Three Weeks...Three Seasons

It seems as if we've been rolling through summer, autumn and winter at a fast rate lately.  Faster for us, as we've been doing some rolling on of our own these past three weeks.

We left Lethbridge a few weeks ago on a beautiful autumn day - cool but sunny weather, brightly colored leaves on the trees, and that lovely nip of fall in the air.

Autumn in our neighbourhood - October 2013

Three hours later we were in sunny Arizona the Arizonans thought it was cool fall weather, but to us northerners it was a balmy sunny summertime...hot days and cool evenings with lots of desert greenery to cheer us.

In our pool, Surprise, AZ, October 25, 2013

Then ten days later we were back in Lethbridge again...but not the nice autumn Lethbridge we left.  Oh no, in the time we were away winter had come to Alberta.  It was enough to make us want to hop back on the plane and head back to Arizona for a few more weeks.

Out our front door - Lethbridge - Oct 29, 2013

It was a lovely vacation though and we do plan to go back in a couple months, in the dead of winter when we'll really appreciate a break from the snow and cold.

While in Arizona we celebrated Lloyd's 64th birthday.  Instead of singing Happy
Birthday, the Beatle's song When I'm 64 was sung, several times through the day.

The Saguaro is a protected cactus, only growing in Arizona,
so when one grows into your roof, there's no question
but that the roof needs to be adjusted to accommodate it.

Our Edmonton Oilers were playing the Phoenix Coyotes at the Jobing
Arena in Glendale, so we had to go cheer our team on in a closely fought
game which our second favorite team, the Coyotes, won by one pont.

A face off - Coyotes in red and Oilers in white and blue.

And we enjoyed the magnificent sunset over the White Tank Mountains
just west of Surprise.

We also 'discovered' historic downtown Glendale, where the
original houses, now over a hundred years old, have been restored
and are now gift stores, museums, cafes and restaurants to
cater to the tourist crowd.  I know a hundred years doesn't seem like
old to our friends in Europe and Great Britain, but in a state that has only
been part of the USA for 101 years, it's about as old as it gets.

And that, in a nutshell, was our vacation in the sun.  It was mostly a time for rest and relaxation, and that goal was met.

Enjoy the advancing winter!

Catch Up Again

I seem to be getting worse and worse at blogging...not finding/making time to get 'er done.  So once again I'm playing catch-up.

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GRIZZLY RUN
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Starting with yesterday, when some of my kids participated in the annual Grizzly Run in Canmore, AB in the beautiful Canadian Rockies.  Since health issues kept Lloyd and me from going to watch this event, I had to rely on pictures the kids posted on Instagram.  They were very good at keeping us in the loop so we could cheer them on from the comfort of our home.   The mountains in October mean cold, cold, cold.  There was even snow at one point.

These are my runners after the 50k run was over.  l to r.  Son-in-law Greg, who ran the entire 50k.  Then Daughters Sara and Amy who, with the other girls, participated in the 50k relay, each taking a leg of the mountain track.  Granddaughters Charlie and Layla who together ran the final 5.7k lap of the run.  Grandson Baron was there to cheer them on.  Daughters Mary and Emily who made up the rest of the relay team.

We are so proud of them.

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GOOD NEWS
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Emily, our youngest daughter there at the far right, had some excellent and exciting news for us in August. She and hubby Allan are expecting their first baby in April.  This is so exciting. We haven't had a new baby in our family in over three years when the last three were born in March, May and July.  This newcomer will be our 21st grandchild and we're just as thrilled about his/her arrival as we were about our first, 17 years ago.  Emily is our baby - born six years after we thought we were 'finished' - she has brought such joy to our family.  I don't know what we'd have done without her these past 27 years.

Pregnancy hasn't slowed Emily down much.  Already in her first trimester she has done a 40km hike up Mt. Robson on the British Columbia/Alberta border, she ran her first full marathon in Edmonton, and now completed the Grizzly Run Relay.  I think she's about ready to slow down now and do some nesting over the long winter months.

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THATS ALL FOR NOW
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Since I can't access my pictures very well, and not wanting to bore you with unillustrated ramblings, I'll cut this short.  Lloyd and I are looking forward to ten days of R&R in Arizona at the end of the month.  I'll post again from there.

The Journey or the Destination???

When I was a child our family would make a yearly vacation trip to Nova Scotia, where both Dad and Mum's families lived.  It was always at least a seven hour drive from where we lived in New Brunswick.  There weren't fast food restaurants along the way so Mum would pack a lunch that we'd eat in the car, after our preliminary bouts of car sickness had passed, of course. The trips seemed to be endless to us as young children.  I always knew when we were close to our grandparent's home because Mum would take the pincurls out of her hair and comb it out so she would look nice when we arrived at her parents' home.  In those days, the destination was definitely more exciting than the long car ride. Dad would drive as direct a route as possible, with no side trips or stops for sightseeing.

