Getting here and Edmonton

This is going to be interesting--perhaps not to you, but to me. My wireless mouse is dormant, so I'm having to use the finger pad on the laptop. Not happy about that--but happy about everything else, so I guess I can deal with it.

Here is a picture of Monica and Grandma, with the trunk packed and ready to leave for the airport.

I was very nice to everyone and booked a flight that left at a reasonable time. We didn't have to get to the airport till just after 9 AM. It was all easy--checking in, security, the flight, customs, getting out connecting flight from Calgary to Edmonton. It did feel like we were on planes all day, even though the first flight was about two hours and the second was only 24 minutes. We picked up our car and found our way to the hotel. I know I printed the directions from the airport to the hotel, but I don't know what I did with them. We found it after a wrong turn or two. We have a lovely view over the Saskatchewan River looking forever over the plains.

Our adventure for today was a visit to the Ukrainian Cultural Center. Eastern Alberta and Western Saskatchan was were settled by a large migration from the Ukraine shortly after the turn of the twentieth century.

This family greets you as you enter the Visitor's Center. The cultural center is a recreation of the settlements, using original buildings that were moved to the center site. It is a living history museum, with costumed characters from the period. The first farm we visited was from 1918. The farmwife was home and gave us a tour of her home. The highlight for me was a fiddle case in the parlor, complete with fiddle--badly out of tune. She let me tune it and play it--I played Road to Boston. I missed my band!

Here's some of the livestock from the first farm:

And here, for my farm friends, is a picture of one of the fields:

The church is central to the whole park. Here is a picture from a bit of a distance:

Here is one of the smaller churches:

And this is the big church, closer view. It was really pretty inside.

This is the Hotel and the grain elevator

After two hours of walking around in the last century, we visited the gift shop and headed back to town. We were pretty tired. I was proud of myself for making it only sitting down till we got inside the church. It was a pretty long excursion for me. Back at the hotel, we went swimming--Monica longer than I. I got wet then tried the hot tub--which was REALLY hot. I figured my oncologist would not be happy with me spending too much time in that water, so I chatted with a gentleman who was there celebrating his 20th anniversary. We both dangled our feet in the hot pool. When it was time for his massage, I read, while Monica, the fish, did more swimming.

Dinner at the hotel then an earlish evening. It is almost 10 and the sun hasn't set completely yet. Tomorrow we head for the mountains and Jasper. More later as I figure out how to work this silly thing.

xxooxx