Visit of Mom and Dad in November of 08

Mom and Dad came out to Calgary for their annual pilgrimage in November. Unfortunately their visit was only for a couple of weeks. But we will take whatever we can get. The kids always love to spend time with Nana and Papa - to have a taste of home - home family traditions from years gone by.

Unfortunately, we were not able to spend any vacation time with them this year. We also worked them very hard in our fund raising efforts for the girl's choir trip to Germany this summer (didn't I mention that before? I don't think I did).

I did manage to take a couple of days with mom and dad. On one of those days, I took mom and dad for a drive up to the Ice Fields along the spine of the Rocky Mountains. As we drove further into the mountains and into higher elevation territory, we were transported into mid January weather. The road was very icy and snowy in sections. It was very isolated. We saw only a couple of dozen cars during our four or five hours along the Ice Field Parkway. It was a great day - the sun was out, the air was crisp and a totally different perspective of this area compared to the summer.















Just inside Banff National Park















This is wild life "overpass" built to allow safe passage for bears, cougars, elk and all other sorts and sizes of animals.
There are also wildlife underpasses along this stretch of roadway.















A stunning mountain scene with a glacier between two peaks with a frozen lake in the foreground.















Mom and Dad - this is a favourite location for a photograph. This is part way up the final climb to the Athabasca Glacier.

It was at this location that we met up with some "Big Horn" Mountain Sheep. As we were driving up to the above location for a photograph, we drove by a large male Big Horn Sheep.















When we stopped to take mom and dad's picture, we saw a few female Big Horn Sheep and their kids coming up from the valley below.















The male Big Horn that we just passed came trotting up to us - we were in between him and his harem. He was not very pleased.















To demonstrate his authority and ownership, he leaped just feet from me. It was an amazing experience for mom and dad and I to say the least!














After a two and half hour drive, we arrived at our destination in the ice fields - the Athabasca Glacier. It's a mammoth sheet of ice covering hundreds of square km's. We had a picnic lunch and dad and I went for a brief walk towards the glacier.

The day ended with dinner in Banff. It was great to have mom and dad all to myself! It is something that does not happen all that often - something that I treasure!