I Love Car Trips

The Rockies

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shewith his handywork. Psalm 19:1

I find long trips in the car to be so relaxing. Of course when I say long, I mean under 20 hours. The trip to my parents house from our home is around 18 hours and we either wake up really early in the morning and get there late at night, or take it easy and stay in Revelstoke or Banff overnight. This time, we decided to relax and stopped in Banff to go shopping and spend the night. We relive so many good memories when we are there. It was a place my parents would take my siblings and I for a vacation after Calgary Bible Conference in the spring. When we were all old enough to ski, we would spend time on some of the Ski mountains in the area. I am so thankful that we did these types of things because I love to reminisce about them. I can remember one rare summer Banff visit as a child where we toured some of the summer attractions. All I can remember is the basin and how incredibly stinky it was. Banff was also a place where The Mr. and I spent time walking hand in hand when we were dating. He came to Calgary conference two years in a row and after both, we went with my family for vacations in Banff. It was so much fun and the memories are some of my favorite. Banff then became part of our honeymoon after we were married in April 2002. We stayed at the Ptarmigan Inn, which I wouldn't recommend unless you like to carry your massive suitcases up small staircases. Maybe they have an elevator or two by now! We have also been to Banff with my family twice since then, once in 2004 and once last year. Anyways, enough with the reminiscing.

This time we stayed at the Bow View Lodge and this was the view from our windows. Pretty!

We were able to do a little bit of shop browsing and bought some goodies to give to my parents as well as others, from The Fudgery. Seriously good stuff! If you are ever in Banff, you must stop here. There are about 5 other similar shops but none compare. They make their chocolates and fudges fresh right in the shop and the choices seem limitless. After dinner we stopped by for dessert and I got what is called a Glacier. Layers of caramel, dark chocolate, white chocolate and cashews. Yum

Our '98 Ford Contour passed 180,000 miles on this trip. We also got 503 miles out of one 15 gallon tank of gas. I love this old car and hope it keeps on going.

World's tallest teepee. Stands over 20 stories high in Medicine Hat Alberta! I have driven past this many times as a child on our trips between Regina and Calgary.

How I kept myself occupied- knitting squares for a blanket.

Coming up the Russel Hill Road Hill. Scary. Ridges of loose gravel, plummeting ledges on either side and no guard rails. Steep enough that you have to put the petal to the metal. You can't see if anyone is going to shoot out over the top of it coming down the middle of the road either.

Ok, so maybe I am just a baby now that I don't live there anymore! It's probably not that bad.

Driving towards my parents house. See those trees in the distance to the left of the road? That's their farm.

The rock above was found in the middle of my dad's field while they were rock picking. He is a farmer, and in order to have nice crops, rock free soil is a good idea. Anyways, if you notice shells in the photo, you aren't mistaken. Those are shells completely imbedded in solid hard rock. I don't know how long it takes for mud to become rock, but it made me wonder just what dad's field once looked like. Was it under water? Was it the home of a river? Both seem so far fetched as it is the middle of the prairies and flat as a board. It made me think of this: Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. Genesis 7:20

The view from my parents back yard of the Qu'appelle Valley.

Well, this is day 1 and 2 of the twelve day trip we just returned from, so hopefully posting will be pretty busy around her as I get all the pictures and memories posted.

On a different topic, it's The Mr's BIRTHDAY today! Happy Birthday! He actually already celebrated it this morning after work at 12:30 am with neon frosted sugar cookies and a gift of Apples to Apples and a set of gargantuan BBQ utensils. I don't know if these gifts were more for me or for him, but he seemed to really like them. :) Now I won't have to let him borrow my flipper and tongs from the kitchen, he has his own!

Also, I can't leave out another baby announcement! Our friends Daniel and Melody had their third little girl over the weekend and named her Catti-brie. I hope that is the correct spelling, maybe I can update this once I know more!

Oh yeah, I can't forget "HAPPY CANADA DAY!" I am a Canadian Washingtonite or Washingtonian or whatever. The Fourth of July fireworks usually start around the 1st of July in the neighborhood here and end a couple of days after the 4th. Today there are more than normal going off down by the bay and I am guessing it is because there are a lot of visiting Canadians staying at the cabins down there. On my walk this morning I definitely saw more BC plates than WA! It is such a fun vacation atmosphere around here in the summer, I love it.