◆先來個圖片說明：這是我最愛的地方Lake Louise，下了雪，美到令人窒息。






You must go to Banff if you are in Calgary, which is the gateway to Banff. So I rented a car and went with my classmates. After two hours driving, we arrived at Lake Louise. When I saw the color of the lake, it took my breath away. It's so stunningly gorgeous. The lake wasn’t frozen that day. However, we could see snow everywhere, on the trees and the lanes by the lake. There's a little log cabin beside the lake. Looking at it, I suddenly thought I was standing in a postcard. I fell in love with the lake immediately. It's the most beautiful place I've ever seen in my life. We took some pictures and walked around the lake for a while. I felt like sitting by the lake just to look at it and do nothing. I didn't want to leave, but they said we had to move on to the next stop.


On the way back to Banff, we made a short stop at the entrance to Banff downtown. There’s a cute wooden welcome sign by the road. The picture of the cowboy on the board was so realistic we took a picture standing next to him. Driving through the downtown area, we went directly to take the cable car up Sulphur Mountain. It took a while to get the top of the mountain, but it’s definitely worth the trip. The view from the top is unbelievably beautiful. We can see the surrounding snow-capped Rockies. The path for the short walk was covered with snow and had been closed. It wouldn’t’t be opened again until next spring. If we had come here one month earlier, we could have probably seen the goats walking down the path. What a pity! Even though, we still enjoyed the amazing scenery and the outlines of the Rockies on the horizon.

My Japanese classmate, whose name is Isao, wanted to visit Hoodoos. He told us Hoodoos are breathtaking rock formations, created by thousands of years of erosion by wind and ice; that line the valleys of Alberta’s Badlands. We got there by 4 p.m. Unfortunately, it was too late to get closer to see the Hoodoos. We could only stay outside for 2 minutes, because the weather was getting cold.

Even though, we didn’t miss the great Banff Springs Hotel. The lights were on when we got there. The building looked like a castle in a fairy tale and we were the princes and princesses visiting the castle. We pretended we were their customers and wandered on the first and second floors. I even visited the washroom, which I always do when I visit a famous hotel, because the washrooms in five star hotels are always very comfortable and are decorated very well. In the gift shop, I bought some unusual postcards that are water-paintings of Rockies and the hotel. If I ever go there by myself I would like to drink a cup of coffee sitting by the window in the coffee shop and enjoying the extraordinary view.

We were starving so we went back downtown to have a delicious dinner. We ate at Edo, which is a Teriyaki restaurant in the food court. After dinner, we browsed and bought some souvenirs and more postcards in the street. We hated to leave but had to. We must go back to Calgary and catch the last train to go back home before midnight.

On our way home, we played games. Since we were three different nationalities, we tried to learn some of languages from each other and we had a little competition. We learned to speak Korean, Japanese and Mandarin. Also, everyone had to sing a song in his or her own language. I suddenly blanked. I hadn't listened to any Mandarin songs since I had arrived. Finally, the Korean guy suggested, "Why don't you sing your national flower song?" Oh, my goodness! Who wants to sing a national flower song on a trip? It's so weird, but I did it because that was the only song he knew about Taiwan. AND they liked it.

As we were arriving back in Calgary, all of a sudden I saw many brightly shinning stars in the dark blue sky. It was so gorgeous that we couldn't stop looking, so we stopped and got out of the car, just staring for about 20 minutes up into the sky. Nobody spoke. It was a quiet, touching moment, which is very difficult to put down on papers.

Thank you, everyone, for the memorable trip!