R.M.S. Titanic ...

Thu 28 Apr - ,After checking out of the Falcon Crest at Canmore we drove in pretty hideous conditions, to Calgary. We still cannot believe that it is snowing so much, at this rate the ski slopes will remain open until the end of May.

We were off to visit the Telus Science Museum to see the White Star Line - Titanic exhibition. The science museum has removed all it other exhibits and only has the Titanic exhibition through to the end of summer. Both Tegan and Fraser were really keen to go as several of their friends have been and told them about it. So an educational day out - they might retain some of the information?

On our entrance each one of us was given a different 'Boarding Pass' which on the reverse had details of who we were, age, where we were from, accompanied by, the class that we travelled and our reason for travelling. At the end of the exhibition there was a large wall showing how many people in each class or crew that either lived or died. Luckily Tegan, Fraser and myself all survived - Chris was not so fortunate.

We started off by going to the theatre room to listen to a presentation about the liner and those people that were heroes or people, predominately men, who were portrayed cowards. There were many amazing stories. The captain Edward John Smith was persuaded by White Star Line to make one more voyage before his retirement - as all captains do he went down with his ship.



The exhibition included many artifacts that have been recovered from the liner sitting at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean. Including in one of the cabinets were bottles that had once contained wine along with 3 bottles of champagne that still had their eroded corks in and half full of champagne - although a little salty maybe!

After a fascinating time at the Telus museum we jumped into the car and headed back to Ralston, luckily the weather had calmed down and the journey home was fine. This was our last time in the Rocky Mountains which we will certainly miss, the mountains are always breadth taking and we have a lot of amazing memories from our time staying there.

Monday 2 May - the packers arrive, so Sat & Sun will be spent throwing things into boxes - nothing like last minute preparation for the Leonards.

Last Day Skiing at Sunshine...

Snowwhite is missing one of her seven dwarfs - he came skiing today!!












Well for our last day skiing at Sunshine Village we had a full day of snow which started about 11am and didn't stop all day. However it made for awesome skiing as there was glorious powder on the slopes and still the mountain was fairly empty. Tegan and Fraser both skied well and we played amongst the trees finding lots of jumps to their joy and cries from me as I went over them. During the morning we skied the top part of the mountain and then as the cloud came in went down lower to ski Rollercoaster and several other runs of Wolverine chair lift. Rollercoaster is one of the kids favourites as it is a small run amongst the trees and all about 'bumps and lumps'.

What has become the norm we left the mountain and after a quick stop in Canmore headed for the hot tub which we sat in with snow falling on our heads, although it felt considerably warmer than when we skied during February when temperatures were -30degrees and below.

Farewell to Sunshine....

Today (Tue 26 April) we woke up for our penultimate day of skiing in the Rocky Mountains. To our joy the sun was trying to appear and more to our surprise it was warm as we parked up at Sunshine Village car park - a first as before now we have been putting on our ski boots in minus lots. Friends have very kindly lent us their VIP parking pass which enabled us to park very near to the lifts. So onto the gondola we jumped and headed up the mountain. The first part of the morning we had snow showers but still wonderful skiing, especially as the mountain was so empty. After lunch the sun came out with blue skies which just made the whole ski experience great, especially as Tegan and Fraser just wanted to go over jumps.

After leaving the mountain we popped into Banff and then headed back to the Falcon Crest for a bit of hot tubing with a view of the three sister mountains. Then back to our room for a bbq and to watch the Stanley Cup hockey games - we have become so Canadian.

Easter...

Whoops the weeks have yet again flown by, I will catch up for the end of March beginning of April on my return to Ralston.

The week before Ralston school broke up for Easter holiday the Kindergarten class went for a trip to Police Point Park to visit the nature centre to see the chicks and bunnies and have a walk outside to look at the first sights of Spring. As a parent helper I was asked to come along much to the joy of Fraser who I 'had' to sit next to on the bus. It was a great morning out and really good to see all the childrens faces as they got to stroke the chicks and bunnies.

Ralston school broke up for their Easter leave on Good Friday. Fortunately Chris has also been able to take leave as it was decided that Prairie Thunder One should be cancelled. This was due to the awful weather that we were still having, lots of snow, therefore making the prairie hazardous and the troops coming over to take part in the exercise would not be able to achieve the training. So much to our delight we could take leave and have another adventure.

It was all planned that we would go to Yellowstone Park and friends kindly had lent us their RV (campervan) but again the weather was not on our side with the forecast for Montana's weather as snow, ice and rain. We waited until Wed night before making a decision that it was not going to be much fun driving for so long and not being able to 'fling open the doors of the RV and run around Yellowstone'. So Plan B was put into action.

Easter Friday was spent at home and Saturday we went to watch the Medicine Hat Tigers vs Kootenay Ice game. Fraser was so excited, I cannot tell you how much he is into his ice hockey - given the choice of watching childrens tv or an ice hockey game there is only one choice. So as always it was great to watch live ice hockey but unfortunately the Med Hat Tigers lost 3-0 with lots of pushing and shoving.

Sunday morning we were up and packing ready for Plan B trip to Calgary and Canmore. Tegan and Fraser were up bright and early and ready for the easter egg hunt for all the eggs that the Easter Bunny had left in our garden. First stop was two days in Calgary staying at the Sheraton Eau Claire which is located in the city centre and on the Bow River. After the drive up to Calgary, lunch at the Chinook Mall and check in to the hotel we went for a walk down by the river and to the park - it was a glorious day and great to have a play. We had supper at Joey Tomatoes and then called it a day.

Easter Monday we decided to visit Calgary Zoo as again the weather was perfect. First stop was the gorillas enclosure and we were just in time to catch the commentary by one of the park keepers. There was a silverback male, five females along with a 3 year old - all very interesting and entertaining to watch. The day was spent meandering around the zoo and due to the lovely weather all the animals were happy to oblige their audience. The elephants were very interesting and Tegan got to hold some elephant poo - which had apparently been cooked and therefore became hard!! Late afternoon we decided that we had seen all that we wanted and hopped into the car to drive to Canmore. After checking into the Falcon Crest we had a bbq for supper and then to bed - skiing tomorrow.