Kim – Page 6 – Crawford Family Sabbatical

July 26, 2013

Back in time at Heritage Park Historical Village in Calgary

Last night, I did laundry and picked up 2 free books in the laundry room(at many of the laundry rooms, you can leave a book/take a book). Made my night! I also spent some time looking at what we should do during our 1 day in Calgary. We were really tempted to go Calgary Olympic Park. It looked really cool from the highway and online, but budget wise, it just didn’t make the cut. I found Heritage Park Historical Village which looked awesome. It is located on 127 acres, partially surrounded by Glenmore Reservoir. It is Canada’s largest living history museum! It was divided into 4 distinct areas reflecting different time periods: 1864-Hudson Bay Fur Trading Company(Did you know it only took 5 beaver furs to trade for a gun?), 1880s-Pre-Railway Settlement(we learned they started training the Blackfeet Indian boys at a early age to buffalo hunt. They would use games up until ages 9-10, then they could start hunting elk, and be ready to buffalo hunt by age 12), 1910-Railway Prairie Town, 1930-1950s-Heritage Town Square. It had a cool small 4 ride amusement park also with rides from early 1900s(Kane really enjoyed!). Swings, Caterpillar, The Whip(which was risque at the time) and the Ferris Wheel. I convinced the family and off we went! It exceeded our expectations! Here are some pics:

Kane and Kat practicing buffalo hunting. They have to throw stick through circle.

Printing Press This was amazing to see how it worked and how much time it took!

Kat's not sure about The Whip! — Kat’s not sure about The Whip!

July 25, 2013

Hello Canada!

Kane and Kat were so excited to step onto Canadian Soil! While Scott handled customs, we ran over to the Alberta sign. We are on our way to Calgary for 2 nights on our trek to Alaska.

July 24, 2013

Glacier NP(East Side) – Snow, Hikes and Huckleberry Pie

We moved to the east side of Glacier on Tuesday. I thought I had booked our site for 3 days, but realized when they put the check out notice on the window, that I had looked at my excel travel log wrong. Ohh, we were disappointed! Fish Creek is just beautiful!! Then when we got to the east side(2 hour drive) to St. Mary’s campground, there was a problem with our campsite. We ended up getting spot that felt like we were in the high desert. Stark contrast to the other side. It all worked out, because we were closer to the most breathtaking scenery!

We hiked Hidden Lake Valley Overlook Hike at Logan Pass. Kids were so excited to hike through SNOW in July! So weird seeing snow and actually walking through it in some places. This is one of our favorite hikes we have done. At the top, we were at the Continental Divide. We saw mountain goats, bighorn sheep and marmots. We wished we could hike down to the the Hidden Lake, but the fish were spawning and bears were there feeding, so they closed the trail.

We headed to lunch at Two Sisters

Cafe in Babb, Montana on the way to Many Glacier(part of Glacier). We split a piece of huckleberry pie! Huckleberries are popular here. There was a dog outside the restaurant that loved me! Tried to follow me in the restaurant, and we were leaving followed us to the jeep and hopped right in the front seat. Kids laughed so hard! That’s him at the window when we were getting ready to pull out.

Then we headed to Many Glacier(unfortunately, there used to be 150 glaciers in park, but now only 25. They say by 2030 there will not be any glaciers left). The ranger said they classify a glacier by: ice 100 feet thick and 25 yards wide and it moves. We hiked the Swiftcurrent Trail to Lake Josephine. We were able to see Gem and Salamander Glacier. Leaving Many Glacier, we spotted a big grizzly bear up on the side of the mountain. It is so incredible to see animals in their natural habitat. Headed home for dinner then to the Native American Dance Program. It was a tad busy that day! So much to see and so little time!!

July 23, 2013

Glacier NP – John Lake Hike

We tried to do the Avalanche Lake Hike, but we could not get a parking spot. This place was packed! So we went down the road to the John Lake Hike, which gave us woods, lake and waterfalls. What more can we ask for? Ate lunch in the woods, I lost walkie talkie(Kat found it), kids had a blast playing in water and fishing(no fish caught), and got in a 3 mile hike.

July 22, 2013

Glacier is my new Favorite!

We arrived to Glacier National Park last Sunday. We stayed 2 days on the west side at Fish Creek and 2 days at St. Marys on the east side. When we pulled to check in the rangers said there have been a couple bears running around the campground. Ok, that made me a little nervous, because the kids bike around the loop and play outside a lot. The next day we heard they had to capture one of them, the bear bluffed charged someone. Poor little bear got caught, taken away and is not coming back(he was 2).

We are at Glacier!

Our campsite.

We walked to Lake McDonald after dinner.

Kids, fully clothed, trying out the cold water.

July 20, 2013

Lewis and Clark were Studs!

Kids learning Indian Sign Language at Center

Rainbow Falls-4 of 5 falls now have dams built on them

Today, we visited the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Grand Falls, Montana. It was AWESOME! We learned so much!! I highly recommend you take the time to visit, if you are anywhere near here. It is amazing how they planned for a trip that had so many unknowns. No man had traveled by land from Atlantic to Pacific. Also, they thought the West mirrored the East. They thought the Rockies mountains were farther south and similar to Appalachian Mountains. They crossed through territories of 50 different indian tribes. Have you ever had to buy a present for someone you didn’t know? They had to have presents for a multitude of indians they did not know. They were the first white men to see the Great Falls. They had no idea there were 5 waterfalls. They had to portage their canoes and carry their supplies by hand or makeshift wagons for 18 miles. Absolutely Fascinating! I could go on and on with all I learned today.

July 20, 2013

Meals

Some of you have asked about cooking in the RV. We are trying to eat most of our meals in the RV due to our budget. I have to say, I am pretty pleased with how smoothly it has been working out. For once, almost all the food is getting eaten. We plan out all our meals for the week and purchase the right amount. Since we are on a budget, we don’t grab the extras at the grocery store, like we used to do. I think that is where we used to waste food.

July 20, 2013

Laundry

Well, today was Laundry Day and we sure had a lot! I have a new appreciation for owning a washer and dryer in St. Louis. This is not something that was at the top of my appreciation list, but now it is. Also, the cost of doing laundry adds up. This is a line item that we did not think about. I spent $11.50 on laundry(I did bed sheets, so that was an extra load). I am hoping we can stretch laundry out till at least every 6 days. Yes, we are re-wearing clothes, as long as they don’t stink.

July 19, 2013

Driving to Great Falls, Montana

Friday, July 19, 2013

Yesterday, we left Yellowstone and headed north to Great Falls, Montana to visit the Lewis and Clark Interprative Center. Our kids and I had school time. We spent time learning about Lewis and Clark, as well as, the basics. It was the smoothiest day so far. We are all adjusting to Mommy being the teacher. We stopped in Helena, MT for dinner.

Parking is a problem for us. We thought parking in front of a church is the perfect spot!

Godfather’s Pizza! Oh, it tasted so good!!

July 15, 2013

Yellowstone July 15-19, 2013

Monday: Norris Geyser Basin(saw hot springs, mud pots and geysers). Steamboat Geyser, is the tallest geyser in the world and it last blew in 2005. Kane wanted to stick around to wait for it to go again. We got to see it sputter a bit, but that was all.