On August 19th, I embarked on a road trip with my dad and boyfriend from Vancouver to Calgary!

I (and the boyfriend) took Friday off, so we managed to set off on the Thursday right after work!

We started off pretty well, and made a stop at Langley for Arby’s. I haven’t had Arby’s in maybe 17+ years?! The loaded curly fries were great with sour cream, and I honestly liked the roast beef sandwich. After this stop, my dad drove for about 3 hours till we got to Merritt for a gas up. After which I then drove for about 2 hours and got us to Salmon Arm.

We stayed at a motel for the night a little past Salmon Arm. It was called Motel Happy Salmon and it was owned by a Korean couple! Super clean rooms and each room had its own wifi router which was great. We checked in at around 8:30pm, and then grabbed a quick dinner at Wendy’s in Salmon Arm.

The next morning, we woke up at 6:45 AM and made it out to our car by 7:30 to start our drive once again. This time to Lake Louise! This was a 3 and a half hour drive.

We first went to the Lake Louise Station Restaurant to grab our first bite of the day. It was 12 PM when we got there since we had finally crossed over to Alberta and they’re one hour ahead of BC. The boyfriend got a bison burger, my dad got a chicken burger, and I had an avocado sourdough sandwich. There was a super cute gopher that circled around everyone eating!! It was never rude though, but would cutely look out for anyone who might have dropped a morsel.

After lunch, we then drove up to Lake Louise. The parking was insane. My dad dropped us off and he went to circle around — he’d been already a few years earlier with his sister. The lake is insanely blue. Amazing.

I had looked at the cost of staying at the Fairmont there. For $600-700 a night, I really couldn’t justify it. Their afternoon tea is as also pricey, but I was interested. Unfortunately, reservations for it were not open to non-guests at their hotel.

After Lake Louise, we spent an hour in Banff. It reminded me a lot of Whistler! They even had a Cows ice cream. Cows has my favourite ice cream flavour in the world: PEI blueberry.

I also ended up getting a drink from MILK TEA @ BANFF. I was honestly super surprised there were dedicated bubble tea shops at Banff!

Following Banff, we finally headed to Calgary! We arrived at our hotel (stayed at the Royal Calgary Hotel) and checked in at around 6 PM. By the time we headed back out to see Chinatown and settle down to eat, it was almost 8.

The Chinatown itself isn’t huge but it’s bigger than Montreal’s. My dad went around and we took pictures with and of him. Many years ago he’d been in Calgary’s Chinatown and he remembered the Chinese Cultural Center vividly. I was about 4 years old the last time we visited, so I have next to no memories of this place. Hoping the pics we took of him matches his older ones so it might make for a fun side by side comparison!

We ate at Calgary Court Restaurant, which served up pretty traditional HK cafe stuff. I highly recommend it!! The portions are huge and so good.

Leaving the car in Chinatown after dinner, we ended up walking towards downtown Calgary for dessert. It was roughly a 20 minutes walk there, and then a 20 minutes walk back. We tried a croffle and Korean shaved ice at Snowcapz Cafe, and then went next door to Thé Moon for a watermelon yakult drink! It was a nice walk though downtown, and welcomed after we stuffed our faces at the HK cafe!

Next blog post: Heritage Park and other random Calgary adventures!