A day of relatives

So we started our day by borrowing Don and Claire’s car and going to go see Lance and Janet Heald. We had a little morning snack there of coffee or tea and muffins. Then we went for lunch at Gargoyles for lunch. There we met Lynn and David Bryan, and David and Patti Harris. Don and Claire joined us as well. Patti gave me a few magnets and it was nice conversation. Then we went down to the marina and saw these rocks people made look like balloon animals! It was really cool, and I also saw the sleeping giant, though I was a little sceptical about it. We check out this little place with information on grain elevators then went to go look for a Thunder Bay magnet. Didn’t find one though so we went to go visit Frances and Tony Chochla. We had after lunch snacks and drinks then came back to Don and Claire’s. I found a bubble gun and played with that but Fran wasn’t impressed cause the wind was going in her direction. Bill took me to the corn maze on the Belluz farm. The corn isn’t tall enough though. We looked for strawberries and found few. We came back for dinner and Don and Claire’s son Kevin and wife Jodi came over with their kids Lily (9) and Finn (6). After dinner the kids wanted to look at my magnets so I showed them then we started hanging out. We came inside to watch the Olympics and they looked at my blog. Then they had to go home so we said goodbye. I am watching the news now and my blog is finally up to date!!

A power outage and pie

Fran was glad we ended up staying in a hotel because it rained the next day. And hard too. It was on and off all day. I think it took out the cable in the hotel room. We left and got gas. A lot of the scenery was the same. Bill saw some beaver dams and I saw another moose!! Another female. I did end up seeing a beaver dam, but only one so far. I also made plans to see Erica, so I’m looking forward to that.
I had to use the bathroom so we pulled over at a gas shop, but you had to get something to use it, or at least they wanted you to, so we ate lunch at the restaurant attached to the gas station. Fran and  Bill had sound and I had a salad. We all had pie though. I had apple, Bill had blueberry and Fran had raspberry. When we were there the power went out and it was fun looking at how they had to get out the generator and the cook was calling for light. We left in the rain and stopped at the Kakabeka falls then went to the info center for a magnet. We arrived in Thunder Bay and went to Don and Claire’s house, and met June Stewardson. She was there for dinner. Then I watched the Olympics then bed. I slept in a real bed as well.

Another real bed!

After the village we went to Drydan and decided to stay in the Comfort Inn. We went to Pizza Hut for dinner. SO good! Then we went back to the hotel and watched The Holiday and worked on my blog and also Road Trip. I worked on my blog till all hours of the night and Fran was sending out e-mails. It is almost updated now. The bed was nice and this time Fran didn’t snore

Mennonite Heritage Village

We left aiming to get to the village at 10am. We got there a little later. We started with the gift shop then went on looking at the houses. It is kind of like Upper Canada Village, but the Mennonites just had one main street everything was on. There was a blacksmith, general store, barn, public school, Mennonite school church and many other things. They have a windmill that grinds their flower. The government made all the Mennonite kids go to public school, so the Mennonites that didn’t like that moved to Mexico or Paraguay. The other’s agreed. The churches were really plain and so were a lot of the houses. They could have up to 14 kids and the kids had to share rooms, no one had their own room. At the barn the baby goats came out to see me and the donkey let me scratch him. There were 2 different brides there getting their pictures taken. We finished by looking at the gist shop again and then a little indoor exhibit. It talked about the prosecution on the Mennonites and more.
We left and stopped at went to Kenora info center. We went to the Blue Heron for a magnet. I saw a giant fish there and Safeway and Starbucks for drinks.

 Reimer AVE
Steinbach

 A tribute to the Mennonite Woman
Fran

 The public school the Mennonite kids were forced to go to
Fran, Samantha

 Rumble seat

 A Mennonite school
Fran

 The goat came to say hello
Samantha

 Scratching the donkey
Samantha

 A plain, Mennonite Church
Samantha

Where the Mennonites travelled too

More Family history

We left Carberry and went to Sydney, MB. Fran lived there when she was a little girl, when she was about 2 years old- then end of 1st grade. We saw her old school house which they have now made bigger and I think it’s a community center and her old house and church. It was a nice small town and when we went to the general store to mail Fran`s letters, the lady that owned the store started talking and she said she had a book about the town from a long time ago so we went inside and sat. They talked forever then we got milk and chips. We had lunch down by the tracks on a picnic table but still in town. 

After we left we went to Winnipeg looking for Stella Mission church and we ended up finding it. After we went to VIA rails for free wifi and I updated my blog. We stayed there for a long time then went to The Forks. It is a little place, with food and shops. We looked around then had dinner. The Olympics were on there so we watched a little of the opening ceremonies. We went to go find Fran's old house and Winnipeg and find it as well. Then went to the Parliament Building and saw the Golden boy. I asked Bill to drop my camera again so that I could get a new one. We went to Steinbach for the night.

