Banff National Park is set in the heart of the Canadian Rockies. Banff was established in 1885 as Canada's first national park and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The mountains in Banff National Park are 45 to 120 million years old, and the park is home to more than 1,000 glaciers. Banff is home to Alberta's southernmost herd of the endangered woodland caribou and numerous other cuddly critters, such as marmots, porcupines, bears, wolves, and bighorn sheep.

The weather in Banff can be unpredictable, but one thing we can count on is that it will be cold. The average high in January is 23 F and the low is 5 F.

We'll depart from Atlanta the day after our wedding. Our flight lands in Calgary, Alberta. We'll then drive 1.5 hours to Banff Rocky Mountain Resort, where we'll be staying for the week. The resort is just up the main avenue from the town center and will be a great launching pad for our daily adventures.

Banff is the ideal vacation spot for adventurers, and we really want to live it up. That means doing things we would never normally splurge for . . . Robin is planning on visiting several of the ski resorts in the area to check out the snowboarding scene (Laura will also give snowboarding a try). Beyond snowboarding, there are lots of exciting activities from canyon ice walks to to glacier helicopter tours. There's also plenty of time for romantic sleigh rides and trips to the spas, where Laura plans to benefit from the healing powers of the thermal Hot Springs. At night we plan to take in the pub scene and taste some of the local fare (think elk burgers and bison steaks) and beer.