March 28, 2009 by Rae

Museum Weather

I finally made it to the Surrey Museum! It’s not a large museum, but it’s highly focused and is therefore one of the better museums I’ve visited in my cross-country journey. Its sole purpose is to explain the history of the city of Surrey and it does so with interesting exhibits that highlight the people, events, and businesses which have built this community.

Irony of all ironies, their special exhibit this spring is about Iroquois beading (tied in to the history of Surrey by comparing the artwork with that of local First Nations artists). Why is this ironical? The Iroquois are based in the Saint-Lawrence Lowlands… where I grew up!

I took lots of pictures, so you’ll find them on the Surrey Museum page. PLEASE NOTE that after a too brief period of workingness, the internet here has gone back to its usual suckiness and it has taken me three hours to upload the full size pictures and that after an average of six attempts per thumbnail, I have given up on them for the time being. You should be able to click on the incomplete thumbnails or placeholders to access the full sized picture. I apologize for the inconvenience, but I’ve really had it up to the proverbial here with the internet at Pacific Border and don’t feel like wasting another three hours on this. An update of this page will be made once I move to a park with 21st-century grade internet. 🙁

October 18, 2008 by Rae

Highway 33

I’ve been out of ‘tourist mode’ since settling for the winter since I haven’t had any money come in. So, I decided that today being the gorgeous day that it was, I would take a mini-road trip to Kelowna and turn it into an adventure by taking highway 33 back, effectively doing a full circle. It would be quite the detour, but a chance to see more of the splendid Okanagan Valley.

First stop in Kelowna was an oil change, then I was off to the Okanagan Heritage Museum. I’m glad that admission was by donation because I was quite disappointed. The museum is tiny! I started by taking a tour of a temporary exhibit about the KGH: Kelowna General Hospital. Then it took about five minutes to go through the rest of the museum. It was an interesting hodgepodge of artifacts from around the world, most of it not immediately relevant to Kelowna. Worth stopping in if you’re in Kelowna, but definitely not worth a detour. I walked around the Marina a bit, had lunch, went to Value Village, and then headed home.

Highway 33 wound up being positively breath taking, a world of valleys and peaks unto itself. The most memorable part of the drive was the section of switchbacks that led me down into Osoyoos.

Pictures.

September 28, 2008 by Rae

Heritage Park

Scary moment of the day: I had to scrape a thick layer of frost off my car this morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Driving into Calgary today, I had to take this picture:

That’s not a lake down there. It’s a fog-shrouded town!

Preamble to my day:

1) Yes, I was a history major and am still a history buff.
2) The days have been way too lovely and sunny to spend them cooped up in museums!

So, today, I went to Heritage Park, which is Calgary’s Fort Edmonton. It’s quite a similar set up, only I got to see Heritage Park while it was fully running. It was a much more hectic, but richer, experience.

Entrance to Heritage Park is 15$ and then you pay 3$ per ride you want to take or 10$ for unlimited rides. Rides include a steam train, a paddle boat, a wagon, a trolley, and a variety of midway attractions. I suspected that the 10$ option would be the best value, so I went with that.

Guests who arrive before 10AM are served a complimentary and surprisingly hearty and delicious pancake and sausage breakfast with juice. So, I started with that and then began my tour of the park.

My first stop was the blacksmith shop where I stayed for almost a half hour watching the blacksmith turn a piece of iron into a meat fork. He gave me a lot of information on the trade and how one learns it.

After that, I wandered through the village, taking pictures of random things that caught my eye.

The Two Storey Outhouse:

This outhouse was attached to a bar with a hotel over it. Bar patrons used the ground floor holes while the hotel guests used the upstairs ones.

The Reservoir’s Water Colour:

The ride on the SS Moyie was an incredible value, affording me a half hour cruise of the Calgary reservoir.

Rugs I Wouldn’t Have in My Home:

I was startled just walking into that parlour. Imagine wandering around the house in the wee hours of the morning while half asleep and stumbling onto that thing?!

