Southern Alberta, Porcupine Hills, and Beaver Mines - August Long-Weekend, 2010

Our annual August long-weekend began as all visits "down south" should -- a night at the Bluebird Motel in Claresholm. Now, for anyone coming to Alberta for a visit, you can forget about the Banff Springs Hotel or Jasper Park Lodge. The Bluebird Motel is where it's at! This pristine little motel, painted spotless white with blue trim, has been a familiar sight on Highway 2 south of Calgary for ages, though few know what a gem it is. It's an incredibly clean and very cheap little place, with lovely well cared for grounds, but what really sets it apart are the theme rooms. Each theme room is like a little museum!

Last year we stayed in the Gene Autry room with a magical collection of cowboy memorabilia, especially Gene Autry stuff -- records, books, trading cards, pictures as well as other gems like pistols, spurs, halter, lasso, branding iron, spittoon, and barbed wire art. Not exactly standard motel decor!

This year we stayed in the Homestead Room and it was just as delightful. This room was full of antiques from the days when Alberta was being settled by homesteaders. A homesteading certificate was on the wall along with pictures from the time. Other collectibles included a set of bright red long-johns, a couple of chamber pots, a potbellied stove, carpet beater, and assorted kitchen knick-knacks from the time.

Across the back lane from the motel is a log barn with a couple of tombstones by the side. A pasture with two beautiful horses adds to the charm. A stay at the Bluebird is always a treat.

As a bit of a post-script (since I started writing this blog entry) ... When we were in Claresholm, we ate dinner on Friday and breakfast on Saturday at "Roy's Place", a fairly nondescript small-town restaurant. The food wasn't spectacular, but it certainly wasn't awful. The service was friendly and polite -- genuinely so, not that "Professionally Perky" that we've come to tolerate in most urban restaurants. I did write a nice review on it in Trip Advisor, and actually had a response from the owner. He wrote:
"Hi Carol: My name is Kieth, my wife & I own Roy's Place in Claresholm. We appreciate every bit of feed back we can. Thanks for your words, our staff checks these websites often, they get quite pumped up when they get positive feed back from customers. Hope to see you again & have a great summer!" Awww ... that's why I love small towns! So, if you're ever passing through Claresholm, stop in at Roy's Place. They're nice.

The following morning began with a back-track from Claresholm to Nanton where we cut across country to Highway 22 (The Cowboy Trail), exiting just south of Longview. Along the way we saw the original Old MacLeod Trail. This was the original north-south route from Fort Benton, Montana to Ford Edmonton, Alberta. I have to say that, when I got out of the car to take this picture, the smell of freshly cut grass was heavenly on a warm, sunny Alberta morning.

Also along this secondary road, of special interest to me, were horses -- a lovely herd of horses. And yes -- a foal. ♥

Besides the horses, there were cows. Don't get me wrong -- I love cows. But I have a theory that each cow possesses only one cell of the global/cosmic cow brain. When one moves, they all move. When one moos, they all moo. They are not known for independent thinking. What started as one cow staring at me evolved into a purposeful and orderly march toward me by the entire herd, until we had ... well, you'll see ...

... and then ...

... until ...

Throughout the prairies, there are many abandoned homes, barns, and schools -- sad reminders of dreams lost, communities forgotten, and the challenges of life on the prairies. One of these is the Muirhead School, closed in 1945. It stands now, surrounded by hay bales, and is now a home for many pigeons.

From Highway 22, we cut eastward toward the Porcupine Hills, following the creek that flows through the hills on its way to join the Oldman River. Fields were thick with clover, the smell in the air was amazing.

We passed another herd of horses ... and oh -- a couple of foals. There is nothing cuter than a foal. (Sorry, cats.)
Well, this old guy was pretty cute too. "The Odd Couple".

As you drive through the rolling hills, it's hard to imagine that huge ranches are tucked away in the folds of the hills. One sign at Lyndon Creek Road demonstrates the surprising number that there are.

