(Camping) Adventure in Lesser Slave Lake Provincial Park

Dude & I spent a cold, rainy weekend at Lesser Slave Lake Provincial Park last week. My plans were to take advantage of their beautiful beaches and have a nice beach holiday with Dude, but the weather had other plans.

Friday arrival. As you can see, our stall (C23) was just lovely. And right across from the toilets, which is my favourite place to be. No sarcasm, it's really handy at night. We ate dinner (soup) and then went exploring.

Friday highlights:

- The beach truly is lovely, even in the cold

- Lucas rediscovered his love of this Pokemon guide

- There were so many feathers on the beach my heart was overwhelmed with gratitude

Today was (inadvertently) about dream jobs. Lucas & I got to watch a couple of birds get banded (mine) and then we ate lunch under a fire tower (Dan's).

On top of Marten Mountain we found a trail to Lily Lake. We made it halfway to Lily Lake before decided we were too unprepared and headed back with the promise that we would come back later. Spoiler alert: we didn't!

We may have missed the Fringe in Edmonton, but this one-woman-show about finding "Bear-a-Dise" was excellent. And a musical!

And so ends Saturday. Highlights include:

- Musical Amphitheatre Interpretive Programming

- Lots O' Games

- Bird Banding

- Picnic Eating

- Sunshine!!

- Half a hike

 For real...a lady name Connie backed right up into Delilah. And the mall wasn't even a real mall, so it really felt like a wasted trip. We ate lunch at an A&W while I felt sorry for myself, then wandered around the Walmart (NOT a mood-improvement kind of place) before heading back to camp where we both got a little reset. Video games in the van for Dude and a hot shower and a book for me.

You know what is a mood-improvement? When your son says "hey Mom, let's continue that walk that got rained out earlier." Hey Favourite Adventure Partner, that sounds amazing.

And so ends Sunday! Highlights include:

- "Fresh baked" cookies from Walmart

- Someone else made my lunch

- Stormy beach time

- Hot shower + great book = bye bye anxiety

- Shower stall poetry

- Listening to Tune-In radio while we fell asleep

- Dude snuggling up to me in the tent and chatting about our favourite Old-Timey radio shows

- Not freezing to death in our tent!

Monday = HOME DAY!

Yes, we came home a full day early, but I don't feel like we "gave up". I feel like we gave it our best shot, and made the best decision for where we were at. And it felt really good to play Lego for a couple of hours and then sleep in my own bed.

A few final notes:
- The campground was lovely, and they are building a new shower stall in time for the 2019 season
- The beaches on Lesser Slave Lake are gorgeous and I can't wait to go back
- Alberta is so dang beautiful
- The RCMP in Slave Lake are nice folks

Photos taken August 24 - 27
Marten River Campground
Lesser Slave Lake Provincial Park, Alberta

xo

FURTHER READING
This trip really reminded me of our first ever adventure in Delilah. You can read all about our coldest camping trip ever by clicking here.

Adventure in Borden Park

I think this next one looks like a beautiful elephant dinosaur cow. I love elephants and dinosaurs. And I really love cows. (It's actually called Gigi by Kouis Munan et al).

So...the bathroom building is pretty cool. It is a circle with a door on either end, and it is made up of these triangular mirrored panels. Lucas was slightly obsessed with these..."they are like a glass piece combined with a mirror!"

Okay Lucas, just stand still and...no, still. Don't move. Stop moving! Okay, now you don't have to smile. Don't smile, just keep your face neutral. No Lucas, I mean don't do anything with your face. No not like, no...stop moving! Just...don't...okay...

Even though he usually wants to leave right away, and doesn't listen, and isn't curious about what we're seeing usually (although the squirrels were quite exciting tonight) he is still - and always - my favourite adventure partner.

I wanted to do something after dinner on an otherwise empty Friday night, and I wanted it to cost $0. I know Lucas has been here Pokemon hunting before, but I haven't, and it's a big park so I figured even if we just wandered around for 20 minutes I would satisfy my goal. Turns out this place is awesome, the new pool looks amazing, and we didn't even make it all the way to the playground, so there is at least two reasons to come back.

The sky is hazy and the sun red due to the massive forest fires burning in southern BC. A few hours after we got home, it rained. It cooled the house, and made me think wet thoughts for the firefighters and the folks losing their homes out west.

Photos taken August 17, 2018
Borden Park, Edmonton

xo

FURTHER READING
A list of all the public art in Edmonton can be found here.

And before you know it, it's August

School ends, summer gets going, and before you know it, it's August and summer is already half over!

I really feel the crunch thanks to splitting time with Lucas between me and his Dad. I look ahead on my calendar and we only have two weekends left together before he is back in school! It doesn't feel like enough some times...most times.

But when I look back through my photos from the past month, I can see how much we have done!

How do you combat the summer "FOMO" blues?
xo

Adventure at Taste of Edmonton

Last week, Lucas, Dan & I went to Taste of Edmonton for "dinner". The moment we walked on site I knew this was going to be a bad idea, as Dan does not like crowds. It's in a new location this year, due to the construction around Churchill Square, so I thought they would work out some of the major issues from previous year's festivities. They did okay, but there is still room for improvement.

