Alberta - Day 8

Today was just a simple travel day.  Breakfast was a bit crazy, as the hotel was full of multiple baseball teams due to a tournament that was happening in Medicine Hat this weekend.  We had to wait for a table and the lineup for food was long enough that I just had a coffee.  Then it was off to a nearby church and onto the highway.

We stopped near Maple Creek for lunch and then dodged some pretty intense rain storms on the way to Swift Current.  Other than the rain, it was a pretty normal drive.

Once home, the kids unpacked their stuff and immediately started building all of their LEGO, which is what they did until bed time.  Thus ends our short trip through Alberta for this year.

Alberta - Day 7

I guess the lack of hotel rooms in Drumheller should have been a clue regarding how busy today was.  Apparently the Saturday of the August long weekend is the busiest day of the year for Drumheller and the museum.  If we had known that, we may have rescheduled our trip so that we were out here on a different day.

Anyway, we started the day off with a short drive to Horseshoe Canyon, which looked very neat.  Unfortunately, it was quite cold and windy and the kids complained a lot, so after spending a short time looking around, we left to drive out to the Hoodoos.  Despite light rainshowers, the kids loved this area, as they could climb on the rocks.  The youngest three quickly scampered off, as I tried to follow them as best I could, pleading with them to avoid going somewhere they could not get back from.

Bradley was probably the most monkey-like, and every time I turned around he was trying to climb higher than he was.  Eventually it started to rain harder, and I was tired of chasing them around, so we rounded them up and left.

We drove into Drumheller and stopped at the huge dinosaur statue for lunch.  We had to eat in the van due to the pretty steady rain and when we were done, we went in and climbed to the top of the dinosaur to look out.  Then it was off to the Royal Tyrrell Museum.  I had asked the woman working the door at the dinosaur statue if this was a regular busy day or not (as the visitor centre was very busy) and she had told me that the Saturday of the August long weekend was always their busiest day.  This held true for the museum as well, as we encountered a stopped line of cars about 2km away from the museum entrance.

After about 30-40 minutes, we finally got in to the parking lot, which was, of course, full.  We found our way to the overflow parking lot, which was also full, and at times chaotic, as people had simply parked wherever they felt like, without any regard for lanes or other drivers.  After a few laps at the end of the lot, we were headed back up the regular lot when I thought I saw a truck pull out to leave.  We went into that lane and found a regular parking spot, after which I cheered.

Then it was the line to get into the museum.  It was an hour long, outside in the rain.  Evan and I waited in the line while Sandra took the other boys to a play structure to keep them occupied.  When we got close to the end of line, I texted Sandra and she brought everyone over.  It's funny - prior to Disney, that line would have crushed me.  Now it's just slightly longer than the line to see It's A Small World.

The museum was quite busy, but it was still possible to see all the dinosaur fossils that I wanted.  The big displays were probably the most interesting, especially the large black T-Rex encased in rock, the armoured dinosaur they discovered in Fort McMurray and the full sized T-Rex.  I was excited to see the Triceratops, and it was cool, but it was 100% a casting of a Triceratops found in Montana, as no Triceratops has been found in Alberta yet.  We finished in the museum, bought stuff in the gift shop and then headed to Drumheller for supper.  We had planned to go to a small restaurant that served giant hamburgers, but unfortunately it was closed.  We found another restaurant, ate and then drove all the way to Medicine Hat so that tomorrow will be a much shorter travel day.

That is the end of this short vacation, as tomorrow will be nothing more than a quick drive home.

Alberta - Day 6

I believe I have discovered the solution to any farmer's drought problems - build an amusement park near your farm and have my kids come by to go on the rides.  Guaranteed thunderstorm.

This was our last day in Calgary and we spent it at Heritage Park.  The morning was pretty quiet, as we packed up and said our good-byes and then drove out to the Park.  We wandered in and took the train around to the town, which we explored for a bit before realizing we would need to stop for lunch.  The biggest excitement of the morning occurred as we headed to a picnic spot, when we stopped in the blacksmith shop.  The kids spend over half an hour watching a blacksmith prepare and heat up two pieces of metal so that he could weld them together by smashing them with a hammer.  Even I thought it was pretty cool.