Through a leisurely meandering along the range road / township road system, we eventually made our way to the well-named Skyline Road. This "road" is little more than one lane, unpaved and deeply rutted. The only "traffic" we met on our way were three horses and riders, with two dogs. From the top of Skyline Road, the view was breathtaking. It was a hazy day, but the vista was of Porcupine Hills, rolling ranchland, The Livingston Range, and the Rocky Mountains in the distance.

We eventually we made our way back to Highway 22 and on to Beaver Mines! What an amazing drive it was.

What will the next day bring for us?

Going Back to Washington - Oregon -- way back in May

(Finally able to upload the video. Thanks, Trevor.)

I mentioned in one of the earlier posts of the Washington / Oregon trip about THE BRIDGE. The Astoria Megler Bridge that spans Washington State and Oregon. It's a freakin' long bridge, and I do have a severe bridge phobia (probably a past-life thing). Anyway, before driving onto the Bridge From Hell, Bob pulled over to take a viceo of it, complete with narrative. For those who are familiar with my bridge phobia, it's the only proof I have that I've actually gone on this monstrosity. Without actually going on it, the drive to Oregon would have been difficult. So ... taking a deep breath ... here is the preamble to driving on the Astoria Megler Bridge. Turn your speakers on ... you might actually hear my knees knocking.

YAY!! First Camping Trip This Year!! June 11 - 14, 2010

Ahhhhhh …. The first camping trip of the year. Bob and I now only camp twice a year, avoiding long weekends and summer in general. We just like our peace and quiet and have been willing to endure rain, snow, and cold in order to have it. Such are the sacrifices of the “shoulder-season camper”. This particular weekend was beautiful, though. It’s always a little iffy when you book on March 1 for camping in June and September, but somehow we managed to have the one nice weekend after a six week stretch of misery in Kananaskis. Well … mostly. But more on that later. For two days, though, we enjoyed clear blue skies and blissfully warm temperatures.

We arrived at Sundance Lodges in the afternoon, happy to be able to set up camp in the sunshine. And set-up we did (we being Bob mostly). One of the challenges was my much cherished new camp kitchen, but Bob did a spectacular job of setting it all up. Once my kitchen is all put together (and it is quite a spectacular kitchen) then I am, as they say, “a happy camper”. For someone who rarely cooks at home anymore, I really seem to love cooking when we camp.

To explain the set-up at Sundance Lodges, the site that we book has a Trapper’s Tent. The Trapper’s Tent is a permanent structure, approx. 300 sq. ft., with a wood floor, three zip-up screen windows, a wooden door, four single beds (two put together to make a double), and a kerosene heater. There is a wooden deck that is covered with an awning and so even in miserable weather, you can sit – warm and dry – and enjoy a meal, a drink, or the fire. The site itself is huge. We are able to drive our car right into it, and there is lots of room for our screen tent and chairs. We are surrounded by woods, and neighbours are only slightly visible.




Key elements of successful "roughing it" ...



There had been numerous bear sightings in the Kananaskis area the week prior to our arrival. The Sales Manager from the Delta Lodge in Kananaskis (with whom I have been doing business) had emailed me a couple of times about bear sightings at their resort. At Sundance Lodges, they did have a visit by a couple of black bears the week before we arrived, but with the campground nearly full, the bears weren’t likely to visit. Still, we observed all the basic safety and sanitation rules for bear-proofing. Wisely so. On a photo-taking walk down by the river, almost directly behind our site, I found this fairly fresh scat. Now, by “fresh”, I don’t mean “steaming fresh”, but fairly fresh. I ended my walk at that point. I did manage to get some pictures by the river, though.

























Saturday was a day of relaxing … doing nothing more strenuous than reading or having a beer. Bob had been working pretty hard and we agreed that a day of blissful nothing was over-due and welcome. I was quite content just to cook – a big breakfast of bacon, sausage, hash browns, eggs, and a hot pot of Tim Horton’s drip coffee. Dinner Saturday evening consisted of lasagne, garlic bread, and for dessert, thinly sliced Pink Lady apples, thinly sliced old white cheddar cheese, and some dulce de leche to dip … and wine. (I am not a weeny-roastin' kinda camper.) We then spent a quiet evening, playing crib and enjoying a wonderful warm fire.

