Words and pictures do not do justice to seeing this in real life.

We took some pictures and just enjoyed the sights. It was pretty crowded, and I read later on it's become really popular in recent years as a tourist spot. I found a good spot I could propose and take pictures of and tested the tripod at that spot, happy with the results. We looked around and decided, spontaneously, to take the trail past the Big Beehive (where we saw the tiny Mirror Lake) and walked up a surprisingly tiring trek up to Lake Agnes. It was less crowded than at Lake Louise, but still quite a lot of people doing it. At some parts the human trail coincided with the horse trail, so we came across horse poop and a group of people riding horses to go up the trail. Pfft, lol. We joked about taking their horses to go up and save ourselves the grief. But man, the view was worth it. After we finally took the last (steep) wooden staircase, we finally reached Lake Agnes and the view was magnificent. Not as grand and massive as Lake Louise, but still beautiful and quaint. We just sat there, resting after the hour long trek, and admired the gorgeous view. It looked much cozier, and due to the smaller crowd was quieter and slower paced too. The sun was shining directly over the lake, so the reflections were also dazzling.

Lake Agnes feels like an undiluted hidden gem.

We bought some tea from the teahouse on top, and to keep the pristine nature, were required to bring our cups down ourselves. Apparently volunteers need to bring supplies up and trash down regularly the path. After reading up more, taking pictures and admiring the view, we proceeded back to Lake Louise, taking more shots before getting back to our car and driving to the town of Banff itself. We made a quick stop at Vermilion Lakes, taking some gorgeous sunset shots of the lake, mountains and sky and walking along the small pier. Seriously, the whole mountain/lake/sky shots look amazing, and even though we'd seen so many, every single one was beautiful. Having been in Canmore already, Banff was much bigger and crowded. It really looked like a super quaint resort, just with a ton of people. Took a while to get parking, but it also had a very walkable areas. Lots of cafes and restaurants, and a ton of gift shops. We ate at some Cajun restaurant before heading back to Canmore. Onion was still suffering from jetlag, and although I'd been back for a week, I was still at the tail end of jetlag too. We were exhausted.

The next morning we repeated our journey to Lake Louise for the proposal. At this point, Onion had pretty much known everything, but we still wanted to do it. I set up the tripod at the chosen spot at Lake Louise and got down on my knee, asking if Onion would marry me. Not going to lie, I was a little nervous, even though we were both aware what this was for. But the tradition of following it still made it feel like I wasn't sure of the answer. She nodded, said yes and I stood up to put the ring on her finger. Yes! I had a fiancee now. 

Getting down on one knee at Lake Louise has been my goal for a long time.

Engaged!

She admired the ring, and I explained it was sapphire. We chatted a bit about how it was like to finally get engaged after so long and our feelings about it. For one, I was happy seeing her wear the engagement ring. I thought it looked great on her, and I was lucky to get one that while still a bit bigger, could almost fit her tiny finger (we'd resize it later on). Also made me very happy to have a formal start to our marriage. Especially seeing how she was there every step of the way as I grieved my mom.

As I said, diamonds are boring. Sapphires look gorgeous.

 As it was pretty early, it wasn't too crowded, so we proceeded to Lake Moraine. Again, another gorgeous lake, equally as beautiful as Lake Louise, and the official reddit lake, lmao. Also, surprisingly less crowded than Lake Louise despite being pretty much as famous, and a stop on the shuttle bus. Again, amazingly beautiful, with the mountains and lake massive in scale, with the blue shade another beauty. There was a lot more space to walk around, and we took a short trek along the lake, walking along the trail, admiring Lake Moraine from different angles. We took some more pictures standing on some fallen logs, and I was a Disney princess there. Yeah, seriously. Lots of curious chipmunks running around, and some were particularly friendly and came to me. One even crawled up my thigh and just chilled there a bit. Eat that, Snow White! We eventually went off to the Cascade of Time Garden, admiring the greenery and flowers before heading back to Banff to explore the town more, and getting our Beaver Tails. We went on the Hoodoos trail to get a look at the summit, which, I'm been saying repeatedly, was beautiful to see, with the river, lake and trees, and that interesting circular island of sorts. We went back to Canmore and crashed for the evening, before walking to get a midnight snack from the Circle K.

Immense and gorgeous Lake Moraine.

The next day was our last at the Banff area before our final night at Calgary. We drove up to Peyto Lake, and we noticed the air quality was starting to get worse due to the wildfires. We even saw a signboard that indicated wildfire smoke air quality, and it was on the lower end. At some points, the mountains were hazy to see, and the sky was a little yellowish/orange sometimes. While Peyto Lake itself was clear, the mountains surrounding it were harder to see. Still a gorgeous sight. We proceeded to Bow Lake, where we walked along the shore taking photos. Due to how close we were to the mountains there, the views were much clearer and it felt like the smog wasn't as much of an issue here. It was a very nice location. Seeing the gentle waves crash and the many mountains in front of the lake was a visual treat. Back in Banff, we noticed a lot of First Nations museums, at least 3 we could easily see. We wanted to explore at least one so we picked the one that looked good and ended up in the Buffalo Nations Museum. We paid the entry fee and walked in, seeing recreations of Indigenous settlements, tents, and life-size figures wearing traditional garb. It was very cool and very informative. We even saw the original blankets of the Hudson Bay company, with its traditional 4 colour stripes. I know that history is dodgy and not all butterflies and rainbows, but as a historical artifact, it was cool to see. We also saw photographs, other artifacts and miniatures of driving buffalo off cliffs and villages. As a history enthusiast, it was very cool. Later on at a First Nations shop, we saw the fur and skins of several animals, from local tanners. Some very very soft to the touch and I could see how they served a practical purpose of warmth and comfort back then. It was very unique seeing the variety of animal furs. Near the entrance, beads, bracelets and dreamcatchers were sold, and I wanted to get something too. I ended up getting 2 wristbands, similar to my heavy metal wristbands. The one Justin gave me as I was leaving Malaysia was rusting pretty bad and starting to wear out, while the one he got me from Florence, Italy was already ripping in half and green from corrosion, due to how often I wore it. These new ones were a dark brown instead of black, and had a bronze metal instead of the (fake) silver spikes, with some unique designs on them. Wearing metal stuff while supporting a First Nations business? Win-win.

I drove us back to Calgary to check in to our homestay, which was really cozy. At this point with all the hiking, treks and exploration, we were dead tired. We wanted to look around Calgary to get a sense of the city and housing, as with the housing crisis in Toronto, it was an option we were considering. But because of how tired we were, we pretty much collapsed. Onion's jetlag was still bad, and even though she said to "wake her up in 30 minutes" every hour, towards midnight we just slept the rest of the night.

I returned the car back to the guy from Turo, where his father examined the car and took a picture of the updated mileage, and we Uber'ed our way to the airport, flying back to Toronto, back to Toshi, who missed us severely. She hadn't seen Onion in a month, basically. Onion, upon reaching home, dropped everything and furiously hugged and kissed Toshi. Awww.