After lunch, we explored the rest of the park, but ended up making a quick detour to the old time amusement rides, as we could see a storm approaching.  We went on three rides and were preparing to go on a fourth, with Bradley wanting to go back on the first, when the rides were all shut down due to the storm.  Bradley was not impressed and cried most of the way back to the car.  We called it quits at that time as it was raining a decent amount and we weren't really prepared for rain.

Then it was time for a very stressful drive to Three Hills, which was the closest spot to Drumheller that we could find a hotel for the night.  Rush hour in Calgary is annoying, but Google Maps made it worse, by bailing on the main highways as soon as it determined they were busy.  It routed us way out of town onto a secondary highway and then back onto the main highway, at which point I ignored it and just drove around until we reached highway 2.

The traffic between Calgary and Edmonton was awful.  Three packed lanes of cars.  It was a relief when we were able to finally take a secondary highway east to Three Hills.  We arrived, checked in to our hotel and then went to a local grill for supper, which was very, very good.  Sometimes small town restaurants are the best restaurants.

Tomorrow we are off to see the dinosaurs.

Alberta - Day 5

This was a pretty quiet day in Calgary.  We discussed various options with the kids and eventually decided on a simple trip to the Calgary Corn Maze, primarily because it had a mini-golf course, and the boys really wanted to play a round, especially after our round at Rowan's Ravine got cancelled due to the weather.

The weather intervened today as well, but not until after our round of mini-golf (and the subsequent hole 15 meltdown by one child) was finished.  We arrived just before lunch and spent some time letting the kids go on the various slides and jumping pillows.  The corn maze is basically Happy Hollow on steroids, for those of you reading from the Regina area.  They have a bunch of picnic tables setup, so we stopped and had lunch before continuing on.

The actual corn maze is huge - it takes up an entire quarter section and this year it is in the shape of Superman bursting through a corn field.  The corn isn't fully grown this early in the year, as it ranges from 4 feet to 6 feet high, so at times I could easily see over into the other areas.  We started off on one section and got through the bottom left corner of the maze but managed to miss the one path that lead on, so ended up back at the start.  Luckily, that was enough maze for everyone, as I'm not certain the big maze is really setup for young kids.  In fact, they have a smaller maze for the younger people.

So, the kids decided at that time to go mini-golfing.  As we were making our way through the course, you could see a huge pile of dark black clouds away to the north, but as we played and watched, it really seemed like the storm was mostly moving east and would miss our location.  After finishing the corn maze, I was at the van dealing with a disobedient child, while Sandra headed to the bathrooms and to the start of the smaller maze.  I watched the clouds and realized that the one edge of the storm was definitely going to hit the farm, so I phoned Sandra and told her to come to the van where we could wait out the rain.

A very short time later, I saw a bunch of people near the entrance start screaming and running and wondered what was going on.  That was followed by a bang on the top of the van as the hail started, so I drove over to where Sandra and the other boys were and got them in the van, where we waited out the storm.  There was a bunch of hail to start - about the size of marbles and then about a five minute downpour before the sun came out and everything was fine again.  We briefly discussed going through the smaller maze, but it is in a field and everything would have been super muddy, so instead we drove back into Calgary and went to the LEGO store.

All the kids found ways to spend all of their money, while I filled a bunch of pick a brick containers with the pieces I wanted, built some minifigures and discussed Brickspo with the employees.  A few of them had friends that had gone to Brickspo, so they knew all about it, which was cool.  Then it was time to head through the rush hour traffic to get back for supper.

