It's Fun In Alberta!

Set course for FUN!

As we sit at the brink of the Saskatchewan border, C and I would like to thank the province of Alberta for a great time! We crossed over from British Columbia on the 6th of August and spent the day in beautiful Banff National Park!

We took this from the patio area of the Banff Springs Hotel. It was a bit hazy that day as there was some forest fires a few kilometres away.

While in Banff we visited wicked cool Banff Park Museum with lots of stuffed birds, cougars, bears, bison, elk, and various other varmints.

"Nice one!"

Whoa! This stuffed beaver weighed 75 lbs, and that isn't even the biggest one they've ever found! Yikes!

"Hey! You! Get off of my glacier!"

After admiring the dead animals, we headed over to the Athabasca Glacier, part of the massive, yet still shrinking, Columbia Ice Fields. We believe it's the only glacier in the world that you can drive up to and walk on (without a team of sled dogs or a ice truck or something).

Now we can say we actually stood on a glacier before they all disappear. Cool. Literally.

C shares some photos with Walter

We then left Banff and headed to Rocky Mountain House to visit with C's step-father, Walter. It was cool to see C reunited with some of her family.

We had a great time and even got to sleep in a real log cabin out in the middle of the woods. I kept having flashbacks to watching Friday the 13th parts II to IV. Oooo creepy.

Then we drove to the Priddis/Red Deer Lake area, to see the old house that C grew up in. It sits on what was then a huge cattle ranch, which is now a wildlife preserve called the Cross Conservancy. She hadn't been able to visit the actual house since 1982. There wasn't anyone living in the house, so we just parked and walked around. C showed me the backyard and all the pastures she used to ride in on her horse. It was a pretty emotional visit for her.

Here C peeks into the window of her old bedroom.

After saying goodbye to C's old stomping grounds, we hit the road again to Drumheller, the dinosaur capital of Canada. We visited the Royal Tyrell Museum, an amazing dinosaur museum, and the Hoodoos.

"Get in my belly!"

I took a ton of pictures at the museum but this was one of my favorites.


That's all for now. We've to get back on the road and head into Saskatchewan and to our new house. Woo-hooo! We probably won't be able to post much until we get all moved in and get internet access all set up. Maybe by then we'll even have pictures of new puppies! Eeeeeee! Stay tuned!

Until then... adventure!

R-