June 30, 2009

The day started with an early continental breakfast at the hotel, then on the road by 9am – so much for the early start!! All of our best intentions to stay on our home time schedule have gone completely out the window – mostly due to all the late nights visiting here. What my family here doesn’t seem to realize, is that when it’s midnight for them, it’s feeling like 2am for us and we’re bagged!! This is something that gives my cousin Coreen’s husband, Terry, much delight. When I started yawning at 10pm, the ribbing started and lasted well into the night!

Today marked another milestone for us as we made our first Timmy’s stop of the trip for what turned out to be one of the most horrible cups of coffee I’ve every had from there, and so, it will also be our last stop at Timmy’s on the trip.

Our plan for this morning is to make our way to the mountain skiing village of Kimberly, which is modeled after a Bavarian alpine village. We took Hwy 93/95 to Ta Ta Creek, then went southwest on 95A to Kimberly.

This is a big day for wildlife spotting – just in the am alone, we saw:

9:15am soaring bald eagle
9:29am bald eagle hunting in Kootenay River
9:49am 2 turkey vultures
9:50am white tailed deer
9:54am nesting bald eagles
10:00am 2 kingfishers
10:12am great blue heron
10:30am bald eagle
10:40am red tailed hawk
10:42am white tailed deer
10:56am mule deer (buck)

11:00am we arrived in the village of Kimberly and it was as quaint as we expect it would be. Most of the town looks like any other but they have two cobblestone streets (The `Platzl`) that are closed to automobile traffic and are lined on both sides with Bavarian style buildings, shoppes and restaurants. Darryl and I wandered the streets and browsed in the shoppes for a couple of hours before sitting down to lunch on a patio at the Gausthaus am Platzl restaurant where Darryl had a glass of their Bavarian pilsner beer (Warsteiner) with his lunch of pulled pork & brie sandwich and I had garlic sautéed prawns with rice and a Corona.

It was another sunny, warm, gorgeous day – absolutely perfect patio dining weather, and we were loathe to bring it to an end, so when our waitress suggested homemade strudel and coffee after lunch, we were more than happy to take her up on the offer. Darryl had strawberry rhubarb strudel and I had the more traditional apple – both were delicious.

By 2:30, we had made our way to Elizabethville and the Elizabethville falls. A short hike off the road took us to a scenic lookout over the basin at the bottom of the falls.

By 3:10pm, we had completed the loop and were back in Cranbrook where we began that morning.

Out afternoon wildlife spottings included:

3:22pm white tailed deer
3:51pm osprey fishing
4:30pm osprey on nest at Wasa Lake

At 5pm, we arrived in the area called Canal Flats, which is known for its variety of wildlife, but I think someone sent out a memo we were coming and told all the animals to hide, as we saw none. Even still, with no animals, the scenery was incredible – the colour of the water was unbelievable. Shortly after, we got our first glimpse of the Columbia River and then were at our hotel by 6pm for the night.

Monday June 29, 2009 - Leaving Lethbridge

Monday morning, we got up, showered and packed up our suitcases before heading upstairs for breakfast with Aunt Shirley and Uncle Elwood, who was feeling better after laying low the day before. We took photos on the front lawn after breakfast with everyone and then Aunt Shirley took us to the Vauxhall Cemetery to see where Grandpa and Grandma Bryant are buried.

After that, we dropped Aunt Shirley off at the house and said our goodbyes and headed off towards Retlaw.

Aunt Shirley & Uncle Elwood had lots of these types of birdhouses around their house - various types of footwear enjoying a second life! These were on the back fence by the driveway.

Retlaw is where my grandparents settled when they moved from Whitby, Ontario to Alberta. When they moved west in ’31, they already had my Uncle Alan, Aunt Norma and Uncle Vern with them. My Uncle Elwood was the first son born in the west, and my dad of course, was the last, being the youngest. The rest are scattered in between.



My dad may or may not be named after Retlaw (Walter spelled backwards is Retlaw), but he also had an Uncle Walter that he may have been named after. I’ll have to ask him. Several of his brothers were named after uncles they had, so I suspect that is the actual case, but still, it’s interesting to note the correlation between his name and the town.

