With so much going on in my world, I just realized that I never got that blog out as promised. Let me first tell you how much fun I had in Canada.

I already mentioned that I spent my first night at Fieldstone Fruit Wines (go visit!!), then I met my friend Fred at his cabin outside Calgary – what a wonderful place!!!

It truly was ‘Happiness Ranch’. I had a killer campsite right along a creek (with free coffee delivery in the morning and a fantastic dinner at night), we got some 4-wheeling in, and I became an honorary Ranch Hand!

We did a whole field of hay bales (zoom in to see) and I even earned a sticker for my collection! The man also has his own mill. He can make anything, including a new shelf for Oggie!

And look who showed up AGAIN!

Great to see you Melanie! She has a fascination with following me around and taking pictures of my behind

Never on this trip did I think I would make it to Canada, but to also see Banff was a bonus! I’m happy Melanie got to share it with me, and look what I saw along the way

I’ve been looking and looking on every hike, and I see one along the highway! There were two but they were moving fast and I barely caught this guy. I’ve now seen most of the major wild animals. I think I’m only missing a cougar and a wolf.

Banff was pretty

If you are looking for the visitor center, go into downtown Banff and don’t expect to find a ‘Banff’ sticker (we had to make a special trip for that one), but they did have good maps. Another caution: If you take the Twin Lakes trail, be prepared to go straight up for 3.5 miles with no view and no leveling out, then straight down the same way – it was exhausting, and we almost gave up. We were having trouble converting kilometers to miles and figuring out how far we had left to go, but we marched on – we are NOT quitters!

If you are near Calgary, you have to go. It felt different in a way from the parks in the US, but well worth it!

Then, the reason I went to Canada in the first place: more friends and Volleyball! Here’s the gang and Melanie and I took second at our level! We actually won a little $$$$! (It was Canadian of course, so we donated it to our hosts)

Now, I would suggest that you all stay where we did, but sorry, you can’t. We stayed at Fred & Rhonda’s and created our own campground in their driveway – best hosts EVER!!!

Those are views from their backyard. Whew! I sure hope they will have me back again someday and that I can return their kindness ….. maybe with a little less tequila next time…….

I got over my trauma of losing Sydney, and almost have a solution. I’ll share that adventure next time.

Thanks for reading!

Tip of the day: If you want to sound cool in Calgary, pronounce it Cal-GAR-ry with an emphasis on the GAR.