 Fran at her old school with the Bell

 Fran's old house and church where her father worked

 Stella Mission chruch
Fran

 Car we saw in The Forks

 Parliament Building
Samantha

 Golden Boy

Fran's old house

Carberry

We left Ft Qu’Appelle driving through the valley on the north side. We saw the lake formed by glaciers, and a chipmunk ran across the road. We stopped and saw choke cherries and looks at the valley. It was beautiful. Then we got on the highway and headed to Moosomin. We had lunch in a little Chinese restaurant. It was called Wong’s and served Canadian/Chinese food. It wasn’t really Chinese food and Fran Complained but I didn’t care. Then we went to Rocanville where Bill’s mom grew up. Bill went to the town hall-ish thing while Fran and I looked at the little shops and she found one where she found this really cool necklace. Then we stopped at the post office and got stamps and post cards.
We went to go find where grandma Reimer lived and Bill thinks he found it. Though it’s kinda run down. Then we went through Brandon, but I am not sure where we went after since I fell asleep. We ended up in Carberry in a Campsite and Ball park. We didn’t actually make it to Spruce Woods but that’s okay. I am starting to get grumpy from lack of sleep.

 Giant Oil Can, Rocanville
Samantha

 Got any oil?
Fran

 Post office
Fran, Samantha

Carberrry Campground and Ballpark

Samantha, Fran

A passage to Fortune

We left the campground to go to the Moose Jaw Tunnels. They are tunnels underground built originally for steam tunnels for the buildings. Our tour was about the Chinese and they worked underground, away from the public eye. They were treated horribly. Originally, they came to Canada for a better life, but that didn't happen. We went to the mall and got a magnet and talked to a lady about making a magnet out of a cute saying. The magnet I got had Mac the Moose on it. The giant moose. After we went for groceries and lunch at Tim Hortons. The giant thing I saw in Moose jaw was Mac the Moose. 
We then stopped at Regina and saw the Parliament Building and then went to the RCMP Heritage center. There they had a short movie about Depot and a cool interactive e crime lab thing. By that time it was too late to make it to Moosomin, so we went to Qu’ Appelle and satyed at Ft Qu’Appelle. We made dinner and just hung out. Bill started reading us the stories about his mom when she was a kid.

 Mac the Moose, Moose Jaw
Samantha

 Regina Parliament Building
Fran

Campsite in Ft Qu'Appelle

Samantha, Fran

My Innovative marshmallow roasting idea. It worked!

Moose Jaw Campground

Fran, Samantha

Confused

My blog is getting out of timeline which is disappointing, but what can I do?

 Giant chess set in Medicine Hat
Samantha, Fran

 Buffalo, not sure where we saw them

 The Alberta/Saskatchewan Info center
Fran

 Fran, Samantha

  Bill, Samantha

Bill, Fran

I forgot Herbert

Before we got to Moose Jaw, we stopped at Herbert. There are a lot of Mennonites in this little town and it’s where Bill’s grandfather and father lived. There was a caboose we saw, they were actually called break vans, and caboose was a slang term, but it ended up sticking. So that’s how the name caboose came up. Then we went into the museum, which is am old train station. It had a lot of old stuff in it and was actually quite interesting. There were really old cash registers and this guys that collects hats keeps them in an old train part. There are old hotel registries and old pictures and all the 150 hats. If you bring in a hat this man doesn't have he will give you a free haircut. We then got ice cream and saw a sign for Faspa and bill explained what it was, though we didn’t have any. The lady that worked there was really nice. We took pictures with a snowmover that moves snow off the tracks and then continued on.

 Snowmover, Herbert SK
Samantha, Fran

Train station turned museum

Bill

Posting

I will try to past as often as possible, but I don't always have wifi. And if I do post it's probably not going to be up to date. I pre write them on word then just copy them. Right now we are sitting in the VIA station in Winnipeg because it had wifi. I will post again as soon as I can. Too-da-lou

A real bed!

We left the museum quite late, so we got to Medicine Hat at 8:30. Fran decided it was too late to get a camp ground so we got a hotel room at the Quality Inn! We went to restaurant right away cause it closed at nine, and had a very nice dinner. Then we went to our room and I watched tv cause we had one. Fran went down to the hot tub and I worked on my blog and took care of my ear while watching tv on my computer. Now thee problem with the blog is that the pictures take forever to load, so I started watching a movie, then stayed up late into the night watching it because I became involved in it.

The only problem was that the hotel room was really hot and Fran snores.

We got up and got dressed then headed down to a free breakfast. I had eggs and potatoes and bacon! When we went back to the room I practiced guitar a little while the tv was on. Justin Bieber’s video Boyfriend came on and Bill got all judgy saying that it was all about fast cars, gold shoes and sexy women. Which is kind of true. We looked around downtown Medicine Hat and saw the giant chess set and got my magnet.

We then drove for a really long time, then crossed the border, then stopped at the tourist center for maps. Bill tried to explain the tone tone semi tone thing for the guitar and it’s coming along slowly. We then had lunch in the wind and took some MORE pictures. Right now we are sitting in the Moose Jaw campground and tomorrow we will explore Moose Jaw and will stop in Regina, Rocanville and then will be staying in Moosomin.

