Banff - Day 1

I must say I wasn't ecstatic to be in the mountains, I am more a beach girl, so I wasn't sure how I would have fun in Banff. I was sure the scenery would be beautiful but as far as fun things to do, I wasn't sure.
Lorne had a meeting with Oracle in the morning until lunchtime and I was supposed to meet him for lunch at 12:30 PM. I took advantage of not having to get up and slept in, took my time getting ready and watched a bit of TV.
Oracle had a BBQ lunch for everyone and it was on the soccer field in a big tent. The food was pretty good and I found out that Lorne had been on a barbecuing team that morning and we were awaiting the team results. Alas, team We're Fired didn't win in any of the categories but it was obvious that the team building exercise had been a success.We hiked back to our room to decide what activities we wanted to do while we were in Banff. We grabbed some brochures and also noticed that the hotel did a free tour in the afternoon to discuss the history of the place. We decided that would be a good first activity for us. The Banff Springs (our hotel) is an old place full of history and many many celebrities have stayed there and continue to stay there. The guy who gave us our tour has been with the hotel over 30 years and has met tons of celebrities and enjoyed name dropping all the people he has met. You can read all about the Banff Springs Hotel on Wikipedia. I took some nice pictures of some of the beauties the hotel had to offer. Many people choose to get married there and the weekend we were there, they were fully booked out for every ballroom and wedding space in the hotel. I believe there were 5 weddings there that weekend.After the tour, we had a dessert on the outdoor terrace. The weather was so nice, not too hot and had a soft breeze. I had a banana bread pudding and Lorne had the gluten free chocolate dessert, including Mousse and gluten free brownie - Kellen would have loved this!
Oracle had a reception for everyone that night with heavy appetizers and a pasta and dessert bar. The food was delicious and it was nice to meet and chat with some of the people Lorne is always talking about that he works with. They were nice and they seemed to like me too!
We hooked up with a friend of Lorne's, Rick Berger and his wife Marcia, and walked a mile down to the tiny city of Banff to do some shopping and general looking around. I bought a book for Jasmine and just enjoyed being outside in that nice evening.