Dear all,
I looked out this morning and saw the mountains covered with snow.Whilst it was +20 today in Calgary, there is definately the feeling ofwinter in the air. The days are still warm but the nights are gettingcold. The trees are changing colour. Had my ski boots refitted yesterday and am doing research into new skies. Also lined up some ice-skating lessons. It is forecast the Fort Mc will have snow by the end of the month!
Work is busy with most of my weeks spent in Fort McMurray. I have moved into a condo in the beautiful suburb of Wood Buffalo rather than stay in the hotel. Just like the song - Little houses on the hillside! Easy to get lost when all the houses look just the same. Fortunately we are opposite the handy landmark of the beaver pond. The traffic is getting worse - it regularly takes an hour to drive the 20 minutes to site. And it does not seem to matter what time you leave!
We had a girls' weekend in Banff with helicopter rides over glaciers, walks on glaciers, lobster, champagne and all that good stuff! Fort Mc is on the mighty Athabasca River so it was fun to go to the Athabasca Glacier where it all starts. The river flows north but no longer used as a trading route due to its short opened season. Most of the year, some, or all of it is frozen.
Rather bravely, last long weekend, I did a six-hour trail ride up through the foothills of the Rockies - and happy to report I could actually walk the next day! The area was gorgeous and horseback, a great way to see it. Lots of different coloured mushrooms growing under the trees! We rode western style which was a little different -and my horse did mistake my odd wobble for a leg steer so ensured a few amusing moments. Just for a change of pace, I went to the CN International last weekend at Spruce Meadows. This is an olympic qualifier for showjumping. It was absolutely fantastic - the jumps were HUGE and really hard - very brave horses.
.. and something I did not know - Alberta has one of the world's largest deposit of dinosaur fossils, only the Gobi Desert in China has more. So two weeks ago we went off to Drumhueller to the Dinosaur Museum. The Museum was amazing - although very crowded. Lots of bones and you can see the paleantologists at work on the samples. They find most of the bones in the Dinosaur Provincial Park (and about 140 kms from the Museum - a fact we missed as we thought the museum was in the Park - must read the guide book more closely!) Called The Badlands, they are badly eroded areas of the prairie caused by a harder layer of rock over soft. It was interesting to drive East on the prairie - not much there - just prairie and more prairie - for about 3000km I am told!
I will be home in November for about a week, then back for Christmas. Currently negotiating my final departure with mid-March looking about the timeframe. Trust all is well. Please keep up the emails, I am missing home and love hearing from you.
Take care,
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