Edmonton, Red Deer, Sylvan Lake, Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper, Mountains, Friends.......

Mightiness of Sunlight Bottom!!
It's been quite awhile since I've written anything on here (getting close to a month now!), and that's been for two reasons. Firstly, when I'm at the mine, I don't really have much to write about. I work, and I sleep, neither makes for very interesting blog reading. Secondly, since I left the mine a week and half ago, I've been so busy I haven't had time to write anything. Now I'm going to! :)

I got out from the mine on Tuesday, June 24th - arriving back in Yellowknife at around 1:00. I spent that afternoon and evening getting my clothing washed, buying supplies, and packing, and then Wednesday morning at 5:30 I was up, and on my way to Edmonton. Armed with a tank full of gas, and a stomach full of McDonald's breakfast, I headed out for the longest bit of driving I've ever done. The first couple hundred kilometres were a little slow, as there was a lot of thick fog that I had to be very careful going through - I really didn't want to run into a bison! Once I got out from around the Great Slave Lake area though, my progress was much faster. The only other delay was a bridge with a posted speed limit of 5Km/H. I tried my best to only go 5Km/H - there must have been a pretty good reason for them to not want people going quickly across this bridge, and I wasn't keen to find out what the reason might have been - but I was only able to actually maintain a speed of about 10Km/H. I don't think I've ever driven twice the speed limit before!

I was able to get as far as Enterprise, NT, before I had to get gas, and I went from there to High Level, AB. I drove the entire trip from Yellowknife to Edmonton in about 16 hours, stopping only for gas and to use the washroom, and that time even included a 1-1.5 hour detour that I accidentally made. There was one point where the highway bifurcates, and I thought I wanted to go more towards Grande Prairie - which I didn't actually want to do. All well. Fortunately I didn't run into any police anywhere along the way. :P

I got to Edmonton a little before 10:00, but I wasn't able to get in touch with Ryan (my friend from Sainte-Anne's, which whom I stayed the night). After calling the number he had given me (which turned out to be the wrong number), and knocking on the doors a few times with no answers, I drove around the city until I found a free wireless internet signal that I was able to use to contact him through MSN Messenger. Whew!

Since then, I've been doing all kinds of things here in Alberta. I met up with Lara the next day, and spent a couple of days at her place, we went out to a stampede in Ponoka which was really fun. I was able to meet up with a friend of my family's, Dave, who is in Red Deer working - it was so wonderful to see him and to spend some time talking with him! After a couple of days I came back to Edmonton to connect up with Ryan again.

On Monday Ryan, Lara and I all got together, packed up the car with camping stuff, and headed off to Banff. We spent that night checking out a rainy Banff, trying to setup the tents between periods of intense rain, and trying to make a fire start with a dying lighter, an old magazine, and wet firewood. Thanks to Lara's perseverance, we actually got the fire going! Sometime after midnight some people a couple of sites away from us started setting off fireworks laterally within the campground (Canada Day had started...) - they got a visit from the RCMP a little while later.

The next morning we got up at about 7:00, got the site all packed up, had some breakfast (a bit of an adventure at McDonald's trying to deal with servers who didn't really speak english), and headed out. I wasn't feeling very well, so Lara drove all the way to Lake Louise, where we stopped to get some pictures, and to take a short break from the driving.

The mountains are amazing, and enormous, and beautiful. As amazing as this trip was, I would still love to get back and really spend some time in that area - it's really something special. We saw all kinds of wildlife, including a Bear and her two cubs, a couple of Ravens, lots of Elk, and some Mountain Goats and Sheep. There was even a deer beside our campsite Tuesday morning when we got up - and we saw lots more Tuesday night once we were out of the mountains.

The best part about the trip though wasn't the wildlife or the scenery, it was that I was able to spend time with a couple of my bestest friends. We had an awesome time together for that day and a half, and it's a trip I'll never forget.

Yesterday, we all ended up together again at one point. Lara and I met up and went to the West Edmonton Mall, to use a couple of free Galaxyland (the indoor amusement park in the mall) passes that she had. Unfortunately the big rollercoaster was closed, but we went on a whole bunch of other rides, the preferred of which was the "Space Shooter" - a ride the goes straight up (with a force of +3 Gs!), and then straight down (providing a -1 G force). We went on it three times I think - and Lara was even able to get a video of the last run! Later on we picked up Ryan and all went out for dinner before taking him to work.

I'm going back to Yellowknife tomorrow morning I think, and I'm sad to be leaving. This has been one of the most amazing times of my life, and I can't think of anybody I'd rather have spent this time with than these two amazing friends. It's been absolutely incredible.

Now I'm starting the countdown until I'm back in NS - the summer is only a little more than half over, but I'm already starting to really look forward to being back at the University in the fall. 49 days to go - when I look at the days like that, it doesn't seem like very long!

Check out (select) pictures from the trip here. There are 41 pictures in the album, from a total of 389 taken on my camera - I think there's about that many on Lara's camera too!