Dry Island Buffalo Jump
Speaking of cruising the Alberta countryside, there is one drive that my dad and I took a couple of summers ago that I enjoyed immensely. We drove about 100 kilometres southeast from Red Deer to Dry Island Buffalo Jump.
Dry Island is a small badlands area straddling the Red Deer River.
The small plateau in the centre of the badlands is Dry Island.
Buffalo jumps are natural cliff formations that First Nations hunters used to help them kill buffalo. The hunters up above would drive the animals over the cliff to the hunters waiting below.
The other neat-to-know fact about Dry Island is that it was the site of an important paleontological discovery: that of part of the Eotriceratops xerinsularis. (And if you memorize the spelling of the names of all the dinosaurs discovered in Alberta, you are a long ways to winning your next spelling bee.)
Through My Lens: Granaries
I was catching up with my cousin’s wife the other day by email, and she told me that she and her husband (my cousin) are enjoying their topless Friday evenings.
Nope ― it’s not what it sounds like.
They’re cruising the Alberta countryside in their red convertible.
I was jealous. But not of the red convertible.
I was jealous because there is nothing quite as beautiful as the Alberta countryside in the summertime.
Through My Lens: Lunch Break
It’s that time of year.
What time of year?
It’s the time of year when we Canadians maximize every second of our short summers by spending as much time as possible outdoors.
Did you know that studies have shown workers are more satisfied with their jobs if they eat their lunch sitting on a park bench instead of in a café or (shudder) at their desks?
This chap is Lunchbox Joe. He’s enjoying his break in Edmonton’s Sir Winston Churchill Square.
Get outside, people!
Through My Lens: Bentley
This is a favourite photo of mine, and today is a good day to post it to the blog. That’s because this afternoon my dad and I took a drive to Bentley to deliver his sister (my aunt) safely home after a family get-together. Bentley, Alberta, is a small town due west of Lacombe where I spent a good chunk of my childhood summers.
Yup, I’m back in Wild Rose Country.
I took this photo almost five years ago. Alberta’s grain elevators are quickly disappearing ― in 1934, there were over 1700 of these iconic structures, but today there are maybe 120. Happily for me, this one is still standing.
Highway 2
A week ago today, I hitched a ride down Highway 2 from Edmonton to Red Deer with my brother and his family. As we left the city’s outskirts, I had some fun teasing my nieces that they were doing a good job of ignoring their old aunt. (Their noses were glued to their devices.) Even my brother was planning to spend the two-hour drive alone ― with his book.
No matter. Within minutes, I was enthralled.
Eventually, my brother, too. His book lay forgotten in his lap.
Someone once told me they thought Highway 2 was the most boring stretch of road anywhere in Canada.
I beg to differ. I think it’s the most beautiful.
Lacombe Mural
Speaking of murals, here’s another. This one’s from Lacombe, Alberta. I took the photo on a grey November day and, once again, the colours of the mural blend perfectly with the surrounding sky.
Edmonton Mural
I’m thinking it’s time for another mural. This one is from Edmonton ― I took this photo last month when I was there over the Easter weekend to visit my family. I like the Greek touch, but I love how the colours blend so perfectly into that bright blue sky the Prairies are known for.
Red Deer Murals
I was pleasantly surprised to discover during my visit to Alberta last month that the city of Red Deer also has a set of murals scattered around its downtown core. Like the Anacortes murals I photographed back in October, most of these are based on old photographs and all of them offer a glimpse of Red Deer’s history through the years.
Here, take a look.
Lacombe
I used this month’s long weekend (November 11 is a stat holiday in Alberta and BC), plus a few of my vacation days, as an opportunity to fly to Alberta for a bit of family visitation. On one afternoon of that extra-long weekend, I was driving through the town of Lacombe with my dad en route to visit my various aunts and uncles and I thought to myself, “What a pretty little town this is!”
I don’t know the town of Lacombe very well, even though a whole passel of my relatives still live there and even though I spent a good chunk of my summers in the Lacombe area when I was growing up. That’s because we always parked our family tent trailer on the dairy farm of my aunt and uncle and there were far too many fun things to do on the farm for any of us kids to want to go into town. (I highly recommend spending summers on a dairy farm when you’re a kid.)
Anyways, the very same day (is that a weird coincidence or what?) that my dad and I were driving around Lacombe, its Historic Main Street (50th Avenue) was selected by the Canadian Institute of Planners as Canada’s Great Street for 2013. (Who knew there was a Canadian Institute of Planners? Not me.) The story made the local TV news that night, and it gave me an excuse to go back the next day and take some photos for this blog.
The architectural style of the buildings on Lacombe’s 50th Avenue is Edwardian ― that’s the style that was in vogue during the first decade and a bit of the last century. Lacombe’s Flatiron building (see above photo) was opened in 1904 and is the oldest flatiron in the province.
Lacombe started out as a boxcar train station on the Canadian Pacific Railway. It was incorporated as a village in 1896 and as a town in 1902. In 2010, it became Alberta’s 17th city (and, with of population of 11,000, its smallest).
Through My Lens: Bow River
As someone who considers herself an Albertan at heart (having been raised there), I can’t help but be affected by the images coming out of the southern part of that province today. What’s so shocking is how quickly the rivers rose (in about 36 hours) and how many people have been affected (more than 100,000 evacuated). Flooding from spring run-off is common on the Prairies, but the effects of this rainstorm took everyone by surprise.
One of the flooded rivers is the Bow River. It’s completely overflowed its banks in the community of Canmore and in the city of Calgary, Alberta’s largest city. I took this photo of the mighty Bow looking mighty placid some miles upstream from Banff a few years ago while travelling from Edmonton to Vancouver by car.
There and Back Again 