I decided that Canmore – where we went next and where we stayed overnight, deserves a separate blog post on its own. We had heard lots of people recommend Canmore as a nice alternative to Banff, but we did not expect to fall in love with Canmore. It is smaller than Banff and has this small artsy town feeling in addition to being a ski and other types of outdoor sports centre.

Walking by the creek in Canmore

We went first to check into our hotel – Windtower Lodge and suites. Will recommend for stay even though the standard room was quite small, but it was nice and clean and had a cosy feeling. The staff was very nice and breakfast was included.

On our tour of Canmore we learned that it was established a little later than Banff as a miners town and mining went on well into the 20th century. We came across also the original Canmore hotel and pub where we had a beer and imagined how the miners came from their long day and sat there and had a beer, probably got up to no good after a few. The interior was quite old and you could feel the time that had passed when sitting there.

We came across a few more lovely houses and pearls from the past that made us both smile with pleasure – just these kind of places where you can see the history that has flown by.

Canmore hotel and pub

We were recommended by the hotel staff and also the Canmore pub locals to go to Patrino’s if we wanted good steak. People were not too precise with directions, so we walked a bit around and asked for directions before we arrived. It seemed that everyone had thought of having steak that Sunday night, since Patrino’s was full and people were still waiting in line on the restaurant side. Fortunately they also have a pub that serves the same menu as restaurant, so we seated ourselves by the counter and immersed ourselves in the choices presented. They really did steak – it was all kind of different cuts and meats that they offered. My husband ordered a Ladies’ cut of Prime Rib (it was still superhuge – they must have ladies with a good appetite there), I ordered Filet Mignon. It took some time, since the waiting staff was clearly overstretched with the amount of people that were in the restaurant and pub. Our bartender had been working as there probably for quite a bit, since she got everything right in the order and managed to check a few times for us where our order was in between making the drinks for other waiters and serving a few tables in addition to us. I was admiring her ability to focus and get things done smoothly while keeping a good humour and having a bit of a chit-chat with us.

The steaks were wonderful! Mine was done with a bit of bacon wrapped around that gave it a special flavour and made sure that the meat was very tender. It truly was a treat. We had a bottle of Jackson-Triggs Merlot with it and were thankful that we had decided to take the walk to find this place.

The bartender told us that February was actually Canmore’s slowest month and it must have just been because of Family Day on Monday that it was so full of people on a Sunday night.

We are definitely going back to Canmore – they also have the Nordic Ski centre for cross-country skiing that was renovated in 2005, so as soon as our skis have arrived, we’ll plan a trip back.

Now a shop in Canmore