Royal Tyrrell Museum

I remember visiting this place as a kid when my dad brought us. What I remembered was the park out back.  It is a museum about, well dinosaurs since this part of Alberta is where they found a lot of the bones and stuff. 
There is this little interactive place that was crawling with little kids. I understand that I was one of them, but what bugs me is that, when I am trying to read a something and there is an interactive thing, that kids have no idea what they are doing  and are just spinning the crank while you are trying to understand the whole point of the thing. The one that I liked needed to be explained to me by Bill. The other people probably had no idea what it was, but I after I played it. So it is a bunch of red flowers, and between those a bunch of yellow, orange and red butterflies pop up. Now what you have to do is see how many you can get. At the end it tells you how many butterflies you have hit. You would normally have more orange and yellow then red. The game was explaining evolution for survival. I did it a couple more times. The first time I got 4 reds, the second 6 and the third 9. See now I was learning that the camouflage more with the red flowers, and I was adapting to that so I liked that game.
The rest of the museum, there were fossils and dino bones and it was all really cool, but coming to the end it was becoming an information overload!

 Having Lunch at the museum
Samantha

 Comparing,

 Comparing

A dino and her child

The Badlands

We didn’t have time to stop in Calgary but I at least wanted to drive through it. I saw where the Olympic ski jump and bobsled was. I also saw the hotel we stayed in during JP and Lies’ wedding. We couldn’t go downtown but that was okay. We drove through a lot of fields to get to Drumheller. You can tell when you’re there because they have little dinosaur’s statues everywhere. We had a little trouble finding the campsite, but we did make it. I was so happy! It had showers, a laundry area and wifi, so I could work on my blog a little more. I stayed up with Fran while she was waiting for the laundry and then went to bed. It started raining a little but not too much. The next day we packed up very slowly then headed to the Royal Tyrrell museum.

 The view

 Me having fun

My Magnets. I have a lot more now

Our van. Sorry it wouldn't rotate
Samantha, Fran

Banff

On our way to Drumheller, we stopped off in Banff. First we went to the tourist information center and figured out where a Source was because my headphones were broken.  The guy has this funny accent and kept asking me for my postal code, but I had absolutely no idea what he was saying. I though he wanted a card or something.  Then the other sales guy said it and I understood finally. After we went to Safeway and were gonna go and get a pizza or lunch, but I decided that I wanted a sandwich from Safeway. We got a little lost on our way there. I also got a moose magnet since I had seen one. So Fran and Bill got that as well and some juice and we had a picnic in the park before heading off to Drumheller

Banff, Canada

Fran, Samantha

Samantha, Fran

Lake Louise

We left early Sunday morning (thank god this camp site didn't have as many mosquitoes) to go to Lake Louise. It has become a big touristy area in the past years. The lake was named after Queen Victoria`s 4^th daughter. The lake itself is cold because it is glacial water coming from the Victoria Glacier.

We went to go and check out the Lake Louise Fairmont for a magnet-my collection is really coming along- and we also had to use the washroom. Bill had gone before us and said they were Regal, and he was right! The stalls had wooden doors and marble dividers. Then we went to the Balcony and pretended we stayed there.

Then we headed off to Calgary! I was looking for wild life that lives in the rockies, and certainly a moose. I was looking in the marshy areas that Bill said they liked to hang out in and I saw one!! It was just a quick glimpse and not for long but I still saw one! Though we couldn’t slow down for a picture.

 Camp G2, second night
Wilma, Fran, Gary

 Our houses for the night

 Lake Louise
Samantha

 Lake Louise
Fran and Bill

We stayed at the Fairmont

Columbia Ice Fields

When Bill woke up in the morning he went and got us another campsite cause someone was going to take ours. Before we left, Bill went to go and show the other's the new campsite, but then got lost on the way back, so I fell asleep and stayed asleep for most of the the trip but woke up just in time to see a black bear on the side of the road. It was the second one I'd see and I was able to get a picture on it.
We stopped for gas and lunch at The Crossing and then stayed there for about an hour. Then we started again for the Ice Fields. When we got there it was just BEAUTIFUL. The part that we saw was the Athabasca Ice Field. I got my magnet and then there was a museum downstairs that talk about the Glacier so we went to go look at that. They had found buttons, a backpack, cigarette butts and a moose in the glacier when it melted. It has receded A LOT since they discovered it.
Bill asked if I wanted to go up to the toe of the glacier and was kind of reluctant. It was a 1k walk uphill and it was cold but when I got up there I was happy I had gone. on the way up it said where the glacier had been at different points in time and it has melted a lot. there has also been a lot of deaths. The last 3 were unsuccessful, the people mostly dying from hypothermia, and a nine year old died in 2001 because he fell into a crevice made by ice.

The second black bear I'd seen

 Same bear

The museum downstairs explaining different thing about the glacier
Samantha

Athabasca Glacier
Samantha

Athabasca Glacier
Samantha, Bill

 At the toe of the Athabasca Glacier
Samantha

 Athabasca Glacier, part of the Columbia Ice Fields