Fan Etiquette:

That Oh-So-Gaudy Victorian Sense of Style:

I wish I hadn’t been shy and had taken a picture of the interpreter in this house. My first thought was that her blouse matched the wallpaper, but I didn’t say that out loud. When I commented on the decor, she said “A lot of people are impressed that my blouse matches the wallpaper.” LOL

My Favourite House Style:

Some people, including the interpreter, call this a Queen Anne Cottage. It’s actually a rare type of Victorian that followed the Queen Anne Cottage, which has more ornamentation, and is a Gothic Victorian. If money were no object and I could afford someone to ensure the upkeep of such a home, this is what I would have built for myself. I love the square tower and the general layout of the rooms inside without there being all the Queen Anne ‘frou frou.’

Before having lunch, I decided to try the midway. I rode the whip, which was fun, but very tame. I then decided for some unfathomable reason to ride the ferris wheel. The second to last time I rode a ferris wheel, I told myself ‘never again’ and six years later I found myself riding it again and being stuck at the top for an unfathomably long time due to a mechanical problem (how reassuring). But this wheel seemed tiny! Yeah. Let’s just say I didn’t have much fun and I was really, really, really glad when the ride was over. This video makes me queasy all over again:

I walked around for a bit after to settle my stomach and decide what I was going to do for food. I carry snacks, but was getting a bit tired of my usual lunch of a granola bar, cheese, nuts, and fruit. I avoid having lunch in these sorts of places, but when I saw the prices at the most ‘upscale’ restaurant on site, I decided to treat myself to a nice meal. Prices would have been considered reasonable anywhere and were a bargain in this sort of location. 14$ (including tip) netted me a huge gourmet sandwich of provolone, turkey, and vegetables, with a side of fresh french fries and a bottomless glass of apple juice.

Add a steam train ride, tons of walking, and an extremely bright sun, and I was wiped by about 4. What a full day!

I really liked Heritage Park and suspect that even if Fort Edmonton Park had been running full swing it wouldn’t have been quite as much fun. My only major complaint about Heritage Park is that too many of the exhibits are actually stores. For example, you walk into a period drug store and are accosted to buy all manner of goods before you can walk to the back and see the actual museum exhibits. Otherwise, HP offers really good value for the money.

September 28, 2008 by Rae

Calgary, My Enchanted Land, and the End of the Road?

Calgary

The only thing on my schedule for today was a visit of Fort Calgary.

It’s a small museum, but the exhibits about the NWMP and the history of Calgary are quite interesting. I was accosted at one point by a retired RCMP officer who proceeded to talk my ear off for about twenty minutes about his career, his uniform, Mountie training, career opportunities within the force, his son who is serving at the detachment in Inuvik, our mutual feelings about Ottawa vs. The West, and more. It was really interesting!

As I was about to leave the fort, the lady at the admissions desk called me back and gave me some information about another museum that might interest me that is only open tomorrow (more about that tomorrow *g*) and then she gave me information on a walking tour of downtown Calgary, a scenic detour on the way to a cemetery, details on how to find a particularly interesting gravestone, a brochure about a rock garden that is a must see, and, finally, a map illustrating filming locations in the Calgary area. Whew!

I did only part of the walking tour, which was mostly a gentle stroll down Stephen Avenue, Calgary’s former main street. The architecture was exquisite!!! During a pre-WWI boom, a lot of Calgary’s original wooden buildings were replaced by sandstone structures that really reflect the amount of wealth coming into the city at the time. The Doll Building was my favourite.

The Hudson’s Bay store left me awestruck. It takes up a whole block!

I then returned to my car and proceeded to Spiller Avenue, from which she told me I should take the steepest side street I could find and that I would know why at the top; all of Calgary was laid out below me!

Next on the list was the cemetery.

The Reader Rock Garden was attached to the cemetery. I enjoyed clambering up and down the stone paths even if there wasn’t much in bloom at this time of year.

It was two by this point and I had nothing else planned for the day. So, I took a gander at the movie locations map. You wouldn’t believe the number of major Hollywood pictures filmed in the Calgary area, everything from Robin Williams’ ‘RV’ to Clint Eastwood’s ‘Unforgiven’ to Ang Lee’s ‘Brokeback Mountain’ (a lot of which was filmed near the town on the outskirts of which I’m currently living).

