Banff:
So I’m at the breathtakingly beautiful Banff Centre today in the mountains of Alberta, Canada. I’m speaking at Annual General Meeting of the Alberta Book Publishers Association which I wanted to come to last year but was in the middle of book touring. I’m glad I could make it this time.
The Banff Centre is an arts and cultural center about 90 minutes north of Calgary. World famous musicians, writers, arts study, teach and present here. I’ve heard it called the Tanglewood of Canada. The hotel on the campus I’m staying at looks from the outside like a college dorm but my room is more comfortable than many 4 star 39 floor monstrosities I’ve stayed at in the past.
And the setting? Daaaaaaayyymmm. Mountains so tall and majestic they look in danger of toppling over. Rod-straight pine trees that remind me of my childhood in Michigan. Today it snowed (the Executive Director of the program told me Canada has two seasons, “July. And winter) cold and heavy. I’m no longer accustomed to winter after 6 years in Northern California. But, ah, the snow weighing down the Aspens, sliding off the hills like a version of the glaciers that carved out this valley. It looks like something Jack London would have dreamed about.
I’m not staying at this hotel but they just don’t make ’em that way anymore.
Did I mention elk? I was warned not to feed the elk because they can be aggressive this time of year.
I gotta come back here.