Yesterday was a great day and certainly a good way for daughter # 1 to spend her 24th birthday. We headed out in the a.m. past Rocky Mountain House and then on to Banff National Park. As evidenced by one of many amazing photos which we managed to capture. It was warm, sunny and clear with the colors on the trees changing so a great time to be in Alberta. The only wildlife we saw all day (if you can believe it) was a coyote hunting in one of the grassy fields near the highway, not one elk, deer, bighorn sheep or anything. And we were ready with the cameras too. We stopped in Banff and took the gondola up the mountain for some spectacular views and photo ops before heading into Calgary. Even rush hour wasn't too much for the shore captain with his trusty navigator aka Enterprise Management Trainee riding shotgun.We stopped for supper at a Thai/Vietnamese restaurant which had satisified the non-spicy tastes (me) and hotter cuisine (other two) with huge servings. Best of all it was located next to the C-Train station so we parked and rode to the Saddledome from there. This was a good option which many others were exercising. We settled into our very good seats and were tickled to find that Jim Cuddy (of Blue Rodeo) was opening so that was a great start. Sheryl Crow was fantastic, sang a lot of her old stuff as well as some of her newer material and even did a three song encore. On the return trip of C-Train, retrieval of car and trip back to Red Deer everything went along smoothly and we were home and snuggled into bed just after midnight.
A slow start to the day which suited us well and a good thing daughter # 1 had taken today off as well. While we were puttering the shore captain disappeared and we were concerned that he was lost but.....he arrived back with a wonderful (belated) birthday gift - for me - of a Fuji digital camera. Daughter # 1 is envious as it is the newer (much improved) version of the one she has. This one sports 12 times optical zoom and 10 megapixels of space. It has many features that hers doesn't have but she was able to help me set it up at least. Now I am going to have to learn how to use my new toy before the next weekend. We're off to Sylvan Lake to check things out so many photo ops I'm guessing. Yeehaw!
