Honeymooning in Jasper

We had a wonderful honeymoon despite the queen size bed that left us fighting for covers and me getting cranked in the head. Which, by the way, happened again the other night. Except this time I woke up to Geoff rubbing my back and then pulling me over to cuddle. I thought that he just wanted to cuddle (at 3am) but I found out later that he had elbowed me in the back and felt bad about it. You think that this wouldn't happen considering how large our bed is but oh well. C'est la vie!

Back to the honeymoon. Jasper Park Lodge was amazing. In our cabin like room with a deck and a wonderful view of the lake and mountains they took really good care of us. Our room was always clean when we got back, they put our toothbrushes in the face cloth holder that they made, and the tv guy came at 10pm to fix our tv, even though we didn't use the pay movie thing because it was ridiculously over priced!! At the lodge they gave us flip flops to wear in the pool area, towels, lockers, everything we need to clean up afterwards including shaving cream and razors for the guys and razors for the women if needed. They had a machine that would shake all of the water out of the bathing suit so that it would be dry before leaving. The outdoor pool was heated and at night the steam would rise up off the water as we enjoyed the mountain view and the star filled sky. How romantic. The main lodge had a fireplace with a man playing the piano. We sat up there for an evening enjoying being waited on hand and foot. We had fun going everywhere in our pj's!!

Well those were our nights but what did we do during the day? SNOWBOARDING!! Who would have guessed that I would go snowboarding on my honeymoon? High risk of bodily injuries, mountain heights, and risk of avalanches. But I had a great time. The first day I snowboarded for about 3 hours and felt pretty comfortable. Comfortable enough for Geoff to convince me to go to a higher point on the mountain. After walking for 15 minutes to get to the lift that would bring me higher because it was too flat for me to get any speed snowboarding after the steep slope that I went down on my butt because I was too scared to go any faster, I made it to the top of the mountain. By that time, I was exhausted and my boots had loosened up and well it was hard to keep control while my calves and ankles were burning in pain and to top it all off, the runs were closing. What a blessing in disguise. The ski guy who told us the runs were closing called the ski-doo guy and gave me a ride to our car while Geoff enjoyed a leisurely snowboard down the mountain with no one in his way.

The second day it started to snow which made it very interesting for me. With more snow on the mountain I had to lift my edges higher so as not to wipe out. I forgot to mention that the day before I caught an edge and landed hard on my back as I slid bumping down the hill. Best wipe out of the day!! Anyway, so I'm on my bum for a bit again as the slope is too steep. Then I snow board down and wow are my legs tired. With all of the fresh powder I told Geoff that I would be more than happy to sit at the chateau while he went on the runs that he enjoys. He's such a great guy having spent the entire time the day before with me going down all of the green runs. So I sat outside on a bench at the chateau and soaked up the sun while I watched Geoff on a double black diamond jump off of a cliff and dodge trees as he snowboarded back down. Talk about extreme snowboarding!! I sat the rest of the afternoon while Geoff enjoyed the hard runs.

The third day brings 23cm of fresh snow!! and us up at 730am so that we (Geoff) can be the first ones on the mountain. We have a brilliant idea, I am going to rent skis and what a relief that is. Don't get me wrong, I love snowboarding. I'm just not very good at it. But with my skis, look at me go, swosh, swosh on the fresh powder, side to side, it's great. Didn't fall once, more control, less pain, always looking down hill, fantastic. Geoff does all of the extreme runs again and it's a great day.

The fourth day we go for a nature hike along the river where Geoff happens to mention that this is bear country and as I try to convince him that we should leave, he says that he's just joking. Ha Ha. Later I find out that there really are bears there and well, that's not good. We head off for our home reminiscing about our wonderful honeymoon all the way.