Maybe it's a part of aging, but I've begun to believe that the journey can be just as fun and exciting as arriving at the actual destination, whether it's a long holiday trip or a walk down the road to visit a friend.  With all the travelling Lloyd and I have been doing between Edmonton and Lethbridge, we've come to embrace that philosophy and the simple joy of travelling distances together in the best possible company, each other.

Sometimes the 5+ hour trip passes quickly with us just talking - telling stories about our childhood and we've found that even after 42 years of marriage there are still little facts and stories we don't know about one another. Sometimes we listen to music and podcasts and drive along enjoying the memories and pleasure that certain music brings to mind.

But the most fun part of making the drive we've discovered in the past year.  Lloyd has become a picture taker, thanks to the advent of cell phones with cameras. We don't drive the major north-south super highways any more, opting instead for the back roads of Alberta where the traffic is lighter and the sights more exciting.  Whether it's Lloyd driving or me, if we see something that looks interesting or photo worthy, we'll pull over to the side of the road and stop to explore and take pictures.  That's how we discovered the small communities of Millicent and Patricia and Rosebud that I've written about previously.  Occasionally the five hour drive has taken us close to nine hours to complete because there's been so much to see and explore along the way.

Yesterday's trip from Lethbridge to Edmonton took us eight hours. There was a place outside a small town that we have driven past hundreds of times and always said, "We should stop there some day", but never did.  Yesterday was the exception.  It's a little place called Aspen Crossing just out side the village of Mossleigh in the middle of the prairies.  There's a restaurant in an old railroad car, and a couple of other railroad cars around.  There was a large nursery full of plants and flowers, a patio area where every Friday night there's a show held, either live music or a play or something equally as entertaining, complete with a buffet dinner...all very rustic...much more to Aspen Crossing that we had imagined as we drove by time after time.  We lingered here for awhile taking pictures and wandering around.  Here's a sampling...

Creative use of an old car at Aspen Crossing

The restaurant Car

The kitchen attached to the restaurant car

This beautiful rooster crowed constantly athough it was 6 pm when we were there

A nice little resting place for travellers

And inside the Gift Shop, this lovely looking old mother with
her tray of cupcakes....so reaslistic.

Mossleigh's triple grain elevators, visible for miles around.  I imagine it
won't be long before they're torn down and replaced by the giant
concrete ones used now...the end of an era.

It's harvest time in Alberta and the prairies are
dotted with these gleaming golden bales of hay.

This field has just been cut and the hay is waiting to be baled.

A decrepit old barn with character.

So that's just a taste of why it takes us so long to get from one place to another.  I hope you enjoy the getting there as much as the arriving in your travels too.

Enjoy your day.

Alberta Wanderings

Lloyd and I have been doing lots of wandering around Alberta thse past few months. It's such a huge province (255,500 sq. miles or 661,848 sq. km.) and the scenery varies from mountains and lakes to prairies, boreal forest lands, badlands rich in dinosaur digs, cities, towns, villages and everything in between.

When we looked at the map closely, we discovered (several years ago actually) two towns in south-central Alberta with my not-so-common first and second names.  So on one of our trips between Lethbridge and Edmonton we went in search of the towns of Millicent and Patricia.  Interestingly enough these two places were located within 10 km of one another.

Someone liked my name enough to name a community Millicent.

This road is all there is to the unincorporated community.  Lovely
farm land all around.

And then there's Patricia.  A small town at the gateway to the
Alberta Badlands and Dinosaur Provincial Park.  Every small town
in Alberta has an annual rodeo and Patricia is no exception.

Many dinosaur fossils and bones have been found in the Alberta
Badlands, making it quite an popular area for naturalists.

 And while we're on the topic of my name, my last name, MacKenzie, is very well represented in Alberta.  The highway north that Lloyd has travelled for the past 19 years is the Mackenzie Highway, and one of our longest rivers is the Mackenzie, both named after the famous explorer Alexander Mackenzie.  So, I feel right at home in this province.

Here's a few more Alberta sights.

Every town has it's claim to fame! Potatoes are Vauxhall's.

This bridge is located by a recreational area not far from Drumheller

Pigeon Lake near Edmonton

Prairie Sunset with windmills near Taber

Twilight and granddaughter at Henderson Lake in the middle of Lethbridge

Mountain in Banff National Park

Cameron Falls in Waterton Park

Oversize traffic that forces other vehicles off the side of the road.

