8 Days, 3 Photographers, 1 Canada Trip
This blog post is a little different than my others, and for a good reason. In light of the current state of the world, I wanted to really tell the story of my first international trip of the new year to reminisce about travel and express how lucky I was to be able to have this experience. It all started last fall, when my dear friend Chloe called me and asked if I wanted to join her and one other gal (Crystal, whom I had never met) on a vacation to Canada. I’m not the type to say no to traveling so a month later, I booked my plane ticket.
Fast forward to March 2nd - Crystal and Chloe landed in Calgary about two hours before me, so once I was through customs, they picked me up at the airport and we headed off towards the mountains. For the first five days, we stayed in a precious ski lodge right by Lake Louise that looked to be a hundred years old and the pipes definitely creaked as though that were true. The wifi was awful, but we didn’t care. The whole area was like Narnia. We woke up before the sun the next morning, and set off on our first hike. The plan was to make our way up to a viewpoint called the Bird’s Nest above Lake Louise, but the snow was so deep and fresh that we didn’t quite get that far. Regardless, we ended up trekking around the lake, taking in the surreal views in every direction. The images don’t do it justice. After a few hours, a thousand photos and one startling fresh bear print, we headed back to the hotel for lunch. We spent the evening doing a shorter, more reasonable hike up to a couple alpine lakes outside of Canmore, again basking in the mountain views.
The rest of the week was spent meeting with some amazing couples all over Alberta. Our first couple, Krystal and Mike, are also photographers and they agreed to show us some unreal photo spots; they took us to rivers, a frozen waterfall, through a little forest, AND an epic mountain viewpoint. Afterwards we got dinner and beers with them at a cute little brewery. It was a total blast. Our second couple, Jenna and Jon, drove a couple hours just to come see us! They brought us to another breathtaking location to shoot some bridal-style photos. They were so playful and energetic, down to try any pose we threw their way. The last few days of our trip were spent in Calgary proper, so the third couple we got to work with was Meg and Luke, who are getting married in Costa Rica in the fall! Meg had an extra wedding dress, so we set up an urban photoshoot in an adorable restaurant/bar and then we made sure to get some photos of the cityscape itself, along with the famous Peace Bridge.
In between our photoshoots, we did several other small hikes, ate tons of yummy food, and explored the town of Banff and the city of Calgary. Overall, we had such a fantastic time. When we all had to go our separate ways, it was hard to go back to reality. I’m so thankful we were able to have a long week full of creativity, nature, great conversation, laughter, and libations. We met so many rad people and made so many connections. After coming home and facing the effects of the global pandemic immediately after, I’m extra grateful to have had the most epic Canadian vacation to look back on. So thank you, Chloe Grubbs, for randomly inviting me on the trip of a lifetime.
