Our trip Saturday, August 23, 2008 |
We had a wonderful vacation. Here are some of the highlights:We flew into Calgary Tuesday night, but didn't get to our hotel until about 1:30am local time (Wedneday morning). Our hotel was very nice, but we didn't spend much time in it, cause after a mistake with the time change, we ended up getting only 3.5 hours of sleep before leaving in the morning. So we had breakfast, got our rental car, and headed to the Calgary tower. The tower had a glass floor section which is terrifying. We had fun looking at the sights and working up the courage to walk across the glass.
We decided to skip the zoo, since we did it 2002, and we headed straight for Banff National Park. We saw some great sights on the way to Banff. I don't know how many times we pulled the car over to look at some amazing views.
We saw two black bears and a bunch of mountain goats. I was really intrigued by the mountain goats. Two little ones were having a hard time getting up the mountain, the smallest kept slipping further and further down. We watched for a good 7-8 minutes, until they both finally made their way to the top, and joined the others. I kept wondering, what would happen if it just couldn't make it up? Would the others go down with it, and find another way? Would they just leave it behind? But no worries, he got up.
We finally made our way to the city of Banff. Banff is a small resort town in Western Alberta, inside Banff National Park. It caters mostly to tourists, and I believe is booming in the winter. We walked around, looking for a place to eat that wasn't too pricey. We finally found one and had a pretty good meal.
After that we took the scenic route and headed towards Lake Louise. The Lake is just beautiful. It is so serene, even though there are a ton of tourists there.
After that we had to decide whether to drive up to Jasper (which was quite the distance), and waaaay over to Edmonton, and then down to Red Deer (which would mean we wouldn't get into Red Deer until Thursday evening) OR we could just drive a little more North, cut over on a smaller highway and be in Red Deer Wednesday evening. We decided to head for Red Deer. We arrived at my Aunt Linda's around 8 o'clock. My parents and Megan and Kyle arrived shortly after (they left Tuesaday at 11 am by car and got there Wednesday evening at 6).
Thursday we visited with my grandma, grandpa and Muriel. We also happened to see my cousins Cam and Christine and their three kids at Denny's. That was funny. We just adore that family. More of them later. We went to lunch with Megan and Kyle at Montana's and then went out to dinner with Devon and boyfriend Josh at Ordinary Joe's. This is the first time we met Josh and we liked him immediatly! yay! Poor Devon had broken her nose a few days prior, so unfortunatly we don't have many pictures of her :(
Friday we went to Bower Ponds, took some photos, then Jeff, Kyle and I took the three cousins to a place called Discovery Canyon. I remember going to Discovery Canyon often as a kid, and had great memories. I wanted to go again. My mom told me I'm too big, it's meant for little kids. But, I wanted to try. Unfortunatly she was right. I just didn't slide like the little kids did. I just sunk. But it was fun being there with 11-year-old Clinton, 9-year-old Shayna, and 8-year-old Cara.
We had a BBQ at Linda's that night, where we played a little football.
Saturday was my cousin Nicole's wedding at 2. The wedding took place in my Aunt Arlene's backyard (which is huge). It was very hot, but we met up with family we haven't seen in awhile, which was fun. I was shocked at how big my cousins Robin and Bradon are. I was also surprised that the first things they said to us concerned a joke Jeff had told them 6 years ago, lol. He must have left quite an impression on them!
The reception wasn't until 6, but it was well worth the wait. Jeff and Kyle consumed quite a bit of alcohol, but man did they have a great time.
Kyle was a dancin' fool, making everyone laugh.
We really had a great time!
The next two days were spent with Devon and her family out at their cabin in Sylvan Lake. Josh taught us a new game, Beersbee, which was fanfreakintastic. It was so relaxing just sitting on the porch, talking about whatever. It was a perfect end to a great vacation.
We ended our trip finding out the Jeff's store is closing. Which would have been devastating news, had we not just the night before decided he was going to quit. It still sucks, but it is what it is. We'll let you know as we know, what our future plans will be!
posted by Kerri on Saturday, August 23, 2008
