The Glass House- Worth Every Second

We felt like celebrities. What else can be said? Thanks Eldon for opening the doors for us. We drove away totally energized.

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.

Sasquatch Sighted in Creston!

Anyone who watches TV knows that Kokanee Beer caught a sasquatch named Mel and trained it to do tricks with a 12 pack. O. told me that the only thing we MUST do in Creston was to go and see the KOKANEE BEER MASCOT.Mel, hold still for a photo op...

This is MY ONLY MEMORY of CRANBROOK

I'm sorry. Cranbrook is really a beautiful town, and it is the "Gateway to the Central Rockies" and all that. But the problem was we drove through town on the highway, which follows the railroad line, which takes you through the back end of town. It's kind of like driving down Cannon Street in Hamilton. What you see is really not representative of the town in general.

So, this scene was my highlight of our few minutes in Cranbrook, and it helps me set the record straight, that Cranbrook is a colourful town in the central rockies.

From Cranbrook we pressed on our way to Banff, and there was still more than 90 minutes to go!

Nelson, BC- Where We Bought Our Pet

Tourist information and washroom stop. It was here that we first spotted the smoke over the mountains, and found out that there were forest fires in the area. Nobody seemed too worried about it, but the smoke was pretty major.He's soooo cute. His head bobbles and he says yes all the time. WE named him Nelson, and we've still got him!

The Balfour Ferry to Kootenay Bay

Ten minutes into the ride. A cool, fresh breeze and warm sunshine.Exactly....
Harry Potter, number 3.

Balfour, BC in the Kootenays- Music for Tired Brownses

Amazing breakfast.
Fresh squeezed oranges.
Happy campers all 'round.
Our humble hosts.
Hang in there, puppies... you're adorable! Hope your paw got better.


Thanks to B. and E. for their great flexibility and generosity for allowing us to basically crash overnight in their basement. They have just moved in to a nice new home and are still putting on the finishing touches. It's one of those times when you pull the "family" string and hope that everyone wants to play along. Our hosts have a HUGE CD COOLECTION, which they admit is too unwieldy to unpack, but we were treated to a few smooth jazzy tunes wafting down from above through the open concept.

It's a lovely area, the Kootenays. Nothing like the crowds around other regions we've been to. We are told "nothing moves fast around here" which I suppose is perfectly fine, unless you're in a hurry to get a roof over your head!

The Rig of Choice for the RV Crowd

This is it... we must've seen 500 hundred of these puppies during our three week travels.

Cheap Playground Equipment

This is the best idea I've seen for dirt in a long time. Instant playground and toboggan hill... Lots of schools around Red Deer have hills like this, as well as regular playground equipment to play on. Nice.

Airdrie, Alberta. Last stop.

Airdrie is the Alberta version of Burlington. People are going there to sleep or to buy groceries or put gas in their car when they're not working in the big city. New houses stretch out in all directions, swallowing up the hay fields.

Airdrie is 10 minutes north of Calgary. It can still say that it is "country living." It has its own big box stores. It has a fast food alley on both sides of the highway that is to die for. Except don't go to Wendy's... the line doesn't move there! After standing in line for 15 minutes, you need to go across the street to the Pancake House where they will actually bring you food.

Our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express, was excellent. The pool and slide were fabulous, the kids played there for hours. The breakfast was top quality, anchored by cinnamon buns. A great way to start the day.

Tourist Attraction Attracts Tourists, part 2

Into the "badlands" of Drumheller!
Watch your toes... he likes plastic.
The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology was our Drumheller destination on Sunday August 12. Turns out about 2000 other people had the same idea. Half of them were under age 12. Half of those were under age 4 and in strollers. I felt like I might become a fossil while waiting to get up to an exhibit to read about it.

The museum is oustanding, as far as design and content goes. High time in the summer pays the bills but doesn't allow for the fullest experience. As we were advised, it makes more sense to camp in the area for a few days, and then visit the museum for 2 or 3 shorter visits on off-peak days. Oh well, we didn't have that flexibility.

Afterward we found ourselves a nice restaurant in town, Yaris Family Restaurant, and enjoyed a good meal with good service. It's amazing what one experienced waitress can do when fully committed to serving the customers. There were two others on duty, but I only saw the older one working. She said under her breath once, "My helpers aren't helping!"

Red Deer Hospitality

Of all the places we've visited, I know the most about Red Deer, thanks to the tours I got from my uncle D. and aunt J. When the head guy from the local historical society takes you on a tour, you need to sit up and listen. In the short time we had on the first evening we looked at the Bower Ponds, the newly located Cronquist House, the Mackenzie Trails and we learned about some of the flood control features that have been built into a few of the new subdivisions around town. And, we were shown a church designed by famous architect Douglas Cardinal, which is without straight lines anywhere. At Bower Ponds we saw a fanatical mallard duck mom who chased away all other ducks that approached her ducklings, then when we looked across the pond we saw a pair of muskrats boldly swimming around. Driving on our way to the Mackenzie Trails (part of which is a reclaimed dump) a couple of deer played hide and seek with us.
The Cronquist House (above). The Cardinal-designed church (below).But topping it off, we were treated to some fine Alberta steaks, prepared by N. Awesome. In his spare time N. fixes/disposes of old PCs, and before I could finish chewing my steak I was being handed a PC tower with Unix newly installed. thanx!

Pigeon Lake

D.R. has such a nice spot on the lake. She made us feel truly at home with her great cooking and generous hospitality. The three kids enjoyed her light-heartedness and shared her joy of cookies. One of our fondest memories will be the COOKIE FEST we had when D. brought out about TEN different kinds of cookies for us to sample. We all got down to the beach to pick up some special souvenir rocks (this will become an issue at the airport!), and then on our final day we visited a garage sale at the Village of Pigeon Lake.

The neighbours' new puppy. He sure is cute!

Renewing Old Friendships in Vancouver and Edmonton

Two special friends, one in Vancouver- P.T. and the others- F. and R.H. in Edmonton were people I wanted to reach on this trip. Thanks F. for showing me your awesome train room and to both of you for giving me some good background on why Edmonton is such a great place to live! In our very brief visit you reminded me why you are such special friends to my parents and to our family. Good luck with all of your musical endeavours. In Vancouver I wish I'd had just a bit more time to meet with P.T, but it wasn't to be. We were limited to a few minutes chat on the phone. But maybe there'll be a next time. Vancouver is such a beautiful place to be!