I had been advised by my Uncle Elwood that there really isn’t anything at Retlaw anymore – most of the town is gone and only farm fields, the cemetery and the church remain. The church has been restored by past residents who come out each Christmas for a once a year service. They dress warmly as there is no heat in the building! The farm house that my dad’s family lived on is no where to be seen – it is now just a farmers field.

This is not my photo of the Retlaw church, as I didn't drive over to it (saw it in the distance though and it looked very quaint)

So, after a 45 minute detour down a very loose gravel road in our new car (!!) we realized that what my uncle said was, in fact, true, and sadly there really is NOTHING to see in Retlaw. Darryl was very happy to say “I told you so” (several times) and was unhappy that we were going to be very late to meet my Uncle Denis in Lethbridge where he had invited us to join him for lunch.

We met him at Humpty’s diner at 1pm but he wasn’t at all worried. He had talked to Aunt Shirley who had told him we were late getting away from Vauxhall and were going to make a stop in Retlaw, so he was expecting us to be somewhat delayed.

We had a long, leisurely lunch with Uncle Denis before finding the local Starbucks to grab a drink for the drive to Crow’s Nest.

Leaving Lethbridge, we were treated to the sight of a train crossing the famous bridge – the largest and oldest of it’s kind in Canada. Darryl took a couple of photos of it. In the distance ahead, we can see mountains and are getting excited!

Gradually, the flat plains gave way to more rolling terrain…we were in the foothills…and the mountains were getting more distinct but still quite a ways off in the distance. The transition from plains to foot hills to mountains takes a short amount of time and is somewhat gradual so that you don’t really realize it until you notice that suddenly you aren’t seeing much green anymore, and a lot more grey and brown.

I have been looking forward to coming back to Crow’s Nest for many years – the place and the story captivated me when I was last here in 1986. It is a surreal scene of utter catastrophic devastation, yet the town rebuilt and carried on amid the rubble of the slide. I have told Darryl about it many times and was really anxious to show it to him and take in the new interpretive centre. We knew we had until 6pm when the interpretive centre was scheduled to close, so when we arrived in Frank and it was 5pm, we figured we had an hour to take in the interpretive centre. Imagine our dismay and disappointment when we got to the door and saw a sign posted that said that yes, they were in fact open until 6, but they lock the doors at 5!! We were at the door at 5:04pm!! I was furious, but Darryl wasn’t too worried. He peeked through windows and felt we weren’t missing much so we just walked around and took photos of the slide, of Frank, Frank Slide and of Turtle mountain. I was able to tell him most of the story as I remember it well.



After we left Frank, we made one more stop at Sparwood to take photos with the Titan – the worlds biggest truck, then drove from there straight through to Cranbrook to our hotel for the night.


Along the way we saw two bald eagles just west of Sparwood, white tailed deer, a heron and a red tailed hawk in Fernie. Rocky mountain sheep just past Fernie. 2 more white tailed deer in Jaffray and at a scenic overlook, we saw several cedar waxwings, a northern red shafted flicker and a wild turkey.

Dinner that night was sandwiches and cheese from the local Sobeys in our hotel room while I got caught up on some website work – I finally had internet access!!

- Paula

Halaluja...I can blog again!!

5 days into our vacation and we finally have highspeed internet access!!

Turns out there's a cell tower in Lethbridge..causing a "dead zone" in my Aunt and Uncle's house. Who'd of thunk it??

Anywho - we are a little punch-drunk today on too many late nights, an emotional roller coster the last couple of days and A LOT of sudden stops on the trip here for wildlife spottings.

But, before I get ahead of myself, I have been keeping a journal, so will post the last 4 days before getting in to today...

- Paula

Sunday June 28, 2009

Another lazy late start to the day with breakfast around the kitchen table with Uncle Elwood, Aunt Shirley, cousin Ellen, Darryl and I. This time sausages, eggs, homemade jams and banana chocolate chip muffins made ‘specially for me by my Aunt Shirley.