First you have to try and find where to buy food & beverage tickets. All the ticket booths are in a centralized location this year, and if memory serves, there were less booths than in previous years. I think this is because you can buy your tickets ahead of time online, so they anticipated less people using the onsite booths. From the lineup we watched snake through the crowd throughout the night, I think it's going to take a hot minute for this to catch on.

TELL ME ABOUT THE FOOD!
We spent $67, which got us 40 tickets. Each item ranges in "price" from 3 to 6 tickets, and six tickets doesn't always mean you get a bigger item. I have no idea how many vendors there were (no more than 100 I think), and each vendor decides which of their menu items to offer to a maximum of two items. It looks like some vendors offer specialty items that aren't on their regular menus, or a smaller version of a standard. The variety of items is high, as Edmonton has been expanding our variety of restaurants in town overall. I remember when the "variety" used to be Chinese food and maybe an Indian joint! You can get bar fare like burgers and deep fried pickles, "pan-Asian" items like green onion cakes - an Edmonton original - tempura, and sushi. And there Indian, Ethiopian, and fancy hotel fare. And the ice cream line ups are always long! The vegetarian options are sparse, but not impossible to find. And thanks to the addition of a few vegan restaurants to the Edmonton scene, there were some easy choices for those folks as well.

40 tickets got each of us a couple of "entrees", a dessert, and beverages for the guys. I brought my own water because I am trying to be thrifty! Lucas wanted to eat and run. No exploring, no waiting for the band to start. He ate his last item (beef & sesame sauce on rice) and said "okay let's go". And then we went home and made soup, because we were still hungry.

PROS AND CONS
Cons: Crowds and lineups. Expensive for the amount of food you get. Generates a lot of garbage.
Pros: Experience restaurants that you might never go to otherwise in a casual atmosphere. Free music. Beer garden. You can bring your own reusable dishes.

PLAN FOR NEXT TIME
If there is a next time...but who am I kidding, there will be a next time. I'm going to leave the boys at home, grab a friend and a beer, a fun new snack, and catch a band or two!

xo

p.s. I do think they could benefit from some sort of organized queue system at each booth...

These Boys

Do you believe in soul mates? People who enter you lives and give you so much...open you up to new things...connect with you in a way you never thought possible.

The friendship and connection between these three boys...it has "soul mate" written all over it.

I thought that when I became a Mom that would be the pinnacle of love I would feel for another person. But I was wrong.

My nephews are so precious to me. I mean, they came from one of my Most Favourite Humans...with anything Amy makes I am 100% a Number 1 Fan.

It continues to blow me away how much I love them...and how much they love each other. This friendship will persist, even when separated by half of the world.

Photos taken in Jasper National Park, Alberta
July 2018

xo

Tell A Story - Mountain Climbers

And I'm not talking about that exercise. I'm talking about climbing actual mountains!

During our 5 day stint in Jasper, Lucas & I did a lot of hiking. In fact, we were off on our first hike within an hour of arriving at the campground! I thought if I was going to get Dude hiking with me, I would just have to throw him into it. He complained a lot on that hike (up Old Fort Point - highly recommended), but we made it through!

And that was just the warm up to the big hike I had planned the next day! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

We woke up, ate our breakfast, then jumped in the van and headed south on the Icefields Parkway. Destination, Parker Ridge. The parking lot was already starting to fill up by the time we got there, and I could see all ages (and abilities) of hikers unloading their gear. We laced up our hiking boots, grabbed our water bottles and a snack, and headed out.

I had a Winningest Mom moment on our way back down. Lucas told me he was really proud of himself for getting all the way to the top!

Summary
Parker Ridge
Trailhead: ~100km south of Jasper townsite (the hike is actually in Banff Ntl. Park)
Distance: 5km in total (out and back)
Elevation Gain: 289m (elevation at the top is 2275m!)
Time: We did it in just over 3 hours and that included a lot of breaks, and a snack at the "top" (we didn't make it to the official top, but we went as far as Lucas would go!)
What to Take: Windbreaker! It gets so windy up there, as there is no tree cover. Water. A snack/lunch. Camera. Hiking poles if you have them.
View: WORTH IT!

xo

Tell A Story - Beach Bums

Summer this year has felt really....out of sorts. So I was very grateful to go to Jasper for FIVE WHOLE DAYS with my Favourite Dude.

It is very smoky in Jasper right now thanks to the wildfires in BC and Banff, and it was most noticeable up at Maligne Lake and around that area. I mean, these photos should be filled with a beautiful mountainous backdrop. I am so surprised that they turned out so beige.

These photos were taken at Lake Annette. It was a chilly afternoon, and this is in fact a mountain lake. It was cold people, damn cold. But one thing you should know about Dude & I: you can't keep us out of a lake.

We had an amazing, giggly afternoon.

xo