Canada - day 6 - July 1, 2010 - Canada Day

Today was Canada day. Canada celebrates their independence from England on July 1 and the celebrations are just as exuberant as they are here in the States. Today was also the most action packed day of the vacation and to be honest I was just a little bit worried that people would get tired and cranky and make it a miserable day. As it turned out I had no need to worry. The problem was that we planned to leave Calgary for the two hour drive to Rosemary in time to catch their parade. We would then celebrate all day in Rosemary and then leave for the three and a half hour drive to Waterton in time to get the kids to bed at a decent time. It would be a lot of driving and a lot of partying. We got left pretty much on time and I was glad because I really wanted to stop in Bassano where I worked after I graduated in 1983 until 1992 when we moved to San Diego. It was really a trip down memory lane. Everything was closed of course because it was Canada Day and I suppose that is best. Some of them may have not forgiven me yet for bailing on them.

While in Bassano we drove the kids by the house that we lived in for the first year after we moved to Bassano. It took a couple of passes before we realized that our house was almost completely hidden behind some massive trees. It was quite ridiculous. The first shot is the picture of the house from the back alley. The other two are from the front.

I'm not including too many pictures of the parade since we've all seen parades but I did want to include the fire truck and the the mounties. The firetruck because I used to be on the fire department and the Mounties just because they're mounties and we're in Canada.

That is our house somewhere in behind those tree's. You can barely see the roof. It's ridiculous.
This is Lynn Easter Crapo. I barely knew her when we lived in Rosemary but I know her well now. She was a blogger long before I got into it and she leaves a comment on nearly every single entry that I post. I love her for that and I only wish I were as good as she is. She grew up in Rosemary and married a boy from Rosemary so her roots are firmly planted in that wonderful little village.

Her are my Mounties. Don't you just love it?

The Rosemary fire department had this antique truck even when I was with them. I did notice that they have replaced the truck we did use with a new truck since I was there.

We were very good friends with Rod and JoAnne Dyck. They live on a farm less than a mile out of town.

Me being patriotic next to an antique car at the car show.

They had a petting zoo and Landon was really into the horse.

As was Sarah. I'm not sure but I think the horse liked Sarah too.

And of course we had to go by our old house. They sure have let it degrade since we sold it. It was an old house when we lived there but at least we kept it looking nice. The house and the yard are trashed. It makes me sad. Alycia just had to peek in the back window that used to be her bedroom. She was surprised to see that they have the same wall paper that she had as a baby. It is rather amazing that she remembers her wall paper since she was only three when we moved. She has described it many times in great detail and sure enough, there it was.
I noticed that they've replaced our concrete steps with some wooden steps. I'm not sure why they did that. Those concrete steps looked like they'd last another century. They did put a deck on the front. That was a good idea.
Harry's General store has been sold and the new owner is no longer Harry so I guess he felt obligated to change the name.

Justin and Evan Evan trying out the slide.

The old Fire Hall. Ah the memories.

After visiting with about half the town we decided we'd better get heading to Waterton. Just to add a few more miles to the already ridiculously large number of miles we were already traveling, the kids wanted to drive into Brooks and see the hospital where most of them were born. Brandon, Ben, Alycia and Alex were born here. Kira was born in Edmonton and Sarah was born in San Diego.

To break up the drive and to keep Lisa from killing anyone we decided to stop in Lethbridge to eat. I also really wanted to see Fara who lives in Lethbridge so we called and invited her to come eat with us. I haven't seen her in a very long time. My granddaughter Sydney really took to Fara.

Here is another attempt to try and get four very wiggly kids to hold still for more than five seconds to get a picture of them in their adorable "T" shirts that Grandpa and Nana Shaw got them.

As we drove through Leavitt I just had to stop and get a picture of the farm where I lived until I was seven. The house has been added on to and that big quanset wasn't there but not much else has changed. There was a big old barn just behind where the quanset is and there were some sheds where the quanset is now. Behind the house is an artesian well that I always thought was very cool and of course best of all are those rocks up at the top of the hill. I used to climb up there and play as a kid.

I also thought it would cool to share with you the Leavitt Ward chapel. Isn't it impressive to have a church named after you?

Once we arrived in Waterton some of us really wanted to get a hike in even though it was dark. We climbed bears hump which is a small outcropping from Crandel Mountain that overlooks the town site. From where we're sitting on the edge of this cliff it is a thousand foot drop pretty much straight down. We had a perfect view of the town site and the lake.
Being Canada day we felt obligated to light off some fireworks. Fireworks are completely illegal in Canada and even doubly illegal in a National Park but that never stopped me as a kid and it didn't stop me here. We were a bit concerned about attracting the attention of the Park Wardens and there is only one trail off of this mountain so we were prepared with an answer. We were going to play dumb tourists from California (which some would argue is a true statement) and plead ignorance. We didn't plan our fireworks as carefully however and the first few rockets we sent up were loud ones that would wake everyone up (it was around midnight) and the last ones we launched were big flares that would show everyone just where the earlier explosions were coming from. In the end we were saved by the fact that everyone must have been in bed. Our carefully planned excuses were not required.

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For most of human history, the average life expectancy for a new born child was about 10 years old.

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