Last week was V's birthday and we decided to do something really special for her, so we took her on a surprise outing to Banff.

• We almost died on the way out. After we caught up to them in the left lane I went into the right lane to pass and the minivan pulled into my lane without shoulder checking. I noticed she was a little bit close so I gave her a little honk, and she didn't here so I pushed the horn for a good 5-10 seconds and she finally clued in AFTER I was in the shoulder and she was half way in the lane. It isn't difficult to shoulder check. Crazy broad.
• I got pulled over by a police helicopter. Yes, you heard that right. I noticed the helicopter but didn't think anything of it, and then saw a "police emergency ahead, slow down" which I believed to be a big accident. However, we came up to a giant speed trap and every second car was being pulled over by a burly cop standing in the middle of the road. Once a cop came to my window he explained that the POLICE HELICOPTER HAD CAUGHT ME "following too close". Are you fucking kidding me? I got off with a warning thank god, but c'mon. Haha the warning ticket didn't even have a charge on it, I didn't even think that was possible. 
• We got lost on our hike. We picked a really easy hiking trail that meant to take 1-2hrs and we packed a picnic to take along. We ended up taking the trail on the right when we came to a fork in the road, thinking that it would eventually meet up. NOPE. We took it for about an 40 mins into thick dark forest and realized we were very far from the river. We decided to walk upwards because we figured the left trail must be up there somewhere. We walked uphill (like STEEP uphill) for about an hour until we had to stop to eat. During out picnic one of the girls exclaimed "Umm.. I just saw a van". Turns out we were only like 25 meters away from a road and eventually we found the path and got to walk back. The funniest part was the looks on people's faces as we walked by them. Remember, this was a leisurely hike and had spent two hours sweating our asses off, so people starting the hike were in sandals and skirts, four year old children prancing around, while we were disheveled, filthy, and exhausted walking past them. I can't even imagine what they were thinking. 
• Since our hike took so long we couldn't do our second surprise because our third surprise (dinner at the Grizzly House) had a 6pm reservation and all of our setbacks had taken a chunk out of our day. We got to dinner (V was so surprised) and it was incredible. For those of you who don't know, the Grizzly House is a really renown fondue restaurant that focuses on exotic meats for fondue, such as rattlesnake, shark, ostrich, etc. We each decided to split "three" four course chicken and beef fondue (soup or salad, cheese fondue, meat fondue, chocolate fondue) and it was probably the best meal of my life. So good and the food never stopped, omg.
• After a three hour meal (yes, THREE HOURS) we called it a night and headed back home. 
• I seriously love those girls so much, and was so excited to spend V's birthday with them. AND I was so incredibly stoked to have E come out to (the whole reason we picked Banff was because it was a halfway point for us). There is definitely a reason as to why we have been best friends for so long. Love you girls :)