Here I am, at the sight of our last posting.  Pearl’s cafe.  Noel entrusted me with the post for the past two days, the 4th and 5th and has taken Henna down the block for some ice cream…buying me some time.  This out door cafe comes with beautiful mountain views and so so thai food.  I must get on with it though….they’ll be back soon.

The past two days have been our slow down.  We have kept our tent in one spot and have enjoyed doing things with minimal driving.  As noel’s last post explained, we have met the nicest folks ever and are lucky to call them our neighbors.  We have shared many stories and glasses of ginger wine.  We spent yesterday hiking to a breath taking view of the waterton area and canoeing on a lake.  This canoe trip, as Noel joked was successful….mainly for two reasons.  1. we did not tip over and 2. we did not divorce.  This lake was not the biggest lake ever, but being between two mountains it tends to get a harsh wind across it.  Mine and Noel’s experiences together on water  are varied and hysterical, so I always am a little nervous heading out.  We were pushed off from land just as a strong gust of wind settled on the lake…….it took us to the dock as we manically paddled to exit through a very narrow outlet.  Our exit was met by giggling from a young group sitting on the deck.  We did make it, finally, out into the lake.  As we argued about our paddling strokes, and Henna yelled from the middle, we were given the best views ever.  The farthest end of the lake still had snow and ice on it, and every now and then we paddled past mini ice bergs.  Our goal was to not settle on top of the ice and need rescueing.  In the middle of the lake we entered into Montana, USA and there we had our July 4th celebration together.  The rest of our day included a bear on the side of the road, good coversation and a never ending sun.

Today we hiked up to Bertha Lake.  This hike was 8 miles round trip and lasted 5 hours ….but man it was amazing.  Noel and I have done this hike two times before, but with Henna it was so much more remarkabtle.  We take our time on hikes to notice every detail of our surroundings.  This hike took us from the town through a meadow and up countless switch backs through a. partial snow covered trail to Bertha Lake.  Henna was so much fun to watch playing in the snow, thankful that she put forth the effort to get to this site.  It feels good slowing down, taking in every step along the trail, talking about nothing in particular.  The hike down from a trail is always the hardest.  Henna was begging for it to be done and at one point stopped and said she’d go no further.  But we made it, and we are so glad that we did it.  We’ve decided to stay here another night and enjoy the beautiful blue skies for a bit longer.  We are liking the slow down.