Travel Letters: Canadian Rockies, Hiking + Painting

[Letterhead CANADIAN PACIFIC BANFF SPRINGS HOTEL Indigenous headdress BANFF ALBERTA CANADA]

{right hand of page} Thursday. {right hand of page}July 17, 1932.

Dearest Mother I mailed an unfinished letter to you this morning as I wasn't sure when I would have a chance to finish it and now having come up to the hotel to get a check book at the bank at four o'clock we stayed to supper with Frances James and it is now nearly eight and I left there as I did want to write you some more before going out on the walking expedition tomorrow I got your letter and am so glad you are going to Rockport for at least

{top centre:"2"} a week and maybe you can go to the shore later because I should think the change would help you an awful lot. We were so excited to hear about Natalia's arrival and goodness me who ever would have expected Bo to have twins. Russell's letter came and we knew how busy he must be I really have meant to write him for a long time but just haven't had a chance to really concentrate on a letter about the ski ca..e. My letters to you have been more scribbles than anything.

To go on about the Stampede I think I left off telling you about having cocktails with the English press men. After they had left the Panets room. Gen. and Madame Panet insisted we have lunch with them and we ended

{top centre:"3"} by all going out to the Stampede together afterwards. They are the most charming people and why they should be so nice to us I don't know. We had great fun watching the various events that afternoon. Pete ran into Mr. & Mrs. Hunter and so we went to their house for supper and then rushed back to the Stampede to see the seven heats of chuck wagon races which are without a doubt the best ones you ever saw. The show they have every night was awfully good. Its like a vaudeville but was a wonderful one, even a Chicago Opera Co. singer instead of the screechy type one usually hears. It was after eleven when we got back to the hotel pretty tired.

{top centre:"4"} The next morning we attempted to do a few errands we had planned doing. We saw Bill Oliver, ordered a pair of boots to be made to my measurement for hiking riding etc. They are to be made by the people who make the best cowboy boots and will be waterproof as well as fitting me exactly. Then we hunted for a tailor who made Pete's riding pants 10 years ago, and finally having asked all the people we saw we knew, we found him in a room way back in some building. He makes all the Mounted Police uniforms and thinks its too much of a nuisance to have his name in the telephone book. He took all my measurements and by the time I'm fixed up I'll look pretty snappy.

{top centre:"5"} {top left corner letterhead/logo black and white shield: "CANADIAN PACIFIC BANFF SPRINGS HOTEL BANFF ALBERTA CANADA"} {top right text begins and wraps around logo} There was a parade of Indians and the chuck wagons were set up on the main street to show how they are used for cooking etc and there was the odor of frying bacon and coffee. All the beer parlors have troughs of hay & water outside for the horses and its really rather fun to see them hitched up outside while the men are having a drink.

When we got back to the hotel we found Madame Panet had been trying to get in touch with us and she came down and had lunch with us Gen. Panet having left for further west. She went out to the Stampede in the afternoon and we enjoyed it as much as ever. We went to the