Oil jacks and bales of hay coexisting in the fields

And lest you think Alberta is all rural, here's some
of Calgary's buildings.

And there you have it - a thumbnail sketch of my adopted province.   Come visit sometime.  You won't regret it.

With Wendy at Windy Waterton

Don't you just love alliterative titles :)

This Labor Day weekend my sister and brother-in-law visited us in Lethbridge.  Our main event of the weekend was a trip to the famous Waterton Lakes Provincial Park.  Although we live just over an hour from the park, it's been years since we've bothered to visit.  It's a beautiful place.  Our daughter Amy and her family come down for a week of mountain hiking and visiting with her in-laws in their cabin somewhere in the mountains.  For us older ones though, exploring the town was all we could manage.  Waterton has something for everyone.

On a bluff overlooking the town of Waterton stands the iconic Prince of Wales Hotel.  This busy hotel was built in 1929 and strives to maintain an air of British elegance...a lovely place to visit.

The gift shop and restaurant are very popular with the tourists.

The valets and other hotel staff wore kilts to add to
the British atmosphere.

This beach at the edge of town is watched over by the grand Hotel.

And of course Wendy and I enjoyed browsing in the gift shop.

This is taken from the bluff behind the hotel.  Those lakes form a
chain that crosses the international border between Canada and
the US.  A boat makes regular trips through the chain of lakes.

The beautiful Cameron Falls is a popular spot to visit

There's a trail to the right that takes you above the falls
for a beautiful view.

And we finished our day off with a visit to one of the many ice cream
shops in the townsite.  This one was closed for a wedding so we had
to go to another one, but I liked the name of the shop.

And now summer's over, kids are back in school, RVs are parked for another year and life gets back to normal as we prepare for a beautiful fall and long winter ahead.  It's nice to know we have nice summer memories and photos to remind us of the long lazy days we've just enjoyed.

My Daughter...The Author!

It's been an exciting month for our first daughter, Jennifer.  On August 3, after years in the making, her first novel  was released for sale.  Last night we went to the official launch of her book.  It was an amazing experience.

Love Letters of the Angels of Death is hard for me to describe, so I've led you, via this link, to a review of it. It's not like any novel I've ever read.  It's a fascinating work of literature.  Although it's fiction, I can recognize many real-life experiences and incidents that Jenny used as inspiration in her writing, and it feels to me like a very personal book.  We are very proud of her.  She wrote it over a period of several years while being a stay-at-home Mom to her husband and five sons.

Proud Parents with their Author Daughter, Jennifer Quist

Jenn reading a selection from her book at the book launch.

Handing an autographed copy to her cousin. The lady at the table with
her is another Alberta author, Fran Kimmel (The Shore Girl).

We had never been to a book launch before.  It's quite a fun event to attend.  The venue (Lacombe Memorial Center) was beautiful and perfect for an event like this.  Between 50  - 60 people attended so Jenn was very pleased with that.  A lot of mix and mingling after Jenn's reading, catered snacks, and an all round lovely evening.

She has a book signing event scheduled for a book store in Red Deer, and another in Calgary.  I believe she's going to try to have one in Edmonton and Lethbridge as well.  So she'll be very busy in the next few months.  Her literary agent is already shopping around her second novel so we're hoping the success of this one will boost the interest in her second one.

Love Letters of the Angels of Death is available on-line at Amazon.ca

Hawiian Smores

I posted earlier about my newfound love of the traditional campfire treat, S'mores.  Today, before summer is over, I need to tell you about my daughter-in-law Cindy's discovery of Hawiian S'mores. These take traditional S'mores a giant step forward.

Your ingredients: cake donuts, mini marshmallows, chocolate chips
and pineapple slices.  I think next time I'll add coconut too.  Everything
is better with coconut added!

Your stack.  Slice the donut in two, like a burger bun.
Sit the bottom part of the donut on tin foil first so you won't have to lift the
whole 'sandwich' onto it. Then wrap it completely with the tin foil.

Let your fire die down to coals and carefully place the foil
wrapped s'mores on the coals.

Sit, relax and visit for ten minutes while your treat 'cooks'.
(Brooklyn, Lloyd, Cindy)

Enjoy some love from your grandchildren while waiting.
Our boy Anson

My girl Brooklyn

Carefully, remove the foil packets from the coals.

Et Voila!!! melty, chocolatey, gooey Hawaiian Smores.
'Someone' ate the top donut slice before I thought to take the picture.

Give these a try before summer's over.  You'll be pleasantly surprised.