A Little Bit Southern

As soon as school got out, we hit the road to go down south. On our way, we stopped at Calaway Park. We had passes last year for our Tour of Alberta, but then Covid kind of ruined that plan, so we're doing it this year instead.

We discovered Calista is tall enough to do everything - on her own! Craig is tall enough to do the big roller coaster with an adult, 

and Caleb is big enough to do the log ride with us. 

My favorite! 

Everyone got to do a whole bunch of fun things, we ate pizza, 

and we tried to stay cool. 

That struggle would only get worse throughout the next couple of weeks.

In southern Alberta, we stayed on our sister-in-law, Rachel's, acreage. 

It's nice, but Calista gets freaked out by the moths and so she didn't want us to open the windows at night... and it was hot. 

For part of our vacation, we spent a couple of nights in Waterton National Park. 

Because it was so blasted hot (are we sensing a trend?), there were a few hikes we decided to skip in lieu of hanging out at the lake 

or spray park. 

Surprisingly, the spray park water is even colder than the lake water, so we were always threading the needle between heat stroke and hypothermia. 

Still, in spite of the heat we had a lot of fun. We saw Cameron Falls.

We rented a row boat one day and went out on Cameron Lake. 

We saw a bear.

A real one, on the path we were going to take. We decided not to proceed.

We got ice cream. We hiked to seen Blakiston Falls. 

We wandered upstream at Red Rock Canyon. 

And, of course, spent a lot of time in water to keep cool.

We also celebrated a very hot Canada Day, 

including going to the parade. It seemed rather odd, after more than a year with limited social events, to go to a huge parade. I was not entirely used to being around people, but there was a bison 

and Craig caught an ice cream sandwich, 

so I guess it's okay.

The fireworks were pretty cool that evening, too.

Because it had been so long, we spent a lot of time hanging out with family. Celebrating my in-laws 50th Wedding Anniversary, 

BBQs and pools, 

and throwing a football in a lake. 

It felt nice to have things more normal again, even if it was a bit of an abrupt change. 

After a long, HOT week, we were exhausted and ready to go back home to sleep in our own beds. Because there really is no place like home.