Alberta - Day 4

Today was our day at Calaway Park.  The kids are all very tired and slept in until 9:00am this morning, but that actually didn't hurt because the park is only a 10 minute drive from Amanda's house and it doesn't open until 10:00am.  We were still a bit late arriving, but not enough to cause us to miss anything that the kids wanted to do.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a good handle on what rides my kids actually liked.  After the little kids did the bumper cars, our host's eldest daughter took the older kids on a rather large and scary ride that involved spinning and flipping.  Neither Alex nor Evan liked it and I spent the rest of the morning just convincing them to get on any other ride to try and find something they liked.  Eventually they found some less intense rides and the bumper cars, which made them feel happier.

We had a quick lunch and then went on the big rides.  We all went on the log ride.  Evan and the two eldest girls went in one log, I took my other three kids in a second, while Amanda, Sandra and the last two girls went in the final log.  It was a nice ride, but Bradley decided he did not like it.  After the first drop, he was done, so I had to hold him close so that he wasn't too scared for the last part of the ride.

After the log ride, I took Alex and the two eldest girls on the roller coaster.  The girls have been on it before, but this was Alex's first time.  He wasn't 100% convinced he wanted to go on it, but he really wanted to try it, which we did.  It's a fairly short coaster (so they run you through it twice) and everyone had fun, even me, which is fairly amazing.

After that, it was just rides, rides and some more rides.  The park wasn't super busy, so the lines were reasonably short.  The highlights really were the bumper cars.  Alex, Evan and I went a couple of times on the adult bumper cars and had a blast chasing each other around the track.  They even drug Sandra out with them late in the day so that they could run Mom off the road.  I also had fun on the self-driving cars with Bradley.  He sat in the front and "drove" me around the track, studiously turning the steering wheel in the correct direction at every curve and corner.

A couple of late afternoon lightning storms shut down large parts of the park, which meant that we had to run through the bumper cars quite a bit, but that didn't sadden anyone.  At the very end of the day, we went on the carousel and then headed back for supper and bed.

Alberta - Day 3

We tried to get the kids up early today, but didn't have much luck.  Still managed to get up, have breakfast, pack up and leave Lethbridge by 9:00am.  We then drove to Calgary.  Only a minor hiccup along the way as Bradley threw up in the van, but luckily it happened right as we were pulling into a Tim Horton's, so we were able to quickly stop and clean him up.  Not sure what made him sick, as he perked up again not long after and was fine the rest of the day.

Upon arriving in Calgary, we drove into the city and arrived at the zoo.  It was fairly close to lunch, so we stopped and ate before going in.  The zoo was pretty much exactly as I remembered it from last time.  A little bit too busy and full of sleeping animals.

However, we did luck out and get to see a few exciting things, primarily around the feeding of animals.  We arrived in time to see them feed the tiger, which involved letting the tiger walk into their caged area, the handler putting out meat and then letting the tiger out again.  This allows the tiger to walk right in front of you to pick up the chicken that he is going to eat for lunch.

We also saw them feed one of the snakes in the rainforest area, so that was pretty neat.  After going through all the exotic animals, we split up, as the two younger kids wanted to go through the dinosaur area (which is just statues of dinosaurs), while Alex and Evan wanted to go through the Canadian animal section.  I took the younger two, while Sandra took the older two.  She said the Canadian area was more interesting, as the animals were all up and around, which makes a bit of sense, given that this is their natural climate.

After we finished at the zoo, we headed to Olympic Park to look at the Jamaican bobsled.  Alex was also pretty excited to see the Olympic flame and all the old flags, including a USSR flag, which he has never seen in person.

Then it was off to Amanda's house for supper and visiting.  Tomorrow we are all off to Calaway Park.

Alberta - Day 2

We let everyone sleep in and after breakfast at the hotel, loaded up the van and headed for Waterton National Park, which is near the US border and right at the edge of the Rocky Mountains.  The park was hit hard by a forest fire last year, which has shut down 90% of it, but Sandra had seen pictures and really wanted to go.  Primarily, there are areas with red and green rocks that she wanted to see.  This will also be one of the only parts of this trip that is new to us.

