Life List Update

This summer I have managed to cross a few things off my life list.

I went to the rodeo at the Calgary Stampede and it was an experience that I thoroughly enjoyed. I have never really been enthralled by the cowboy mystique nor did I go through a horse phase as a young girl, so I wasn't sure about the whole rodeo thing. I turns out I was entertained from start to finish. I was impressed by the physicality of the animals, who it turns out, are bred for rodeos, the bucking horses and bulls as well as the horses ridden by the "cowgirls" in the barrel racing event. The men and women who took part in the events displayed remarkable skills in accomplishing their tasks. I haven't done any reading into the ethics of rodeos, and I'm sure that there are a large number of people who would argue that the rodeo constitutes cruelty to animals (on the day we were there, 2 bucking horses were euthanized, and Alal was quite concerned for the welfare of the animals throughout). In addition, traditional gender roles were clearly promoted throughout. Competitors who chose to wear pink shirts to compete were gently chided by the announcers and there was much emphasis on the cowboys winning enough money to "feed their families", though I don't recall this being mentioned during the women's barrel racing event. All in all though, for the $15 price of the ticket though, it was a great afternoon of entertainment (some of those cowboys were hotttt).

I also managed to get to the hot springs in Banff. It was a gorgeous day and the setting was spectacular. The kids however, were less than thrilled with the experience as they found the water to be too warm, expecting more of a recreational pool. Coming in the middle of 5 days of camping when the temperature during the nights dipped to close to 0, , on the other hand thoroughly enjoyed the hour of warmth and relaxation.

Finally, I visited one new province, Saskatchewan and five new states (Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana). The states that we drove through on our way to Alberta were all quite lovely, though we only saw a very small portion of them. We were quite impressed by the fact that the two state parks we stayed at (in Minnesota and North Dakota) had free wi-fi. Unfortunately, by the time we reached Saskatchewan we were all exhausted, so I'm afraid that we did not really appreciate the Prairie province as we might have. We did end of having to visit a medical clinic in Saskatchewan, so after 15 years of teaching about the birth of Canadian Medicare in Saskatchewan, I got to experience it first hand.

#85- Part II- Favourites

When I was planning our trip, I tried to include as many different things on our itinerary as possible, mostly because it is a long way to Alberta from Northern Ontario, and I'm not sure when we are going to make it back there, especially with so many other places in Canada and the rest of the world to see. I think that looking back, the kids will have great memories of the whole trip, but each of them had a different favourite part.

Alal, my quintessential (and recently, very frustrating) pre-teen son liked the day that we spent at the West Edmonton Mall best. I have a hard time not rolling my eyes when he says this to anyone who asks, because we saw and did so many things that were much more unique. I guess at 11, I would have said the same thing though. At the Mall (the biggest in the world, according to their website) we spent most of the day in the indoor water park and later in the day, the boys went to the arcade while I went shopping. Here is Alal on the scariest water slide which he had no problem with, in spite of the fact that he has always been the kind of kid who likes to play it safe (more changes to look forward to!).

For his part, Mlal really got into the cowboy spirit during the time we spent in Calgary during the Stampede. It seems that everyone in Calgary is a cowboy or cowgirl for these 10 days and my 9 year old was no exception. He loved the rodeo, especially the bulls.

He couldn't wait to get his hands on his very own cowboy hat, which we had a hard time getting him to take off for the rest of the trip. Mlal wanted a great big cowboy belt buckle but it wasn't so important when he learned that he would have to use his own money if he wanted one.


Plal can't seem to choose a favourite. He enjoyed the badlands/dinosaur leg the most of the three boys. When people ask him about our trip he invariably mentions the water park at the mall, the rides and the rodeo at the Stampede and this....

We saw a lot of wildlife, elk, deer, mountain goats, big horned sheep, squirrels of all sorts, and many different varieties of birds, but for Plal, the bison that we encountered driving east from Edmonton were the coolest. All he needs to do now is remember what they are, so he can stop describing them to people as "really hairy bulls".

For Ylal and I, the highlight of the trip was definitely the time we spent in the mountains. I'm not sure if the people who live in Banff and Jasper permanently get used to the spectacular scenery, but I was constantly amazed by the breathtaking beauty and variety of the mountains and glacial lakes. I can foresee us returning to this part of the country.

# 85- Take a Family Vacation Every Year Part I

When I included this on my life list, it wasn't because we haven't been going on vacation, because we have. We had gotten into a bit of a rut in our vacations. For many years our summer vacations have consisted of going to visit the in-laws in Quebec City and a couple of days of camping with friends.

Last summer during our rainy visit to Quebec I realized that we had been visiting the same places with the kids every summer for what seemed like forever. Time for a new plan, time to see new places, have new experiences, make new memories for the kids. I began planning our 2010 summer vacation to Alberta immediately. Our plans were ambitious, involving long driving days in the car, taking us through 5 states and 4 provinces in all. We planned on camping for the majority of the trip, with a few nights in hotels to break things up. I anticipated that it would not be a relaxing vacation, in fact, in the weeks leading up to our departure, I expected the worst. In some ways I was right, but in others I was happily proved wrong.

Packing the car proved to be our first challenge. Our rooftop carrier, which had always proved to be perfectly adequate to our normal travelling needs, holds a lot less stuff than either I or Ylal anticipated. This meant that there was way more stuff in the car itself than we had planned, which placed the kid in the back row in the precarious position of having plastic boxes full of food or camping gear, beach towels or sleeping bags fall on them as we rounded tight corners.

notice the precariously balanced pile in the back right corner of the van

The next set of problems presented itself on our very first day of camping. Although I had made list upon list of necessary items we were missing a couple of essentials for camping, namely a jug for water and a tub for doing the dishes. Not a big problem, since there seemed to be a Wal-Mart in every town and village we travelled though in our first few days. Later, water jug and dish washing tub acquired, as we prepared to spend our first night in the tent in Bemidji Minnesota, the thunder began. It continued, accompanied by heavy rain, wind and lightning all night. I awoke the next morning, thankfully dry, but very uncomfortable...the Aerobed that I had borrowed from my parents had sprung a leak. This necessitated another trip into town, where we found an outfitter and I came to be the proud owner of a camp cot, or the princess bed, as it came to be known for the rest of the trip.

Surprisingly, not a problem, were the long days of driving required to get to our western destination. For this I have to thank J.K. Rowling, as the Harry Potter audio books provided us with hours (we listened to 182 chapters, all of books 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) of bicker-free and whine-free driving time as well as providing bedtime relaxation every night of the trip.

Next post...our favourite places...