Our Trip To Calgary Fall 2011

We had a wonderful trip to Calgary this last week. We left Friday after school and stayed in Victoria (free parking and a ride to the airport!) After buying books for the trip, we flew to Calgary, arriving just as the sun was setting over the Rockies. Beautiful flight. We stayed with Dave and Aimee and Ben. They have a lovely house in an older neighbourhood - reminded me a lot of Fort St. John, actually. Saturday night we had a nice late dinner.

Saturday morning we were up early and went with Dave to Drumheller to the Royal Tyrell Museum. The Badlands were awesome, stretching for miles. In fact, it was impossible to see Drumheller until we drove down into the canyon. The kiddies ran into Horseshoe Canyon. we had lunch at the cafeteria in the Museum, and loved the fabulous displays. The trees are glorious fall colours, the plains swift and golden, a really beautiful drive.

Monday morning we were up early for a pancake breakfast at Heritage Park in Calgary. What a beautiful wonderful place. Like Fort Steele and McLean Mill in their wildest dreams. Sections of the park celebrate various eras from the forts and teepees to late 1800s to 1950s. Of course, our favorite part was the 1890s. We spent the whole day having steam train rides, carnival rides, shopping through heritate stores, picnicking on the side of the reservoir behind the fort. Favorite parts were the icecream store, the saloon, the newspaper office with offset press, the train and the church. We were drawn to the church by the sound of singing and it turns out that a men's choir from Cornwall happened to be visiting in the park. They agreed to sing and we sat outside and enjoyed an impromptu heavenly concert. Shea modelled a beaver ensemble!

And our last day Tuesday was spent zooming to Lake Louise and Banff! What a whirlwind trip! Lake Louise was beautiful, more than I remembered. We walked around to the end of the lake where the glacier melt pushed silt into swirling streams. The lake was so blue and reflective that sometimes our pictures looked upside down! A glorious sunny day, as all of our days were in Alberta. The Chateau was bigger and different in a lot of ways, but the view is still breathtaking. There is no gift shop and candy store, Jen, but the interior still lovely and gracious. Many exclusive stores; a rock shop where my gift shop was, a guides "cabin" where your candy store was! We oohed at the huge mountains which guided us through to Banff and made our way home to Calgary at the end of the day. A quick shop at the only Lego store in Canada, then home to pack.

Our trip home started at the ghastly hour of 4:22 (that's 3:22 Qualicum time!). We raced to the airport to catch our 6:05 flight, had Timmy's for breakfast in the Vancouver airport, then a quick flight to Victoria. We were picked up and taken back to our car, then a sleepy drive home to Qualicum! Whew! Hope you enjoy the photos, we had a truly marvelous intense little holiday.