Radium Hot Springs, BC

Sunday, July 7 - From Canmore, AB we headed north, then west, then south to Radium Hot Springs. Beautiful drive, but not so great roads. We arrived at Canyon RV Resort around 2:00pm. Beautiful park with a creek running through the middle that even though we are not right up against, can still hear from our site with the windows open.

Radium is a very small town with little hotels, a couple of resorts, golf course, restaurants and gas stations. We did go up to the hot springs last night and I was kind of disappointed. I pictured them to be in the middle of nature, natural hot springs, but it was more of a big outdoor swimming pool that was 104 degrees. They also had a cold pool but that's where most of the families were. We sat in the pool for about 45 minutes with the views of the hills to our right. It was nice but just not what I had expected.

Today we ventured out all the way to the laundry room at the RV park and sat in our beach chairs and read while we waited for our laundry to finish. Then we headed "into town" and found a little restaurant called The Old Salzburg Restaurant where Scott had Wiener Schnitzel and I had Spatzle.

Tomorrow we head back to the States and end up in Coeur d' Alene, ID for one night and then on to Hells Gate State Park in Lewiston, ID where we will be joined by family for 4 days.

This has been an incredible trip and I am so sad to see it coming to an end. We haven't watched t.v. or listened to a radio for 3 weeks! And only in the last week or so have we had consistent internet. We've had better weather than we even anticipated (wearing shorts and t-shirts most every day instead of the jeans and sweatshirts that we loaded the trailer with!).  And I love how it stays light out until at least 11:00pm up here. The people have been very friendly everywhere we've gone. It has just been an all around awesome vacation.

Thanks for coming along with us!

Spring Creek RV Park, Canmore, AB

This is a couple days late but I wanted you all to see the beauty that surrounded us for 9 days in Canmore.

This view was out our back window of the trailer.

This was my view from my lounge chair outside the trailer.

The Three Sisters to the left of us.

There were at least 3 bunnies in the park but this one hung around our trailer because I may or may not have fed it some lettuce :).

Policemans Creek that ran around the campground.

Taking an evening walk around Policemans Creek.

Site D67 - our home for 9 days.

The Calgary Stampede - Day 2

Saturday, July 6 - Happy 1st Anniversary to Keri & Josh!! Boy, that year went fast!

Today we took our time getting up and around knowing that there wasn't much left to see at the Stampede and the Grandstand Show didn't start until 7:45pm. So we left Canmore around 1:45pm, got to Calgary around 3pm with blue sky and sunshine and decided to hit the food stands. We started with a Colossal Onion (just like the bloomin' onion at Outback), added in a German sausage dog and then moved on to the fried cheese (mozzarella, cheddar and jalapeño). Perfect State Fair type food! As we were eating, the clouds moved in and decided to open up and dump more rain. Luckily, we had found seats under a canopy at a picnic table so we were dry and could ride out the downpour under there. A couple joined us and we found out that they were from Calgary and had gone to the rodeo earlier in the day. So, we had a nice chat with them until the blue sky moved in again and it turned out to be a beautiful evening.

Oh, and this is for Patty.....yes, they served Dole Whips! Not as good as Disneyland though, but I thought of you!

Thinking of Patty back at work while I eat my Dole Whip!

After the rain let up, we walked around and looked at different things, mainly the Ag building with the animals.

We headed over to the grandstands for the Chuckwagon Races and Evening Show. The track was so muddy from the rain and they were smoothing it out for the races.

And, let the racing begin! So much fun to watch!

After the Chuckwagon Races, came the evening show. It didn't take long at all for them to set up the stage. While we were waiting for them to get all set up, we were talking to the people sitting right next to us and found out they were from Albany, OR. Small world!

And this "little" tractor was going to do it all.

Here comes the stage!

The beginning of the show...these people really like dangling people from really high places!

Twin brothers with amazing strength. I wonder if they ever get cramps in their arms?!

So fun to watch!

Marc Martel - check out http://cs.calgarystampede.com/music/hell-or-high-water.html - he didn't sing this particular song, although I wish he had, but he was still really good!

People were inside the horses moving their feet.

And finally, the best fireworks show I've ever seen!

YaHoo! The Calgary Stampede - Day 1

On Friday, July 5 we got up and headed south to Calgary for the Stampede. We had tickets to the rodeo that started at 1:15am and wanted to look around beforehand. We found a parking lot across the street from the main entrance and after we paid through the nose (which I think included our first born) we headed into the Stampede grounds. My first agenda was to purchase a "Stampede 101: Hell or High Water" t-shirt before they were sold out. Driving down to Calgary and seeing the devastation of the flood was mind boggling. And seeing how well the Stampede grounds looked, you knew that it took a lot of people working very long hours to get them that way.

