Day 21: High River, AB to Camrose, AB

Day 21, Saturday: High River, AB to Camrose, AB

KM start: 164,242 Km

Trip Meter: 7,174 km

Time Driven: 1:30pm - 5:30pm

We got up at a reasonable hour and all enjoyed a big breakfast together - I think there were 11 of us around the tables and it was awesome. 

Then we headed into High River or Hudson, as Heartland would have us believe. I was excited to see Maggie's Cafe and to spend some time with Kari and Kaela.

Tada's....Maggie's Cafe!

The men showing off their rear ends for some strange reason.

Kari and I enjoying the set from Heartland.

Inside the cafe (sorry about the glare)

Then we headed next door to an antique store - we headed up a back staircase and found the coolest part of the store. 

My mom has this same picture at home in needlepoint.

This store was an old courthouse so these are the cells.

Paul enjoyed the offerings as well.

Kaela and I found hats.

Downstairs was also filled with neat items.

I LOVE this little car.

Then we drove past a wall commemorating chuck wagon racing families in the area.

And then there was a motel that was used in Heartland, the episode where Tim and Jack chased down the guy who stole Spartan and got into a fight with him. 

And then the Siewerts took us to a must-visit spot - the Hitchin Post. 

Apparently we "had" to try their milkshakes - they were wonderful. 

And shortly after that we had to hit the road again.

We caught a last photo opportunity with the family.

Luke struggled to focus.

But he managed to figure it out eventually.

Then we left our dear friends and headed out to Camrose, 4 hours away, to see our other lovely friend, Jodi, who we hadn't seen in 3 months also. 

We got to her house and visited with her family and her adorable nephew - it was so great to see where she grew up and get to know her family. See her in "her place". Plus it was great to see her after 3 months! I love Jodi so it was a real treat to be reunited, especially knowing that she was moving back to Vancouver just a few short weeks later. And that we'd get to spend the next week together at Campus Harvest with our other great friends Stefany and Lyndsay. 

And classic homeschooler albertan, there was a deer in the front yard.

Jodi's family cooked up a great dinner

Jodi and her parents in the kitchen.

And what is dinner with Jodi without a Jodi made dessert? So great.

We stayed up late talking and laughing and getting to know her family more - bonding over joint childhood memories stemming from the christian programming (movies, tv shows and radio programs) that we'd all grown up with.

It was lovely. 

Day 20: High River, AB

Day 20, Friday: High River, AB

No Driving!

Friday morning I slept in until about 9am, Paul had been up for a while. Him and Doug had a big egg fry up and then headed out for a day of adventure. 

First off, remember we're in Alberta. So Paul is already happy. He gets to wear his ugly work vest (which he loves) and dirty jeans and he fits right in. 

Then there is the scenery:

Nothing says, you're most definitely not in the city like surroundings like these.

Then he snuck off to go fishing for a bit: 

And then Doug took him out to the farm (these bales were all stacked by Doug!)

And let him ride around the farm on a quad for the afternoon!

Can you see how completely overjoyed he is?

And if all of that wasn't good enough, would you like to know what they did after they ate their giant meaty breakfast? 

They went to a cattle auction for the morning. 

That's right, a cattle auction.

Paul was in country heaven.

He seriously texted me like 10 times throughout the day to tell me how happy  he was.

I didn't "get" to do any of those things but I did get to hang out with these guys:

and this awesome lady:

And we got to drive around in this awesome truck.

At one point we were running an errand in the truck (which is Kari's sister's truck) and we were picking up some equipment to take out to the farm and they had some bigger pieces and Kari needed to let them know that we could take the big pieces since we had the truck to carry them in. The grin on her face as huge as she exclaimed, "I have a truck!" She so badly wishes that was always a true statement, but for the afternoon she could pretend. 

Then we all met up on the farm to meet the newest little Siewert baby (Doug's brothers newest addition) and then headed back into town to make dinner at home. We were having steaks, potatoes and veggies. I wanted to show them how AMAZING Zucchini could be, and they brought along a ton of fresh homegrown Zucchini. Giant, giant, zucchini. 

For example, the pan below contains cut up pieces of only ONE Zucchini, that's how big it was. I've never seen anything like it. 

Also Paul was enthralled with these goblets.

And we'd brought some wine with us from the states to share.

(one red, one white - that's one each, as per the regulations!)

The conversation flowed with energy and laughter...

and hand motions

Kari was worried that Paul would be hungry...she made sure there was all kinds of food in the house just in case.

Earlier in the afternoon Kari's sister Michelle had come by with a bunch of their kids, and then they'd taken all the kids out to a different farm for the night. During dinner Kari's other sister Lisa and her family joined in as well. They had two very energetic but cute little boys and it was great to get to know another of Kari's sisters. We'd gotten to talk with Michelle over dinner back in Vancouver a few years back, so this was our chance with Lisa and Jack.

The boys loved Auntie Kari...and jumping...and running...

They liked to chat and talk to the adults

Isn't he adorable?

I mean the kid, not Doug.

Not that Doug isn't cute but...never...this is going poorly.

After her shift finished in Edmonton for the day Kaela drove down to see us. It was so great to see her!

Then we stayed up late talking.

Well most of us.

Paul fell asleep pretty quickly, as per usual.

And then finally it was off to bed since there was yet another early morning and a trip about town the next day to really see the town of "Heartland"