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!

West Edmonton Mall

August 9th- As I said, we were staying at the opposite end of the city, so we had to drive for a half hour to get to the mall. We came in at 11AM, checked out the water park and then fell dead in our tracks when we realized it would cost our family of five $125 to swim there for any length of time. THIS IS THE TRUTH. So rather than spend that much in one place, we chose to spend it over the course of the next few hours at several stores and attractions! After all was done, the kids were happy and we all were tired. O. never got to ride the roller coaster 'cause the guy had to go on break at she would have to wait 45 minutes in line. But, they all had slurpies in the end.

Pincher Creek to Edmonton

August 8th- Left Pincher Creek, the home of wind power generation. It was in Pincher Creek that we had our most unusual pizza. The tomatoes looked like a hundred giant wagon wheels which totally covered the entire top of the pizza! We drove through windy cattle country for a couple of hours, reaching the little town of Nanton, AB about noon. Grabbed a hot drink at the Wild Thyme Cafe which boasted Italian Food on the menu. Back in the car, we ploughed on through Calgary in the rain and finally had to take a break in the town of Olds at the Tim Hortons. We pressed on to Edmonton and fell deliriously into our hotel room at 4:30 PM. Turned out that we were in the extreme northeast area of town, in a commercial/industrial area full of big box stores. After visiting the EB Games outlet, our stomachs led us to the Red Robin Restaurant. We headed back to our room to rest up for our shopping day at the world's largest shopping mall.

Kananaskis to Pincher Creek

August 7th- The highway closure due to forest fire hazard left us no choice but to take #22 which led us out of the mountains to the town of Longview, AB. It's obvious why the town is so named, because you can see for miles and miles. The transformation from mountain highland to cowboy ranchland is sudden. Favorite ranch name seen: "Lazy Ass Ranch." We headed south to the town of Crowsnest Pass, marvelling at just how far you could see, and the sheer number of cattle scattered across the fields like black peppercorns. Sign in the Husky truck stop restaurant where we ate breakfast the next day: Crowsnest Pass Shooting Club, Gun Show on August 11.

More on Head Smashed In

The name Head Smashed In has nothing to do with the buffalo whose heads were smashed in. Rather, it refers to a boy who wanted to experience the hunt at close range, so he hid under the cliff where the buffalo were to fall. The hunt that day was very large, and the boy was crushed under the beasts. No one knew about it until the carcasses were cleared and there they found him with his head smashed in! And so, the place became named in honour of the boy.
The cool thing about Head Smashed In is that the whole place is built right into the side of the cliff. You can barely see it as you drive up because of the way it is designed. Once inside, you have to go up several stories to the top and then work your way down through the exhibits bit by bit.

Head Smashed In

It's an archeological site, where thousands of years of remains of buffalo kills from days gone by have been found. This is a World Heritage Site which captures the reality of the buffalo hunt in the "dog days" of aboriginal culture before the horse and the gun. The clans gathered together every summer and autumn at kill sites like these, and would lure the buffalo into a chase area and driving lanes above a cliff. Using piles of rocks and brush as lined up barriers, and dressed in coyote skins for camouflage, the men would chase the hundreds of buffalo over the edge. They were so near sighted they never saw what was coming, and the wind was behind them so they never caught a whiff either! Down they would tumble 100 feet or so, and then the hunters would finish them off at cliff base. The hides and bones were stripped on location, so all the left over skulls and bones would be left on site, year after year. Remains of weapons and daily life also got left behind over the ages

At Crowsnest Pass

August 7th- Arriving at Highway 3 at about 1:30PM we headed west. None of us was in the mood for a tour of the Bellevue Mine site or the miners' cemetery, but we managed to make it up to the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre for a look around. Emotionally we felt more ready for a full tour of Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump, it was more where we were at emotionally I guess. I asked the information girl in Pincher Creek if she thought the 45 minute drive was worth it, she said yes so off we went. After fighting through highway construction we felt like our heads had been smashed in. The wind was gusting to 60kph and the sun was hot, but we made it. We all had a really good look around and took in the reality of this place.