We chatted over coffee about our plans for the day and realized that we wouldn’t have time to go to Brooks or Drumheller before we were to see my Aunt Norma and Uncle Denis in Lethbridge early in the afternoon, so instead we went to "Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump" – yeah – not kidding.

Really interesting place even though we sort of ended up going through it on a run – even running down 4 flights of stairs, jogging through the gift shop and dashing down hill to the car to get to Lethbridge on time.

At 3, we arrived at the seniors nursing home where my Aunt Norma, who is also my God mother, lives. It was eerily reminiscent of the lifecare centre my grandma lived in just before she passed away. The rooms were furnished the same, they had little placards outside each room with the residents photo on it and their name with a cherrily painted mail box below.

I haven’t seen my Aunt Norma, who is my dad’s second oldest sibling, since my wedding when she and several other of my Aunts and Uncles flew to Ontario. I knew she wasn’t well as she has Parkinson’s and had had a stroke last August and had been told that she has “good” days and “not so good” days. Fortunately, today was a good day and she knew right away who we were. She speaks very softly, but still smiles a lot and had some good stories to tell. Uncle Denise says sometimes here stories are true, and sometimes they are not, but she always thinks that they are. We stayed for about an hour and I could tell she was getting tired and her mind was wandering – she thought the shadow of tree branches on the window was a window washer at one point – so I had a photo taken with them and we took our leave.

Uncle Denis has invited us for lunch tomorrow so we will be back in Lethbridge one final time this trip on our way through to Crows Nest Pass and on to Cranbrook for Monday night.

Much of this trip is bitter-sweet for me, as I am seeing relatives I haven’t seen in many, many years, and some of them, I know I won’t likely see again.

Enough doom and gloom – it’s a beautiful sunny southern Alberta day right now and we are driving down highway 3 heading back to Vauxhall (yes, I’m typing as we drive!) and we have a roast beef dinner waiting for us that`s been in the slow cooker all day. Yum!

- Paula

Alberta Birds of Prey & All In The Family

We had a very late start this morning as a result of oversleeping (nice) followed by a huge homemade breakfast (very niiiiice) with blueberry and strawberry pancakes, homemade maple syrup and eggs from cousin Corinne and Terry`s farm. Cousin Ellen packed a cooler for us with water and fruit and we left for Coledale to the Alberta Birds of Prey Centre.

We took a backroads tour to Lethbridge down what we were told were oiled roads, however, they were freshly graded - so fresh in fact, that we met the grader on the road. That nice, clean, brand-spankin' new rental car? Yeah, not so nice & clean now.

American Avocet

Killdeer

We weren’t sure what to expect at the Birds of Prey centre – this is a place that rescues and, if possible, rehabilitates raptors of all kinds and releases them back into the wild. They had birds of all shapes and sizes there – all raptors though – from the adorably tiny burrowing owls to the unbelievably massive golden eagle, and all out in the open. The birds are not caged in aviaries here – they are tethered on the ground, which they say is better for them? Each of the birds is free-flown daily – those that are able to fly, that is. We had hoped to see them do this, and they were scheduled to at 1:30, but there was a delay and they weren’t going to do it until 2 and we had to leave before that to be at my cousin Bryan’s where a family reunion was planned for the afternoon and evening.

Bryan and Annie have a really cute bungalow in Lethbridge with an amazing back yard and a newly built garage that Bryan is obviously quite proud of – and in which hangs a drawing of a wolf I did for him in the late ‘80’s!

We were thrilled to see many relatives at the bbq Saturday evening, including Uncle Alan, my dad’s oldest brother. Uncle Denis, my Godfather. My cousin, Ray Bryant, who is not only my oldest cousin, but also the Mayor of Taber (!!). Cousins Cheryl, Jen & her son, Darren & Jackie and their girls, Jordan & Dani. Bryan & Annie, our hosts for the evening. Blair and his girlfriend, Darcy (Bryan and Blair are my infamous twin cousins). Corinne, Terry & Dalyce. Velma & Gene. Cousin Neil. Aunt Shirley & Uncle Elwood. Cousin Ellen. Cousin Joy & her husband, Randy, and, we can’t forget, Smilie, the dog!

