Last week was the first vacation in 2 years – wow. As a follow up from the last blog post about creative outlets, it really helps to physically leave your regular space. This is how the vacation was born, a trip down to Banff where I was able to get out of my routine and actually appreciate my surroundings.

We spend way too much time being “plugged in” and forget to see what is right in front of us. If we go to the same places day in and day out and do the same thing, how are we supposed to grow as a person? There’s no challenge and our minds get lazy. Getting out of the city offered some time to self-reflect and familiarize with myself. Also, new beer. That was a big plus.

I hadn’t been in Banff since I was a kid so seeing it with new eyes was exciting and instantaneously I began thinking:

Banff would be a great setting for a horror story.

It’s been done already, sure, but there’s a rich history there and enough tourists that it could make quite the creepypasta (horror story). Something I’ll put in the idea sketch book.

As a compliment to that thought, at the end of the trip we found a fun abandoned gas station just outside of Canmore. We wandered around the outside of the building, explored the interior where we found a pitch-black men’s room behind a sticky door, a basement and a hangout spot with couches in the back. We chickened out and didn’t check out the basement…
Looking like there will have to be a follow up visit. Until then, it’s back to the concrete jungle.

Some additional shots from the trip.

Click an image to enlarge.