Sunday was a spectacularly beautiful day as well and after a great breakfast of hash browns and an omelette filled with ham, mushrooms, and cheddar cheese … and our coffee, of course … we set off for a day of sight-seeing in Kananaskis Country. We passed so many people on bicycles along the way. Good for them. Making the turn into Peter Lougheed Park, we decided to go in a direction we hadn’t gone before and turned left onto the Kananaskis Lakes Trail and followed it all the way down to, and slightly beyond, the Boulton Creek Campground. We went for a walk along a lovely paved path through the woods, and oh my God, those trees smelled wonderful. We came to an Amphitheatre which is part of the Boulton Creek Campground – we just didn’t know it at the time.

Leaving that area, we decided to drive along the Smith-Dorrien/Spray Trail into Canmore. It doesn’t matter how many times we drive that road, we never tire of it. It would be wonderful to drive it someday when there’s not cars climbing up your back bumper and that you could go slowly and make frequent stops for pictures. However, it was a sunny Sunday, so that was not going to be the day. Still, it was lovely, and I did get some pictures. Animal sightings? Two moose, a coyote, numerous gophers, and a big, huge, furry something (Bob suggests maybe a marten). It moved too quickly for me to get a picture, but damn … that thing was big (for a rodent).


The decent into Canmore always is a thrill. You are so high above it and then you slowly twist and turn your way down until you reach the relatively level (and blissfully paved) stretch of road by the Nordic Training Centre. Downtown Canmore was crazy busy as it always is on a sunny Sunday afternoon, so we just picked up dessert and a bottle of wine, and then headed back to the campground to relax for a while before beginning dinner (ribs, beans, coleslaw, buns, and cheesecake for dessert). We had heard the weather report calling for rain the next day – our pack-up day – and so after dinner, we took our kitchen apart and packed that away. DRY. Most of the other campers had left that morning, and so on Sunday evening, it was just Bob and I on our road. There were probably only half a dozen other campers in various places throughout the campground. But for us, it was beautifully quiet … just us, in the woods, with a fire and some wine. Lovely. Here . .. pour yourself a glass of wine, pull up a chair and join us by the fire ...

We awoke in the morning to the sound of wind and rain outside. But we were toasty warm under our comforters, with that wonderful heater warming the tent. We really wanted to stay where we were, warm and content, listening to the rain, but jobs and other responsibilities beckoned, and so, without even making breakfast, we finished packing up, and reluctantly hit the road.

Until September …

The Home Stretch -- Seattle -- Friday, May 28, Day 7

Portland was a much easier city to leave than to get into. With only a couple of navigational glitches (that would be me), we were on the road to Seattle – the last stop of our trip.

By now we were getting tired and didn’t have a lot of plans for Seattle. We’d agreed that there wasn’t time to do much sight-seeing and that we’d perhaps come back another time when we had more time and energy.

The drive north along I-5 was pretty unremarkable – some areas of traffic heavier than others (like around Tacoma) but we navigated into Seattle and found our hotel with little difficulty.

The hotel was the Hotel Vintage Park, and it was very lovely. We received an upgrade to a Deluxe King and that was nice. My favourite feature of this hotel was the leopard print bathrobes. But, I couldn’t get Bob to wear it.

"

As I said, we didn’t have much time, but we did have time to visit the Tap House Grill featuring 160 beers on tap. Can we say “kid in candy store”? I only had two though – the incredible Mac & Jack’s African Amber and of course, Dead Guy Ale. If I’d known that I could get Dead Guy in Edmonton, I probably would have tried something else … or maybe another African Ale. Bob had a Maritime Imperial IPA and Deschutes Black Butte Porter. It’s a pretty amazing place.