We had a wonderful evening catching up with the family and hearing stories, both new and old – from Bryan reminiscing about Charlie Brown the wiener dog and selling turtles at a road-side turtle stand with his brother Blair when they were kids in Port Perry to “city folk” out in the country for the weekend. “.25 for the little ones, .35 for the medium ones and .50 for the big ones!” to educating us about “prairie oysters” and telling us about a local bar called Bob’s and the shirts you can get that say “I had a ball at Bob’s” during their testicle festival!!

Cousins Bryan and Cheryl bbq'ing Bryan's awesome home-made shishkabobs!

Alberta Wheat Pool grain elevator - a functional tribute to my late Grandpa Bryant (it encases an unsightly rain barrel!)

Cousin Neil, Uncle Denis & Cousin Dale

Cousin Darren, Uncle Alan, Uncle Denis & Uncle Elwood in Bryan's new garage.

We also heard a story that my great Uncle Ross was a merchant marine in the first world war and settled out west at the end of the war, saving money to bring his family over. He sent money for the boat fare and his wife and 7 children were to come over on the Titanic, but the tickets didn’t arrive in time, so they missed that boat and came on the next!

Another late (but great) night again (and more ribbing from Terry that we were wussies for being tired so “early”) and we made our way back to Aunt Shirely & Uncle Elwood’s for the night.

Todays tally:

- American avocet

- Killdeer

- red tail hawk (not counting the ones at the Birds of Prey Centre)

June 26th , 2009.

Paula and I had a wonderfully restful sleep for our first night in southern Alberta, considering the two hour time difference. We managed to sleep in until about 7:30-8:00 am. Alberta time. WOW that’s 9:30-10:00 Ontario time! We had a nice relaxing breakfast while listening to various birds in the front yard birch tree. I think there was a couple of birds hiding in the “cowboy boot birdhouses!” (LOL) After breakfast, we headed to Paula’s cousins, Corinne and Terry’s farm for the day in Hayes, Alberta.

Fresh farm eggs from the Unruh farm - these were breakfast the next morning!

Along the way, our tour guide, Aunt Shirley, took us past some old Bryant family homesteads, although many are not as they were then, with newer homes and no sign of what was once there when Paula’s family owned them.

We heard stories about “Lease Riders” and “Ditch Riders”, and saw where Paula’s Uncle Elwood was a “Ditch Rider”.

There we had some terrific conversation over morning coffee with Corinne and some of the neighbours, who, we understand from Corinne, are regular drop ins. In fact, we had morning coffee with them…and lunch…and dinner at 9:30pm! After morning coffee, we got the grand tour of the farm, which included the chickens, ducks, geese, pheasants, rabbits, pigs, horses, goats and cows. Did I miss any animals? Oh yes, donkeys, llamas & doves. And did I mention the goats? HUNDREDS of goats…that all come when called! EEK!

After grabbing a quick bite to eat, we headed to “the forks” with Corinne and one of neighbours, Ron, who was needed for directions. The forks is where the Bow River and the Old Man River meet and join to become the South Saskatchewan River. It was absolutely beautiful countryside and somewhat reminded us of the Grand Canyon, albeit on a much smaller scale.

While there, Corrine “guarded” the truck (read: scared of snakes, so stayed with the truck), while Ron, Paula and I explored the river bank, ancient Indian tepee rings, and flowering cacti – we looked in vain for an old arrow head without success. We did however, see a whitetail dear on the river bank, however, the brush was too thick to get a photo.

Our back roads country tour next took us past a deer farm, where dozens and dozens of white tail deer grazed in fields like cattle behind 12’ fences.

Corinne remembered that when Paula was out 23 years ago, she liked her fellabella horse, so she called a friend of hers, Bev, who has miniature horses and a fellabella. We spent about a half an hour with 6 mini’s and 2 colts – who were incredibly cute.

After the grand tour, we went back to the farm in Hayes for a BBQ dinner, where we were joined by Paula’s cousin, Dalyce, who had been judging sheep all day for her 4H group.

