Tourist Attraction Attracts Tourists, Part 1

When you're at "the most beautiful spot in the world" you should expect some serious tourist action, and that's what we saw at Moraine Lake today. It's strange because the highway isn't particularly busy as you make your way 10km uphill. But then, as you approach the lake you see that cars are parked along the highway for about 1km because the main parking lot is full! So, you find a spot along there and walk in. Our plan was to take the nice flat trail alongside Moraine Lake, but about 2000 people had the same idea so we bought the kids a pop at the gift shop instead and headed back. We didn't even try Lake Louise.
My youngest daughter is now officially "bored" with the mountains- all you do is drive for 90 minutes and then buy a Coke.
Tourism presents itself in many strange ways: How about the two bike campers with THEIR DOGS in trailers behind them; or how about the person at the back of the parking line, opening a window slit in their car, sticking out their camera and snapping a photo of the mountain peak; or the two huge crows swooping around the area "Caw! Caw!', or dozens of people scrambling up to the viewpoint to see the scene on the (now defunct) twenty dollar bill; the nice lady from Calgary who was actually speaking with a German accent who said that the area is nothing like it used to be 30 years ago when you could actually come and enjoy a quiet hike, but now they wait until autumn to come up for a visit, unless they have people from Germany visiting; or what about the road crew that is putting a beautiful fresh coat of asphalt down on the highway, which still has not a single guardrail in sight; and then there was the flagman with an extended-handle Stop flag who came out of nowhere and frantically waved his STOP sign at us, leaving us thinking that dynamite was about to blast us at any moment. I think he was just trying to spook us because he was going stir crazy.
Oh yes, and while I'm ranting about tourism- the first day we got here I kept hearing loud engine noises at 10 minute intervals. Brenda said they were helicopters. I replied in my best know-it-all tone, "It's just transports on the trans-Canada using their engine brakes." She was too kind. Of course, she was right- helcopters are buzzing over the Banff area doing tours, just like at The Falls.