My Enchanted Land

Until the late ’90’s, I could recognize a certain landscape, or a variation thereof, in numerous movies, but I didn’t realise that it was truly one landscape from one region. It was a landscape of mountains, plateaus, and valleys; the perfect setting for everything from ‘Legends of the Fall’ to ‘The Edge’, movies set in a gentler time or about a rough wilderness. Then one day I watched the dueSouth episode ‘Call of the Wild’ and recognized this landscape in it. I did some research and discovered that my enchanted land is called Kananaskis country and it is in Alberta.

Why my enchanted land? There is a book I reread many times in my youth called ‘Cat, Herself.’ It tells the story of a family of tinkers in Scotland. Tinkers are travelers not unlike the full-time RVer. The main character, Cat, had a grand-mother who referred to Ben Loyal as her enchanted land. The expression stuck in my mind.

So, looking at the movie locations map today, I noticed a route marked the Kananaskis trail. It looked like perhaps three to four hours driving time total.

I wanted to go, but I hesitated. What if my enchanted land turned out to be two beautiful peaks surrounded by condos? Perhaps I should do what I did in 1998 when I purposely avoided Sherwood Forest, just leave it as a land out of dreams.

But I was so close. I decided to go.

I’ll let just a few of the pictures I took tell the rest of the story.

The End of the Road?

There is so much work here in Alberta, more jobs than there are workers. From an employment point of view, this should be the end of the road for me until the spring. But I really don’t think that Miranda could be made comfortable enough to endure a Calgary winter and I’ve endured enough miserable winters in the mobile home to know what I’d be getting into. But all these jobs! So, I’ll confess that I’m looking, just for curiosity’s sake, for an indoor place where I could park Miranda for the winter and live in her, like a heated garage or plane hangar.

To give you an idea of what the employment situation is like, let’s go back for a moment to my very first morning in Alberta, back when I was in Lloydminster. I decided to treat myself to a Tim Horton’s coffee before pushing off. I went in, ordered my coffee and muffin, and was about to leave when someone called to me. It was the manager. He wanted to know if I owned the RV outside and, if so, if I’d be interested in a couple of weeks worth of work.

I haven’t shared that story because I felt no one would believe it. But the woman at the museum today did and she said she had a job for me for the winter if I wanted it.

That doesn’t make actually looking for work particularly appealing.

September 24, 2008 by Rae

Fort Edmonton Park

Today was the best sort of day!

First off, the weather was just beautiful; crisp but not too cold, with a bright blue sky that contrasted sharply with the emerald and amber foliage of the park. It was the kind of day meant for strolling outdoors.

As it turned out, Fort Edmonton Park isn’t closed during the week in the fall! It just runs on a very reduced basis: most buildings are open, but there are few interpreters and no concessions are open. There are also wagon rides available that go through the park and give the history of it.

While I was disappointed that the first Rutherford home was not open today, the atmosphere in the park more than made up for that. It was quiet and empty, and it was an absolute luxury to tour at my own pace, unhurried and without having to push my way through crowds.

Normally, there is a train which takes guests from the admissions building to the Edmonton Fort, from which guests can amble back chronologically through the exhibits. I did my tour in reverse and I actually much preferred that, as it felt like I was slowly making my way back in time, from a 1920’s street, to one from 1905, to one from 1885, to the old fort circa 1840.

At the fort, I took the the wagon back to the entrance, then back to the fort again, from which I took a slightly less beaten path back so that I could snap pictures of the few buildings I’d missed which had been pointed out on the tour.

I wound up spending four hours at the park when I had expected to spend just one. Admission for today was just 8.75$!

The entrance to the park is supposed to be inspired by the shape of a boat and that of a fort wall.

I collect(ed?) blue willow dishware and snapped a picture of this enamel piece as I’d never seen one that was so pale. I came close to buying this dish in the gift shop but showed remarkable restraint. 🙂

The first mosque ever built in Canada (and possibly North America) looks Ukrainian; guess the nationality of the architect and builder. 🙂

Private toilet facilities at the fort have only three holes!

The round barn is an original building that was moved to the park. The design (a 20-sided polygon) wasn’t very popular, but made for an efficient use of space as it could hold more cattle per square foot and allowed for a common feed area in the centre that could be supplied by a hay loft on the second level.