The second day of our adventure started off on a bad note with me.
Seeing as I was "old", I was given special treatment at Chelly & Chane's house, and was given the spareroom which had a double size air mattress that sat on this expandable frame...you know one of those "bring your own bed" sort of things! Once I closed the door all was quiet and I couldn't hear a thing! I sleep on an air mattress at home, so this "wonderful bed" was heaven for me as regular mattresses just kill my back! Being super exhausted from the day's event I had no problem falling asleep!
2 hours later I awoke to agony!
Seems my "wonderful" bed had a slow leak and I found myself laying on the expandable bed frame...with one of it's metal posts digging into my back! Being stiff and sore from the "unused to" physical activities of the previous day, I had an extreme hard time getting out of that "torcher type" frame! Thankfully my air pump was close at hand and I was able to inflate the mattress quickly and was able to get back to sleep!
2 hours later I awoke again to more agony!
This happened like clock work...finally at 5:00 am I couldn't take it anymore and got up!
What does one do when in someone else's home with no access to their computer? Thankfully Chelly likes to read and I found a story I could get into!
PoD got up "finally" at 8:00 and we decided to get an early jump start on the day! Chelly and Chane had been up late with Jaydabug so we kept it quiet and left them sleeping.
After a quick breakfast at the "Golden Arches" we headed out for "Storyland Valley Zoo"...which by the way, hadn't moved either, since the last time I visited it with my sister in 2003! Although upon arriving there I noticed that all looked different from the last visit! Seems the Zoo had dropped it's "Storyland" theme and is now just called "The Valley Zoo"! They have kept some of it's original theme but it lacked it's old fun type... child-like atmosphere! This was not an improvement in my mind!
It was fun for me to be able to relate to my grandchildren what this zoo meant to me when I was a child. I think I wrote about it in one of my earlier posts [I will relate it again for my new fans who might of miss it] that this zoo was relocated to this site from where I used to live!
As a child I had figured that everyone had a zoo in their park that was close to their home! So my sister and I had classified it as "our" zoo!
They move the park in 1958 and it opened it's doors to the public July 1, 1959. The Edmonchuk's Visitor Guide Book from that year explained it's theme as a "Story-Book Zoo, with small animals and fowl, which may be safely approached by small children, living in whimsically designed houses straight from a child's fairy tale book. Designed to appeal to children, this little land of fantasy is meant to provide a happy atmosphere in which small children and small animals may get acquainted and feel at home with one another"!
Why they strayed from this "original" idea is a puzzlement to me?
It has now become just like any other zoo that you would find anywhere else in the world!
The fantasy is gone!
It started out covering 5 acres and now it's spread to over 70 acres and the only interaction with kids is is the TINY petting zoo!
I must admit it is still a beautiful place and you can see a bigger variety of animals but they are very had to see as the cages are overgrown with weed-like vegetation...they expanded but cannot take care of what they have now! We took a few pictures but not very many as you cannot see the animals because this wild vegetation!
We also didn't stay there very long! We had gotten there early enough to enjoy a mild amount of people but after a couple of hours the place became over crowded! It still collected the tourists but in my mind...the children lost out!
Keeping history in mind we decided to visit the Alberta Museum next.
They hadn't moved that area either and I was able to find it quite quickly as it is pretty close to the Zoo.
The museum was more for PoD and me. The kids have seen many a museum through the school trips so it held very little interest to them...the only part they liked seeing was the dinosaurs and the creepy bugs!
This a very beautiful building and it looks like it has lots of money for it's upkeep. The displays are very well done and some are even interactive with the public.
The only photos we took in there were very beautiful colored butterflies and some colorful moths! It's had to believe that there are bugs out there in these colors.
Finishing up our "History Tour" we decided to do some shopping before heading out to my younger sister's place in "Dear Horn" Lake.
PoD wanted to get some "Solar" powered lights for her back yard in Dodge and I wanted to get a new air mattress for home and be able to use it a Chelly's place that night...no more sleeping [what sleep?] on their bed for me! Backaches had made me cranky all day!
More construction and changes in scenery made it hard to find anything and we wasted a lot of time "back-tracking"! Which made me even more cranky!
Finally we found my sister's [Eener] place and had a nice visit with her and her roommate...Bor! They fed us a wonderful supper and then we had to leave...before the sun set! Construction makes it impossible for the visitor to traverse in the dark!
Making it safely back to Chelly's place we were able to spend some visiting time with our hosts before heading off to bed. Chane show us his idea of "fantasyland" that he set up in their back yard for his daughter Jaydabug! That's where PoD got some good ideas for solar powered lights. Their yard is magical looking when the sun goes down...it's all sparkly with solar dragonflies and fairies sitting on solar lit stumps! Very impressive and pretty!
We had decided that we should go back early and get a jump start on the work back home that was waiting for us! All of the walking and the intense heat had also did a number on us! So we opted for an early start on Sunday, before the heat of the day got too bad. It had been so oppressively HOT in the city and with all of it's construction problems made us not want to stay any longer or visit anyone else!
I was also starting to feel not so well!
We had a wonderful send-off the next morning as we said our goodbyes and thanked our hosts for their patience in putting up with us!
I drove PoD's car for the last time as we rushed to get out of the city...once far enough away from the construction and madness, PoD reclaimed her right as driver! Which was OK with me...I had enough of driving and feeling sicker by the time!
On the way home we stopped to take our photos of some of the fore-mentioned odd sights....
"Boot/Shoe Fence"....which stretches 2 miles! It seems some farmer got tired of finding old boots/shoes in the ditches where he was trying to cut down the grasses for cattle feed/bedding. He nailed them on the fence posts that run parallel to the highway. Story has it that he then used his family's old one and had some donated by others...thus the oddity of the "Boot Fence"!
Seeing as we lived in "oil country" the site of an old wooden pump jack also caught our interest and I just had to get a picture of it. It can be seen as you enter "Wainwright" from the west end of the highway...they are doing "fund raising" to help restored the ancient structure!
My last photo taken of our "Historical" trip was of PoD and the kids sitting in "Ruby Flash".
AJ wanted to call her "Ruby Red" and JD wanted to call it "Red Flash"! PoD combined the two names and that's how the 2004 Seabring got her name!
We finally reached home around 5:00 pm [we shopped in a few places on the way back] and I was happy once again to see my cats and put up my poor aching feet!
My only regret is that this wasn't the family-get-together that we had originally planned in June. I would have like to see my brothers and their kids but our time factor made it too hard for us to keep. The rest of the summer is booked solid for the kids as they are taking swim lessons right up until school starts.
Maybe we can squeeze another visit back there in the fall?
Leaving the Fort you came upon the "Native Camp" which showed the long association between the "Cree" [also part of my heritage] and the "Hudson Bay Company Traders". The traders depended on the natives for food and the natives depended on the traders for manufactured goods.