We climbed back to the hotel for the wine tasting in the lobby (climbed because Seattle is a very hilly city). That was quite nice. I can’t remember the wine being tasted, but it was a Washington wine and quite nice.

We had reservations for Bob’s birthday dinner at Elliott’s Oyster House. It had a nice view of Elliott Bay and the ferries going back and forth. Ordering two appetizers probably wasn’t a great idea because it left us with little room for dinner. Still we ordered a sharing plate consisting of a couple of types of crab legs and claws, some shrimp and a couple of types of oysters and sauces. I was okay with one kind of oyster (raw) but not the other. Bob was not a fan of either. It was okay, but not the highlight of our trip.

We had an interesting cab ride back to the hotel with a very pleasant, chatty driver from Africa in a very fancy cab. We were also looking for a bottle of wine to bring back to the hotel. Now, while Oregon is very progressive and wine is literally everywhere (in 7-11 and gas stations, for Pete’s sake!), Seattle is not quite like that. It was somewhat harder to find late in the evening, though we did find a grocery store with a decent selection.

In fairness to Seattle, we didn’t spend much time there and didn’t see much. It is, however, a very beautiful city with some amazing architecture and I would love to come back again.

Back to the hotel for what we hoped would be a good sleep and then off to Abbotsford to celebrate Bob’s birthday with good friends, Doreen and Sue, and family, Erin and Sarah.

This had been a spectacular trip. One that we'll remember forever. Journaling in my blog has been a wonderful way to relive those memories.

Portland Walking Tours - Thursday, May 27 - Day 6

Otherwise known as the “What Was I Thinking? Tours”. You know how sometimes when you’re sitting around with a glass of wine, a credit card, and a computer, and something seems like a really good idea? Well that must have been the case when I booked us into TWO major walking tours in one day in Portland. Actually, let me clarify – I booked ME into two major walking tours. Bob was spared one of them.

And so we’ll begin:

THURSDAY MORNING, MAY 27, 2010:

The day began for me with a 3 – 4 hour walking tour called “Epicurean Excursion” – a visit to a sampling of some of the interesting food and beverage establishments in the Pearl District of downtown Portland. We started out a little past 10:00 with a shot of pure dark drinking chocolate mixed with a shot of cream at Cacao, located in the lobby of the lovely Heathman Hotel. It was deeee-licious. I would have enjoyed another tiny cup of that amazing chocolate yumminess!(Smacking my lips remembering it.)

Our next stop was in the Elephants Deli where I had what can only be described as the most delicious soup I’ve ever tasted. It’s quite famous (rightly so) and apparently the Deli had so many requests for the recipe that they did the unheard-of – they posted it on the internet. Elephant's Tomato Orange Soup

From there to another one of my favourite stops – the Pearl Bakery. This place was amazing! We did have a sampling of different breads and olive oil. There was chocolate bread that made my knees weak and … my, oh my … their croissants!! The place was absolutely huge. I was fascinated by the activity around us. What a treat. Well, except for the fact that I had to wear a hair-net. Sadly, I do not have a picture of that.

Other stops included Stumptown Coffee – step aside Starbucks. You got nothin’ compared to Stumptown – had a little coffee there. Very, very good.

We passed by Le Cordon Bleu, College of Culinary Arts, Portland. That’s where I want to go to school when I grow up. I was fascinated by the number of the College’s students, on their break, lined up against the side of the building smoking. They had the biggest standing ashtray I’ve ever seen. Wish I could have taken a picture of them and the ashtray but even I understand that it’s just not cool to take a picture of a bunch of people smoking.

We stopped by a shop called “In Good Taste”. It’s one of those stores where I could spend a lot of time and a lot of money – “cooking toys and food porn”. There was an area where cooking classes were given and we did some testing of different condiments and salts, like Truffle Salt ($$$). Interesting.

