Hello, from Jasper.
Well, the honeymoon so far has been absolutely wonderful. I'm sitting here on the comfortable sofa in our lakefront suite, considering having the room service guys who ride on Bicycles come by and bring me some chips and salsa.
Hey, it's luxury resort. Might as well take advantage. Anyway, it's not like it's free...
Anyway, the drive up yesterday was quite nice. Not much traffic, which was good, and after turning onto the Icefields Parkway, we stopped at the Bow Summit, which is the highest point on the parkway. We hiked up a paved trail to see one of the most spectacular vistas I've ever seen.
Anyway, after that we pretty much drove straight through to Jasper and arrived around 4pm, and checked in. We quicky went to our room which is gorgeous, with a stunning view of the lake. We lounged around for a bit and then decided to go into town for dinner.
We mucked around Jasper for a bit, trying to find a place to eat, when we finally decided on dining at "La Fiesta", a tiny little hole-in-the-wall joint specializing in a Spanish Tapas. We ordered three of the Tapas (aka Appetizers): A Crab Salad w/ Papya and Avocado, Jambalaya Chimichangas, and Crab Quesadillas.
Dear. God. If any time you are in Jasper, please eat at this restaurant. Easily some of the best food of this kind I've had in a long time.
After that, we went back to the hotel and jacuzzied (can you verb Jacuzzi? No matter. I just did, and you understood. Therefore, you can verb Jacuzzi), then crawled into bed, watched a bit of the Fifth Estate (which was airing a remarkably damning documentary on Dick Cheney which made Michael Moore look downright partisan), then drifted off to sleep.
In the morning we ordered breakfast to the room (part of our package), then went off to Maligne Canyon and Athabasca Falls. Maligne Canyon was very impressive, and on the way to Maligne Canyon we headed off a dirt road to a lake in the middle of a forest area which had been burned in a fire a few years back. It was quite interesting, but Steph had an unsettled feeling while we were there so we went back to the car.
Athabasca falls was the same as it was when we were here two years ago, except there were a LOT more Inukshuks at the bottom of the falls down near the lake. We spend about a half hour down there jumping on the rocks, taking pictures, and being silly. We returned to the hotel and room, and then tried to plan out the next stop of our Honeymoon, but failed. (You see, we didn't have any plans for tomorrow night, so we had to figure them out 'on the fly.)
It was time for dinner, though, so we got dressed and went down to the Edith Cavell for dinner. We ordered the Chef's "Tasting Menu", which is a four course meal specially prepared by the chef. This, as well, was included in our package. I had mine with the wine (not included), but for the extra $45 it was absolutely worth it.
The meal was somewhat unusual, starting with Foie Gras in a chocolate sauce. I didn't like it much, but ate it. Steph didn't like it and also wouldn't eat it because of how they over-feed the ducks. I, being a heartless bastard, didn't have such a sympathetic view.
The next course was a Wild Boar & Current Terrine, which was basically a sort of thinly cut really wide sausage, in a few different kinds of sauce. It was quite good and we both enjoyed it.
The next course was Opa Fillet (lightly smoked and served nice and raw), served on some sprouts of some sort and with a consomme sauce, and some unusual mushrooms. I thought it was delicious. Steph didn't mind it.
The main course was stunning - Llama (did you know Llama was edible? I didn't, until now), served with a Curry Ravioli and vegetables. It was one of the best main courses I've ever had in my life. Mmmmm. YUM.
The dessert was a sort of alcoholy-with-ice-cream-cake thing which was really nice. The wines served with each course were wonderful and complemented each meal perfectly.
While we ate, we tried to decide what we were going to do for the next few days of our honeymoon. We narrowed it down to getting the same package at Jasper again for the next two nights (the package has a 2 night minumum), or spending one more night in Jasper and one night at Lake Louise.
On the way out, we asked the server what next week's Chef's Menu was. The waiter we had came by and explained everything to me, including the wine selection he had in mind (as he turned out to be the guy who makes the wine selection, aka, the Sommelier.) The menu looked very good and we felt that we would stay for two more nights.
We went to the front desk and unfortunately, in order to get the package for two more nights, we would have had to move rooms after tonight. We didn't really want to do that, so we booked the room for one more night (tomorrow), and when we went back to the room I booked a night at the Chateau Lake Louise on a breakfast package for the night of the 15th. This will be nice as Steph's never been to Lake Louise and I love it there.
Anyway, that's about it. We'll be back in town on Saturday night.
Ciao.