Main Entrance

This is what it looked like at about 11:30am - blue sky, few clouds and about 65 degrees - perfect. We headed into the grandstands around 12:45pm, found our seats in section 220, row HH, seats 114 & 115 and were relieved to see we were out of the sun and under cover.

Our view taken with the big lens.

The rodeo started with a little show of freestyle motorcross bikes - a 15-year old (in red), a 35-year old (in blue) and Evil Knievel's godson (in white) :).

And then the rodeo began, first with a branding of the arena dirt with CS and then with the entrance of the competitors.

For the next 3 hours we were totally entertained and loved every minute of the rodeo! I think we took almost 800 pictures between the 2 days of the rodeo and I am still in the process of downloading them so I'll try to get them up (not all 800!) as soon as I can.

After the rodeo we decided to go into an indoor show of SuperDogs where I'm pretty sure we were the oldest people in there! The show lasted about an hour and so as we were leaving the building around 5:30pm, there was a huge backup at the door leading outside. We couldn't figure out what was happening until we saw outside....it was pouring down rain! Not just a little Oregon shower, but an all out downpour. I think everyone at the Stampede took cover in the BMO Centre (building where all the vendors were like at the State Fair). It was wall to wall people. So we decided to go ahead and leave and find somewhere for dinner in Calgary. When we got to the parking lot where the truck was, there was already a mud puddle in the center of the lot that was half way up the tires on some cars. After the flooding, the water just doesn't have anywhere else to go. We heard later that they closed a road and neighborhoods were flooding again. We made it to The Keg and it was delicious - prime rib and garlic mashed potatoes - yum!

We got back to Canmore and the campground around 9:30pm and were ready for day 2 of the Stampede where we had tickets to the evening Grandstand Show. I'll write that post later, but for now here are some pictures that I've downloaded so far....

Banff Gondola - Sulphur Mountain

We decided to do the Banff Gondola on Tuesday (instead of Monday) and it turns out it was the hottest day so far. The parking lot was packed with cars and tour busses but the time it took to get on the gondola went very fast. And the gondolas were all enclosed holding 4 people at the maximum. We met a father and daughter who were in front of us in line, he from Manitoba and she from Calgary. They figured it had been 20 years since they had last rode the gondola (the daughter looked to be about 24 years old). So we rode the gondola up with them. It was very hot inside the gondola and it went very fast up Sulphur Mountain compared to the Jasper Tramway and the Lake Louise Ski Lift. I was kinda scared! But tried to keep my mind off of it by talking to the father/daughter team :).

Once we got to the top, it was worth the fast gondola and the height!

This reminded me of the Great Wall in China! Yes, we climbed to the top!

The rivers are a lot more muddy than usual due to the flooding.

The Banff Springs Hotel

Oh Canada, EH!

After the parade during the day (and a quick respite of AC and a nap) we headed to the Oh Canada, EH! dinner show. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of the show because it was dark and I didn't want to distract anyone with the flash. We sat at a table with 6 other people and ate family style. They served split pea soup with rolls, walnut salad, haddock, roast beef, chicken, potatoes, vegetables and maple chocolate cake throughout the show.

Because it was Canada Day (EH!) they started the show with singing their national anthem. There were six actors (3 guys, 3 gals) and the show was centered around the premise of Trivial Pursuit which was invented by Canadians and with each category came song and trivia about Canada. The actors involved us (the audience) but unfortunately, Scott was never approached to be in the spotlight (probably because Jennifer and Wendy weren't part of the show). I, however, had time in the spotlight, more than I felt comfortable with but had a great time! There are a lot of songs that were Canadian or sung by people from Canada that I had no idea of. Of course, I can't remember any of them right now but maybe I can research those and get back to you!

As we were heading to bed around 10:30pm, the Canada Day fireworks began in Millenium Park right beside the campground. They were great fireworks seen from our trailer window. I don't know if any music accompanied them and the show seemed to be short. But I loved watching them!

"Stay Strong and Canmore On!"

July 1 - Canada Day, eh! We decided to go to the parade in downtown Canmore which started at noon. Main Street was lined on both sides with empty chairs in the sun as people spent the last few minutes searching for shade. But as the parade time neared, chairs were filled, children sat on the curbs and you could feel the excitement of patriotism.

Canmore, AB - Main St. before the parade started

I love a good small town parade! Bands, businesses, floats, community feel - love it all! And it was HOT standing on the asphalt of the street - 92 degrees with Canmore's elevation of 4500-ft - we were sweating! But here are some pictures from the parade.

At the end of the parade came all of the construction vehicles and service people who helped clean up after the flood. It was amazing to be a part of the feeling of gratitude this town had for the volunteers and others who helped.