June 16, Father's Day. About Alberta ...

Now, honestly, just because we've come from Vancouver doesn't mean the rest of the country has to take revenge and dump rain on us wherever we go.  Since we left Kamloops, we've had some greater or lesser level of rain everywhere -- Jasper, Hinton, Edmonton (though we had a day of good weather there), Vegreville, North Battleford, and now Saskatoon!  But at least Saskatchewan is is indeed the "land of the living skies", as their license plates proudly proclaim.  Comes with the advantage that you can see the weather developing around you, and sometimes take evasive action.

When we left Edmonton, for example, we stopped in at Elk Island National Park.  Since we made the wise investment of a one year full Parks Canada pass, we can stop at our leisure at any National Parks, National Historic sites, etc.  While we were at the info desk asking about the park, the staff person asked if we knew about the tornado warning.  Whaaaaa??  We hadn't turned on the radio, and had no idea.  It threw things in quite a tizzy as the City geared up just in case, as well as all the communities to the east.  Even the wildlife showed some confusion -- this moose ran around the parking lot, as if trying to decide what to do.  He left shortly after this photo.


The bison didn't seem the slightest bit concerned, though.

We hadn't originally expected to stop in Edmonton, having visited 3 years ago.  But we decided we should at least say hello, especially since it was Christopher's birthday, and Daisy is expecting in just a few days!  And after we visited with them, we reached Victor Fung and family, and were coaxed into staying in town a couple of nights.  Gave us a chance to get to know them better, and to deal with some of the mundane chores of life on the road, as we continue to learn what we need, and how to make life easier.  Things are feeling pretty comfortable now, I daresay.  We enjoyed a wonderful Indian meal at the New Asian Village with Victor and Xu Ji, as Alexander and Angela enjoyed one of their year-end badminton pizza parties (they belong to several clubs!).

Nope, this isn't a photo left over from our India trip a few years back -- this is in the heart of Edmonton - a wonderful place to eat, if you're ever in town ...

Surrinder: Vegreville, an hour or so east of Edmonton, was a special destination I'd looked forward to visiting for years.  The Pysanka (giant "Easter Egg", built in 1975 as part of the RCMP's 100th anniversary celebrations) was a wonderful reminder of Grandma Kalina Makovichuk (the kids' great grand-mother) whom I had the privilege of getting to know along with the whole clan in the 1970's.

Some of the stories I had heard came back and I could sense their presence in the land.  It was a hard life, and some of them tried to leave it all behind.

Shamir: In addition to the fascinating history here, with many ethnic groups forming a community ... the actual technical details of the Pysanka were amazing.  Read a bit about it at the right.

So ... it's Father's Day today -- happy Father's Day to all the dads, grand-dads, steps-dads and the like out there.  We've had a wonderful, van cooked breakfast of turkey sausages, fried eggs, toast, peanut butter, and two different jams (Thanks for the meal, Surrinder, and thanks for the jam, Phyllis!). Time to go out and explore.  We'll start off with Saskatchewan next time.

Cheers
From the Road ...