The drive takes about and hour and a half from Lethbridge and then you are in the mountains and in the park.  We stopped in the small village and went to the visitor's centre to figure out where we could go.  There really wasn't much open, but given that most of the park is hiking trails and we have small children, that wasn't a big problem.  Except it meant we weren't going to be able to see the nicest coloured rocks, as you could get to one of the canyons that had them, but the road was closed to motor vehicles and it was only a 10km hike in and a 10km hike out.  We tentatively planned to go through the start of that path as we headed to a picnic area for lunch.

We ate lunch in front of the lake, which was a beautiful spot to eat, though Evan spent the entire meal panicking about bears.  As he finished each thing which left a piece of garbage, he would run it over to the bear proof garbage can and put it in, so that we wouldn't attract any bears.

After lunch, we let the kids play in the lake a bit.  It was cold and clear mountain water, which is so much nicer than the water in southern Saskatchewan.  We then left to do our first (and what ended up being our only) hike.  It was a 3km hike to a waterfall.  The hike started off OK, though the trail quickly ended up with a steep drop off the one side (and no railing), which had me terrified (due to the height) and worried about the smaller children.  However, they were very good at staying on the non-cliff side of the path as much as possible and being careful as they walked.

We lost the older two kids to complaining after about a quarter of the trip and the younger two at the half way point, but managed to coax them all the way to the waterfall.  There, we played in the water, as there was a pool area that was partially accessible, and rested.  Then we headed back and viewed another waterfall that is visible from within town, before walking through the tourist part of town.  We stopped for shaved ice and slushies and tried to shop a bit, but had trouble convincing the kids that they didn't need to buy the first thing they saw in every store, or even that they had to buy anything at all.  Sandra was looking for a Christmas tree ornament, which is one of her go to purchases when travelling, but couldn't find a simple ornament with Waterton on it.

Then it was time to drive back to Lethbridge and hit up a second pizza shop.  This one is more of a take out or buy a slice joint, but we weren't actually there for the pizza (though that is what we ate - and I ordered one medium more than yesterday, and that is how much pizza was left over when we were done.  I hate ordering pizza for groups).  Anyway, the restaurants serves crazy milkshakes, which is what everyone wanted.  We ordered two - one arrived with an ice cream bar and a slice of cheesecake on top of it, while the other had an frozen ice cream cone and whipped cream stuck on top.

Eating was messy, but we managed to finish and then went back to the hotel, where once again, Alex and Evan spent all of the time until 10:00pm riding the water slide.

Alberta - Day 1

Sandra says I have to blog this trip, even though I wasn't originally planning to, as it is a very short trip, primarily to places we've already been.  The only big change will be the size and age of the children, which is part of the reason why we are headed out to Alberta again for our holidays.

Today was a very long travel day, as all trips generally start out with.  We left home right after church, but then stopped in Moose Jaw so that the kids could go to Brickspo.  This year, I actually had a few creations in the show and had spent my entire Saturday there.  Upon arriving at the Western Development Museum, we had a picnic lunch and then viewed all the cool LEGO creations.  We let the kids look at everything once, buy something from the trade show and then we hustled them into the van for the five and half hour drive to Lethbridge.

It was the regular long, boring drive to Lethbridge, with the only difference this trip being that we filled the van with cheap gas in Swift Current before crossing the border into Alberta.  Seems odd to say that, since it has always been the other way around.

Upon arriving in Lethbridge we checked in to our hotel and then walked over to a pizza restaurant that the boys had seen on TV and really wanted to eat at.  I felt the meal was a little less than perfect.  The pizza was OK, but not superb.  The service was slightly slower than I wanted, and I managed to order less pizza than six hungry people wanted, meaning that everyone wanted more when the pizza was gone.  So, we ordered a bunch of dessert to make up for it.

Once we were done eating, we headed back to the hotel, where I took Alex and Evan to the pool and waterslide, where they happily played until it closed at 10:00pm.  Then it was time for bed.