Alberta

On the Blackfeet Reservation at the border of USA and Canada

We've been in Canada since around noon on Monday, crossing over at Carway (just East of Glacier).  We spent Monday night at Banff, but had to find a different campground for the next several days.  Thursday, July 1st is Canada Day and of course July 4th is coming up soon. With both the holidays, all the campgrounds in and around Banff were full for the week, so we're staying at Spring Hills RV Park just outside Calgary.

Yesterday we went to Tellus World of Science in Calgary. (http://www.calgaryscience.ca/) We were all really excited to see that the current exhibit was Body Worlds. We've all been wanting to see it for a couple of years.  It was really fascinating and the girls thought it was awesome.  The Children's Museum at the Tellus had a Lego exhibit which was also pretty impressive.

Today, Mickey and Ron went fishing and exploring while us girls stayed behind and had a lazy day.  All this fun is sure tiring, so we were glad to have a day to rest.

Some things we've learned about Canada so far are:
   *  It looks a lot like Montana
   *  The money is funny colored.
   *  It doesn't get dark until at least 11:00pm
   *  The sun comes up around 4:30am
   *  The people are friendly
   *  Groceries are REALLY EXPENSIVE - 3 pounds of boneless/skinless chicken breast at Safeway      
              cost $ 24.00 (we didn't get chicken) and a can of Campbell's Soup cost $ 2.15
   *  You get lots of practice with the metric system (mileage is in km and you purchase diesel by the L)

Today marks our first month on the road.  So far we've all been well, with the exception of Sophie who's had an upset stomach the last 2 days. We've traveled about 7100 miles so far and only been cross with each other a few times.  We think that's pretty good for a family of 4 living in a trailer.  The girls have each read three books and are working on a fourth.  And we've discovered that we can live without TV and/or Internet when we have to.  We wake up when we want and stay up as late as we want.  And everyone seems to have a pretty open mind about the activities we choose.  We know everyone won't always like the same things, but when you see your sister or your husband patiently waiting while you spend extra time doing what you like it makes you more understanding when they find things that interest them.

All in all, it's been great so far. We're seeing and learning a lot about new places and each other.  I'm so thankful we have this time together.

                                   Amanda