[r] Canada Story(1): From here it had a start

It was a late July afternoon in Chicago. Looking out of my office window on 13th floor, everything looked so nice -- yachts scattering Michigan Lake, sea gulls flying around, future lawyers, business men and doctors walking in and out Northwestern courtyard -- a typical and wonderful summer scene along lake shore. Yet my mind was not there right then. I was planning to visit Wei, one of my old friend, who was graduating from UBC and then busily preparing her thesis.

With a nice beep Wei logged on MSN.

- "How are you, Wei?"
- "Pretty good, almost done with it. So how are you?"
- "Can't be better. I earn a paid vacation for 10 days. We will be having happy hours in Vancouver."
- "Well, you said before let me handle all the itinerary for you. I made a little change and am sure it will be better -- you will see -- instead of wondering around Vancouver, let's go Banff."
- ......

So all was decided in five minutes. No 'why's and no 'how's, as I knew Wei was a professional traveler and trip planner. O.K., then I knew the destination was Banff. A place I did heard of on Backpacker magazine, but only limited to the one-page story written by a Eiffel Peak[*] hiker. This time I was going to explore it myself. I started to imagine all the wildness, snow mountains and glaciers. Two weeks later when I came back, I found all my dreams about this Canadian National Park came true, and even better.

[*] a 10,120 feet ice mountain peak in Banff National Park, Alberta.