After a very long day, we made our way back to Paula’s Aunt and Uncles house and her cousin Ellen had arrived from Calgary for the weekend. We visited briefly but were very tired so turned in for the night.

- Darryl

Today’s tally

Half dozen wild ring neck pheasants
2 white tailed deer
3 or so hawks

Successfully, and thankfully, back on terra firma...

It was an uneventful flight to Calgary, and, when it comes to flights, uneventful it what you want to be sure. We were both incredibly tired and had counted on sleeping through most if not all of the flight, however, Darryl’s seat was broken and wouldn’t recline and I didn’t do anything but doze.

We landed in Calgary at 10:30am local time, got our luggage and rental car…a brand new (and I do mean new – only 800km on it) Impala – which those of you who know me will know I wasn’t thrilled about, however, I (grudgingly) admit that it has thus far been a nice, quiet and comfortable ride.

We spent a couple of hours at Spruce Meadows shooting show jumping until the wind got to be too much to handle – it was incredible!


We’re on our way to Vauxhall now, where we are due for dinner at 6pm this evening. It’s about 3:30 now, but at the rate we are going, the 3 hr drive is going to take MUCH longer as we’ve already had one detour for a coyote spotting and eagle-eye Darryl spotted a red tailed hawk on a fence post along side the highway. It’s a true testament to how tired we are that we didn’t go back for the hawk…I hear a pillow calling my name. It’s 6pm at home now and we have been up and on the road since 5am and had very little sleep the night before, so I think we will get this drive out of the way and tuck in to unwind for the night and get serious about getting out and doing things tomorrow. I feel naked without a blackberry on my hip…although I can hear it buzzing away in my purse…I’m having to conscientiously wean myself from grabbing it to see what’s happening every time I hear it buzz. By the end of my vacation, I hope it’s “Blackberry? What blackberry?”

We will be in and around Vauxhall for the next 3 days visiting with family I haven’t seen in many years – some since our wedding 12 years ago, most not since I was last out here 23 years ago!! I am looking forward to renewing family ties!

- Paula

Today’s tally:

Saw –
1 coyote
5 hawks
1 near miss with a prairie dog in the middle of Hwy 36 (saved at the last possible second by Darryl’s dexterous driving – no doubt gleaned from his Mosport Race 2000 training – I knew it would come in handy some day)

Winging Westward...

Terminal 3 – Pearson International Airport

What an eventful morning thus far!

Only a couple of hours into our journey and I’ve already been the lucky recipient of a “random” body search!!

I know my mom is laughing reading this – the only other time I’ve been “randomly” searched was on my last trip to Calgary when I was 13…my mom said it was because I was wearing too much makeup then…wonder what the problem was this time?? I asked for our cameras to be physically searched rather than go through the xray?

They sent everything through x-ray anyways, including my shoes.

Security is a good thing… security is a good thing…security is a good thing…but why did they have to take my bottle of water away??

Thirstily…

Paula

Four more sleeps...

I always thought that counting "sleeps" was silly, however, even I find myself doing it lately. I've long been an advocate of calendar countdowns...where you have a date in the future as a goal, and, starting on that date, you write numbers backwards on the calendar back to the current day to see just how many days you have to wait until that "special day".

Brides are notorious for it, and I was no exception. Another great time to do it is when you are looking forward in anticipation to a much needed vacation, as I am now.

40-some days ago, I started the calendar countdown, but in the last week, I find myself actually counting sleeps...officially, it's four more as I write this and I'm looking forward with a mix of equal parts dread and anticipation.

Darryl and I are going west to visit my family - most of whom I haven't seen in 23 years since I last went out. It will be like meeting strangers for the first time in some cases - cousins who were just children are now grown with families of their own. It's difficult to wrap my head around it at times.

I'm coming to terms with leaving work for 12 days. After the spring I've had with working the hours I have, I need a break. I am getting worn out and burned out and just plain tired. I hope I've left things organized enough here for the girls that they will be ok while I am gone, but I still worry about unforseen problems that I didn't think of in advance.

So, four more sleeps until we are winging westward...I will be blogging during the entire trip and we are making lots of photographic stops, so check in often for updates!

- Paula