Advise from Mr. Bradbury

Exploring your Province

Okay, so I started the month trying to write a blog post every single day. I totally failed, but I have blogged more these past weeks than in the past couple of years so I'll take what I can get.

Home-schooling is over! Finally! I will try to do some piano and math and of course reading to the boys over the summer, but definitely a burden has been lifted with their official schooling complete. To celebrate this, hopefully once in a life-time milestone, but really, it could happen again next year, just saying... we took a family trip to Drumheller, Alberta. Drumheller: the dreamland of little boys. It did not disappoint!

We hiked around some areas, something that we have never done before. We go to Drumheller every Summer, for the past three at least, I think, but usually we just go for the day and the past few times it had been raining non-stop. This past weekend, it clouded over a couple of times and we thought it was going to storm, but thankfully, it did not. The boys LOVED Horseshoe Canyon. We ended up hiking there twice over the weekend. We also tried to find a Mine and just walked around the trails with some friends. 

With COVID-19 happening we had to book our tickets on-line to visit the Royal Tyrell Museum with a timed entry. They allow up to 40 people every 30 minutes and the beginning of the day was already booked up completely (I checked this about 10 days before), we ended up getting in at 3pm and the museum closes at 5pm. We didn't read everything, but maybe 1/2 and left the museum around 4:45pm. I LOVED the timed entry. The times we had visited the museum in the past, it was so very crowded, that it was difficult to see every display. With the timed entry, it was so nice not to feel overwhelmed. I 100% would do it again and am actually excited to have this option for other things like the Royal Alberta Museum and both the Edmonton and Calgary Zoos.

I realized that when we visited we hadn't hit the true Summer season yet, so because of this and the whole global pandemic thing, a lot of restaurants hadn't opened yet. One that we stumbled on the first day of visiting, we had lunch and it was very quiet the hour we were there. Only one other customer came in to order something. It was eerie, but it also made me feel good about supporting small businesses (not the big chain restaurants) and spending money on good food. The restaurant was called Cafe Ole and was located right next to The Brick store. A lady owned and operated it by herself and made great wraps, soups, sandwiches and Italian sodas (the mango flavored one was the BEST).

To continue with my motto, The Summer of Biking, we brought our bikes to Drumheller. Big Dragon, Little Dragon and I biked the multi-trail system that is on either side of the Red Deer river. Honey Badger, got a free ride in the chariot. He is just starting to be able to maneuver on his two-wheeler, we didn't think his little legs could handle a 15km ride. Little Dragon barely made it through it. It was so neat to ride the nicely paved path and have the river on one side and the hoodoos formations on the other. We even saw a giant bird, I think it was a pelican, just chilling on the water.

While we were walking around on our various hikes it got me to thinking, what is a geode and how can I find one? I looked up some YouTube videos and got the general idea: plain colouring, bumpy, light, when you shake it, you hear a rattling sound. We never found any on this trip, but I am determined to find one this summer. 

This summer, I think it's important for people to stay home and safe if they are concerned or fit into the vulnerable population, but now more than ever, it's important for Albertans to support local businesses and these little tourist towns, like Drumheller, for their survival.