Chicks Road Trip to Calgary!!

Every so often it is great to get away with just "the girls". This is becoming harder to do as several have moved out of the city. So, we decided to have a weekend together in Calgary to see Kelly's new home and to spend some time skiing in Banff. Kelly has given up her fast-paced downtown Toronto lifestyle for the scenic, relaxed atmosphere in Calgary. She and her man Shawn have have recently added a Laborador puppy to their household (along with 6-year old Dooley). They live beside a provincial park and are in a wonderful location for hiking, bike trails, skiing etc... I must admit I was quite envious of their new lifestyle.Kelly with Dooley and Darby

We spent one day touring Canmore and Banff. These towns are sooooo beautiful with the Rocky Mountains as a backdrop and friendly shops in their downtown. Everyone is so fit! They were all dressed in their dry-wick clothing and bike shoes etc.... It was inspiring to be in this atmosphere.

Along the way we saw elk grazing, prairie dogs (gophers) popping from their holes to look around and beautiful birds.

We saw the mountain peaks called "The Three Sisters" and we saw a mountain that looks like a sleeping woman (believed by the original native indians to embody the female spirit). Although I couldn't take a picture of it you can trust me that it truly looked like a woman in a reclining position with her face pointing towards the sky and her nipple and abdomen on display. We stopped at Johnson Lake for a rest.

The Three Sisters Mountain Peaks

Our visit was way too short as I would have loved to spend
more time touring around Banff and Canmore and go onwards to Jasper and the Columbia Ice Fields. However, we are planning a family visit in the summer time so it won't be long before I am back in beautiful Alberta.

The next day we went skiing at Sunshine Village. The day started out sunny, we had an ice pellet storm mid-day and we ended the last 15 minutes in rain. A very all-round climatic day. What a nice start to the day with my Starbucks in hand and a lovely 20-min gondola ride to the start of the mountain!

The gondola ride to the start of the mountain

What's neat about Sunshine Village is that part of the mountain lies in the province of Alberta and part lies in the province of British Columbia. It was surprising to see a "Welcome to British Columbia" sign halfway up a chair lift. Overall it was a great day skiing. Only Krista and I opted to do the 20min ski-out while the others downloaded with the gondola. In the end they were the ones laughing as we skied in the rain.

Unfortunately, Heather strained her knee on the third run and missed most of the day (but it made for a great photo-op!)

That night, and every night, Kelly cooked us amazing gourmet meals with Thai chicken curry, maple syrup infused chicken, Korean beef roll-ups, etc...Kelly certainly knows how to entertain and what is so impressive is that she does it seamlessly for such a large group! We had an opportunity to visit her Farmers Market where we all indulged in purchases to bring home for souvenirs such as Rocky Mountain salt soap, Agate mineral set in glass, Geode jewellry etc...

The final highlight of the trip was to meet her coolest neighbours in the world. Terry is a collector and distributer of fossils. In his garage he stores his treasures including a $250,000 fossilized icthyosaurus and multiple ammonites and mammoth tusks. Indeed, he currently holds one of the worlds most beautiful mammoth tusks (which has been sold to a New York museum). This tusk has many blue striations which is unusual and valuable.

Woolly mammoth tusk with blue striations

It was interesting to see the many tusk pieces in his collection which had not yet been restored. Indeed, they looked like dried out driftwood. Terry purchases his pieces from Russian and German farmers who find them buried in their fields.

Unrestored mammoth tusks

The restoration of the icthyosaurus took him 4 months of 10-hour days of painstaking sanding. I can't wait for Dylan to see his collection when we return in the summer!

Ammonite fossil

We can't wait to plan our chicks trip to out west next year. Kelly.....maybe will it be for a wedding???????