missing heritage

There should be an Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada plaque here. Where is it?

There should be one here too.

This is the old Great Western Garment Company factory, and the site of a designated National Historic Event of Canada called "Chartering of Local 120 of the United Garment Workers of America at the Great Western Garment Company National Historic Event" but there is no plaque (yet?) and I wonder if I'm the only person who could possibly care? And I do care! And I want to go inside and look around!!!!

North Saskatchewan River through Edmonton

I put in at this drainage area by Fort Edmonton Park. It was a nice place to set up the boat.

The iconic High Level Bridge

and another cool bridge where I could see the cars overhead

I had to get out of the way of a tourist boat coming up through the downtown stretch of the river

Edmonton Gurdwaras

Edmonton is home to four large and impressive Gurdwaras

rainy heritage

On a cold and rainy day I visited two more National Historic Sites of Canada in Alberta. First was the site of the Lac St Anne Pilgrimage

And then the site of Rundel's Mission

Jasper House

There are two ways to get to Jasper House; dirt roads and some hiking, or by river. It's near this lovely spot along the Athabasca River.

I didn't paddle far, I put in at the viewing platform across the river.

There is nothing to see but I wanted to walk on the actual site, and I had the boat so it was pretty easy

another day, another coal mine

Three coal mining sites in Alberta have been designated as National Historic Sites of Canada, but Nordegg is by far the coolest one.





As far as industrial heritage sites go this ranks up there with Humberstone and St Laura in Chile and the Claybank Brick Plant in Saskatchewan. The chance to visit something so abandoned and yet so intact is quite a joy.

Une journée dans la vie d'un voyageur

I love finding things for my day in the life... theme. At Rocky Mountain House NHS I came across this interpretive display about a cross Canada canoe race to celebrate Canada's centennial (say that five times fast!).

Rocky Mountain house is set in a lovely spot at the head of navigation on the North Saskatchewan River

The actual canoe used by the Alberta team was part of the display

Rocky Mountain House was the starting point for the race

One of the costumed interpreters had a bag of pemmican... ummm pemmican! She didn't want me to try it though.

First silver coin found with metal detector

Finally found a coin old enough to be silver. But I scratched it digging it out of the ground.

A 1953 Canadian quarter and more importantly a great feeling to find it.

Banff National Park of Canada

I took a day trip to Banff NP to catch up on some things I missed in 2009. The very posh Banff Springs Hotel was on the list.





Of course the reason for the visit was the hotels status as a National Historic Site of Canada

The heritage hall in the hotel had some nice photos to give us a glimpse of how the ultra rich lived it up in the 20's and 30's, along with a interesting description of how the Great Depression changed attitudes about spending money among this segment of the population. It basically said they decided to live it up even more when they lost confidence in the economy and the value of their money and investments. Live for the moment it said.

Next up was a hike up Sulphur Mountain for some amazing views and another NHS. Most people take the gondola which costs $34 plus tax. There was still a lot of snow on the trail but it was a great hike.

At the top is the Sanson Weather Observatory and the foundation of the Sulphur Mountain Cosmic Ray Station.

Vaisakhi

Sikhs in Alberta celebrate Vaisakhi in May instead of April since snow and parades don't mix very well. That means I got to celebrate Vaisakhi twice this year! Once with my mom in Phoenix and now here in Calgary.









This is one of the coolest things I tried, East Indian style ice cream. I never found these in east India! It was good!

The festival generates an unbelievably enormous amount of garbage



This is the event of the year for bottler pickers but most seem to get overwhelmed and give up.



I was overwhelmed but I didn't give up. I only quit when I couldn't get anymore bottles in the car.

The bottled depot credited me with 302 bottles. The bottle depot manager must have seen my out of country license plates and came out to my car to ask if these were Alberta bottles, yup!

Paddling the Bow River through Calgary

I picked a chilly and windy day to paddle the Bow River through Calgary, but it was awesome! Here's downtown coming into view



I finished at Fort Calgary NHS at the confluence of the Elbow and Bow rivers.

This time getting back to the car meant taking a city bus. They had a spot for my boat.