Canada
The plains of Alberta are a welcome bit of tranquility in the summer, the highways seem less commerical than American ones, and they definitely seem a bit smaller in scale. Broke up the ~4 hour drive from Edmonton to Jasper National Park with a slight detour to an A&W on the way for a poutine and root beer lunch; while fast food poutine may not technically be good in any aspect, it did hit the spot.
Next major stop was a pair of lakes, Medicine Lake and Maligne Lake. The beautiful blue skies on the drive over gave way to clouds, which were not ideal. The wildlife made up for the landscapes, with a pair of brown bears, an elk, and finally a black bear all hanging out by the side of the road. Spent a good 40 minutes photographing the black bear at the end of the day, punctuated the very last minutes by the bear dropping a deuce and then scratching her/his back on a nearby tree-- Ants got a much better photo of the former than I did. Also watched some idiot tourists get out of their cars trying to take pictures, can only hope none of them got eaten. *shakes head*
Dinner at Fiddle River Restaurant in Jasper was pasable, with the elk being best described as undistinguished, but the smoked seafood chower was pretty tasty. Ants found dessert down the road at BeaverTails, which ended up like an oversized donut with toppings.