening to bands.
Oh, and Wendel had a blast.
Now I will formally introduce Wendel. He is Wendel the Skeleton, our backseat companion. He has a Facebook page, which tells of his adventures and his skeleton-related puns.
Say 'Hello!' to Wendel!
Now we are settling into our new place, organizing and buying things to continue organizing. We got pretty much every single box unpacked in two days! It actually looks like we have a living room now! Instead of the weird labyrinth-like four-foot wall of boxes that we had going on that took up the majority of our living space. Everything is coming up Jeff and Emmelia!
Now I will be able to go back to my usual routine of daily blogs. Back to schedule!
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