They have been creating bronze sculptures here for 50 years, and they have an impressive list of commissioned art in parks all over North America--and the world. This larger-than-life-size piece is in several parks and even one very large home.
The detail of each piece is remarkable, as we can see each tooth of the zipper on this fisherman's vest.
After seeing finished works in the gallery, we got to tour their working studio. No pictures allowed here, but we saw the first stages of many works in progress. They are first formed in clay, and they had a life-size cowboy on horse back almost ready for the next process. They showed us all the steps necessary to go from clay model to wax figure to bronze on a smaller sculpture of a bear. Amazing!
So we had a very educational lost-wax-bronze-foundry tour in Cochrane this last morning of the girl trip. Next stop is Canmore, Alberta, where we toured a little shop where they make ammolite jewelry. We didn't know what that meant, but after an hour-long tour we know more than we wanted to know about it. The shortened version is that fossilized shells called ammonites are quite common. But only in Alberta, Canada, is there a small site where these fossils were preserved in a layer of minerals that gave them an iridescent rainbow coating.
That film of rainbow color is removed from the fossils in this shop, and then formed into jewelry. This official gem is called ammolite and is quite expensive.
After our morning of touring, we make the drive to the town of Banff. First stop there is the Cave and Basin National Historic Sight. Free with our national park pass, we heard and saw the story of how Banff National Park was started when three railroad workers discovered a hot spring. We saw the healing waters of Sulphur Mountain, and this was the beginning of the national park system of Canada.
The story was presented by volunteer actors like Mark, who became one of the characters in the story of discovering the hot springs.
You have to figure that people on a girl trip are suckers for a flower garden, so next stop was the Cascades of Time Garden in Banff.
We walked the paths through the carefully manicured gardens on this beautiful day in Banff. Denisa's Mother really appreciates the fact that Mark is strong enough to push her up and down the trails we have explored here in the mountains.
The sisters were calling for a romantic pose among the flower gardens, so we tried. Denisa insisted on posting the picture with Mark smiling, instead of the five pictures where he was grimacing.
Since the Cascades Gardens are on a hilltop, we could see the mountains all around us.
From this direction we can see down the main street of Banff, with more mountains in the background.
Mark magically maneuvered into a parallel parking space in the very crowded downtown section of town so we could do a little exploring in town. Just like we had read, parking is always full and the streets are always crowded.
Our mission is to get an afternoon snack at Beaver Tails Pastry shop.
This is another Canadian food on our list to try, so we ordered three different beaver tails to sample. Made from flattened sweet dough that is fried, they can be topped with a myriad of sweet treats. We chose Lemon MMMeringue, brWOWwnie, and Avalanche (cheesecake with chunks of Skor bar). We decided that all three were decadently delicious!
The streets of Banff are lined with beautiful planters of flowers, and there is a mountain view in every direction. It is a beautiful place to visit, if there weren't so many other people that have found this fanciful destination as well.
We did a little shopping, and found that the ammolite jewelry we learned about earlier is everywhere in the shops at Banff. At one rock shop we found this beautiful piece of amethyst crystals that had been cut open to form a matching set of wings. Standing in the middle makes an interesting butterfly picture.
As we left Banff, we made a loop through the mountains for more sight seeing. We had to stop when we saw the pair of red adirondack chairs. The Canadian national park service has placed these in areas with great views, so we had to stop to admire this view of the surrounding mountains.
The wind has picked up and it got cold as we stopped to hike the hoodoo trail. Rain is coming our way down Bow Valley as we snapped a few pictures of one of the white rock formations known as hoodoos down close to Bow River.
The last stop of the day took us off the highway near Canmore. Denisa had read that there are three peaks just south of town known as "The Three Sisters." They can be seen for miles around, and we found The Three Sisters Parkway, and The Three Sisters Lodge, and The Three Sisters Restaurant . . . Since this is a girl trip with three sisters, we wanted a picture together under the three peaks.
After a dinner at the Donair Cafe in Cochrane, and then more ice cream at the famous Mackay's ice cream shop, we took our guests back to their hotel. We all agree that it has been a great girl trip. We've been doing this for most of the last 28 years, and we still enjoy exploring new places together. This year we enjoyed Mark joining us as well, as we all got to wander God's wonders together.
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