The FIRST Gulick Trip - Alberta, Banff, and Lake Louise
Disclaimer: I’m writing this years later so details are fuzzy and pictures are limited!
Just a few short months into dating, Curtis took a huge step in our relationship. No, he didn’t update his dating status on MySpace (aging ourselves here) but instead, asked me if I would join him on a trip to Alberta, Canada to visit some friends and explore a new country.
“So, I don’t have a passport and I’ve never left the country.”
Cue cars screeching to a halt, music stopping abruptly, and movie-level crowd stares.
I won’t say it was a dealbreaker that I got a passport to keep this relationship going, but it wasn’t not one either. At the time, one simply needed to show proof that you had applied for a passport as wait times were around 6 months. I got a copy of my birth certificate and sent it off for a document that, at the time, seemed so exotic and scary to get. I mean, would the government need me to save the world now or would I be more likely to be selected for jury duty? The verdict was still out on the necessity of a passport for me.
Just a month later, I was boarding a plane for a new country. (We didn’t plan like we did today and we paid cash and sat in coach. I love how the tables have since turned) I had bought travel books, researched at the library, and felt ready to conquer one of the most gorgeous destinations I had ever visited. The world was different then ya’ll. This was pre-Instagram, pre-Air BnB, pre-any site that helps streamline travel. I had Fodors and excitement and that was all I needed.
The flight was super fun and I remember it vividly. Not because it was long or because we were in a fully-enclosed suite. It was “super fun” in a highly sarcastic way as I passed a kidney stone on board. I blame nerves but it may had also been to the way I ate and drank in my early 20s. (shout out to Tostinos pizzas for getting me through those early years) I told Curtis I was nervous peeing and didn’t confess the truth until after we were married. #love
We arrived to Calgary, the capital of the Alberta province, checked into a hotel for a night and started exploring. Immediately I felt at home. Everyone was wearing cowboy hats, fringe, and boots! So far, the world looked like Texas to me.
Without realizing it, we visited Calgary during the Calgary Stampede - the largest rodeo in Canada and one of the largest in the world! The best part? Curtis had never been to a rodeo and I grew up with family members who participating in rodeos so I got to teach him a few things on my first trip out of the US. More on that later.
We explored the city by foot and went to the top of the Calgary Tower, which was a lot of fun, from what I remember and from the cheesy grin on my face. One of my most vivid memories was dinner that night. We ate chicken wings (20s…I swear we’ve never been skinnier and never unhealthier) and chatted until 11:30pm….and it was broad daylight. Literally, until this moment, I never thought about how much longer the sun is up as you go further north in the summer. It was crazy and thank goodness the hotel had blackout curtains because it only went down for a few hours. That moment stuck with me, one, because I was that ignorant, and two, because it opened my eyes to what’s normal outside of my normal. It’s a lesson everyone should learn. Your normal will never be normal in another country - that’s what makes travel so enticing for so many of us. Embracing other normals.
The next day, I put on a cute outfit and we headed into the mountains. (It’s July so I brought Texas July clothes and had to promptly buy a jacket for Canada July) I wasn’t prepared for what I saw. The mountains are huge and they just got bigger and bigger as we drove along Highway 1 from Calgary. We stopped at the Fairmont Hotel in Banff for photos and to ooh and ahhh that people could afford to stay there, and I must have asked to pull over around Banff at least 100 times. Curtis happily obliged as it gave him an opportunity to take pics as well. We just meshed well as we drove - a tough thing to master and a tougher thing to keep up as you get more comfortable telling your partner that they’re wrong. :)
Our final stop was Lake Louis, one of the most famous stops in all of Canada. The water is turquoise from glacier melt and the view from the cafe we couldn’t afford was stunning. Tour bus after tour bus stopped to snap pics and it was nice we had our own car and own time to soak in the beauty around it. Again, we synced when it came to our styles of exploring. We were learning so much about each other without realizing it in those moments.
After our whirlwind day in the mountains, we headed to a friend of Curtis’ house and stayed with them overnight. They were gracious hosts! We sat outside in the freezing cold around a fire pit (his wife loaned me a warm jacket and thought it was hilarious I didn’t know it got down into the 40s in July there) and shared stories with each other until the sun went down around midnight.
The next day, our final day, we decided to visit the Calgary Stampede. I spent hours explaining the disciplines and which ones my family had done. We watched bull riding and barrel racing and even got a chance to see some of the horses up close in the stables. I wanted them to roam free and I felt pain for the rodeo bulls and various animals - feelings that would one day lead me to start this site and blog.
It was a fascinating, comforting, and perfect first trip outside of the US and gave Curtis and I the opportunity to set travel as a priority in our relationship from the beginning. We boarded a plane together and haven’t looked back. :)
-Frances-