Then, off to The Tea Zone where we had several different teas. I have to say that while my tastes in other things are adventurous and fairly sophisticated, my taste in tea is … well, King Cole. Still, I appreciated the flavours, but … “Not my cup of tea.” (har har har)

Wouldn't you love to know what's in that time capsule? If it's beer from the brewery, I think it's going to be a little skunky by the time it's opened. 2056, eh? I think by then I'll no longer be so curious.

I must mention that, at this point, we’ve been walking for over two hours. We saw some lovely buildings, and interesting things. Still, I knew I was going to have to abandon the tour before the end so that I could meet Bob. But, one more stop …

Hot Lips Pizza: Hot Lips Pizza has a very unique business model – they are very Green, and believe in creating a sustainable business environment and using only what’s available locally. For example, while the climate in Oregon is pretty nice, things like tomatoes can’t be grown all year long, so they use other vegetables for a topping base on their pizzas. Hence, the pizza we had was Winter Squash Sauce, onions, locally produced brie, and parsley. It was interesting. I would eat it again, but not regularly. They also make their own soda, which was very refreshing and tasty.

At this point, I needed to say good-bye to my group and go off in search of Bob who was at Powell’s Books for the morning. Powell’s Books is the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world. It occupies a full city block, 68,000 square feet (1.6 acres) of retail space. It’s huge. That’s why, as I made my way there, I sort of regretted that Bob and I hadn’t agreed on a place to meet – just a vague time. I think my words to him as I got out of the taxi to begin my Culinary tour were “Don’t worry. I’ll find you.” And find him I did. Further proof that I have a team of very overworked guardian angels.

THURSDAY AFTERNOON, MAY 27, 2010

We didn’t have much time to go from the trendy Pearl District to the grungier district for the afternoon’s “Underground Portland Walking Tour” which began at Old Town Pizza. I should mention that 98% of the tour did not take place below ground (as the name sort of suggests) but instead refers to the dark and sinister side of Portland’s early days.

This tour was fascinating. Portland had quite a history during its early days as a thriving port. Sailors would come off ships after being out at sea for long periods of time, looking for a drink, a meal, and a woman … in no particular order. That part of Portland had a great many bars and brothels, even a floating brothel in the river (the original "Love Boat"?). Well, I guess the more things change, the more they remain the same – Portland still has a lot of pubs (and great beer) and also has the “distinction” of having more strip clubs per capita than any other city in the U.S., far outnumbering even L.A. or Vegas. Who knew?

Part of Portland’s checkered past comes as a result of the practice of Shanghaiing unsuspecting (drunk) sailors who, after a few drinks, would find themselves horribly hung-over, back at sea again, having been shanghaied (sold as slaves to work on ships). There is, under the city, an entire network of Shanghai Tunnels, mostly closed off now, where evil dealings took place.

Another part of the tour focused on Portland’s ethnic groups who lived in this part of Portland, mainly the Japanese and the Chinese. There is a beautiful garden, a monument to Portland’s Japanese citizens. There are writings and poems on the stones that were written pre and post the internment. Heartbreaking.

We passed a “thing” on the sidewalk. I honestly don’t know what to call it – it’s a multi-media interactive … thing. Ummm, it’s the Home of the 24 Hour Church of Elvis. But that’s not all. There’s much, much more. Pictures don’t do it justice.

I swear ... all the really interesting people live in Oregon.

And of course, there’s the world famous VooDoo Doughnuts. The line-up goes on forever, and their biggest seller is the Maple Bacon Donut. And you can get married there.

Portland has some fabulous old architecture as well. Slowly they’re beginning to salvage a lot of these old treasures.

After a brief walk underground, we surfaced at the (supposedly haunted) Old Town Pizza again. It was a great tour.

But our feet were beyond sore … they were throbbing after 7 hours of walking. And so, after a painful walk, we located a cab and at mach speed (as Portland cab drivers, who all appear to be Eastern European, like to drive), we headed back to the hotel for a very much appreciated seat and a beer.

The feet are no longer sore and the memories are wonderful. What a day!