Kananaskis River Rafting

That was the answer our raft leader Jim gave to the rafter who asked, "What if we have to go pee?"

We had just squeezed ourselves into our wetsuits and were getting into our inflatable river rafts as Jim spent a few minutes giving us our final instructions: "If I say GET DOWN then get as low in the boat as possible; If I say HOLD ON then grab the rope and hold on; If I say Splash the people in that boat then DO IT. Everyone understand? OH, and one final thing, If I say everyone to the right or to the left, then it means that the raft is about to tip over- I've never had to use that command. Does everyone understand?"

"Yes, yes!" we replied.

Minutes later, after a few practice maneuvres, we were into it. To make things more exciting we were taking the waves sideways. On the second wave, we dove in and then instead of coming out the other side, we slid back down into the trough, and before we knew what was going on, we were hearing Jim shout, "Everyone to the right!"

We spent the next minute getting thoroughly doused and discovering the wonder of "self-baling" boats, and the excellent insulative qualities of our wetsuits. We were completely swamped.

We swirled in that trough like a toilet that just wouldn't quite flush. The seconds stretched into more than a minute. Finally, a kayaker who was watching from the side threw us a rope and pulled our boat (and us) out of the wave. Yes! What elation to emerge from that whole thing and no one fell out, just one paddle was lost which we later recovered.

Jim said later that he was leaning as far over to the side to keep our raft from flipping.

The rest of the trip was great. We went through the Kayak training runs at Canoe Meadows and caught some nice waves, then spent lots of time just having fun soaking other rafts in our eight boat expedition. Before the end, we went under a low hanging train bridge and I. and I grabbed on and swung from the bottom of the bridge and jumped into the water. Before that, O. and E. took a swim in the nice deep water area.

Highly recommended! 10 out of 10 for family fun.

Have Stick; Will Beat It

The Ribbon Creek trail is on the site of a ghost town and it leads to an old mine about 3km up the hill. Further up the signs warn of a cliff which requires rock climbing skill. Signs also warn not to hike in the winter because of avalanche danger. I challenged the kids put their bare feet in the brook for FIFTEEN SECONDS. The boy won this contest, O and E tied for second, and I wimped out at 9 seconds. Brenda stood on the lookout for wild animals. Oh, speaking of wild animals, we have one who hikes with us. He picks up sticks and beats the bushes with it. He has the "stick beating gene" that is characteristic of all 11 year old boys. Brenda and I looked at one ribbon which marked a PEST CONTROL AREA, and we knew what they were thinking.

Kananaskis- Incredible!

Here is a collection of pictures from our time during and after our stay at the Sundance Lodges. White tailed deer scoot away on the drive through the Kananaskis Valley. They hopped the five foot fence like nothing.
The Highwood Pass is the highest driveable pass in the Canadian Rockies. These mountain goats (below) were there to accompany us just as we approached the pass.

Looking back to the north from Highwood Pass.

This is the mountain that dominated the Sundance Lodge campground.This is heaven's waiting room. You have to see it to believe it. We are camped out in a family sized tipi at the Sundance Lodge adventure camp, 2kms north of the Kananaskis Village and resort. After getting our bedding, cook kit and extra cot we set up ourselves in the tipi. Just as we pulled into the property a bolt of lightning hit the mountain across the valley, then sent a thunderclap booming across the camp. A minute later another one hit just a few hundred yards away. We enjoyed a nice shower while we were cooking our macoroni and cheese on the propane stove. This will be our campfire since there is still a ban on all fires in this area of Alberta.

Kananaskis Village is nice to explore. They've got excellent paved trails around the edge which look out over the valley and plain about 500 feet below. The view is awesome, because on the other side you see mountain peeks which rise several thousand feet. On the way in today we saw a small herd of MOUNTAIN GOATS scrambling up a grassy slope, then later we saw a COYOTE at the Ribbon Creek park. Later we looked at the Beaver Ponds picnic area which is right beside this campsite. The water is absolutely crystal clear.