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.