alberta nr i'm only in the airport so far, but one of my first experiences of this province has been eating with a fork shaped like a hockey stick. 220327 ... epitome of incomprehensibility I wish you a good trip! People keep talking about writer's retreats in Banff, whose spelling escaped me until recently. Bammf? Doesn't look right. Bamff? Today when I tried, it first came out as "Bannf" - close! Where I've been twice is Edmonton, but I barely remember it, aside from playing board games with second cousins. Encoded within a flower-patterned journal is a seven-year-old's account of one trip, which also took my family to BC. When I was that age or younger, I also marveled at the fact that this was my grandmother Nanny's first name, even though she was from Maine - not Canada at all. 220327 ... tender_square (the only reason i remember how to spell "banff" is because when i was there as a teenager on a high school trip to the west coast, our tour guide said it stood for "be aware, nothing for free.") 220328 ... raze i hope you have the best time in the province of six hundred lakes, and i hope you get to see all the beautiful things while you're there. 220328 ... kerry i imagine it as a very geographically dramatic place. is that true? also, enjoy your trip :) 220328 ... tender_square_forgetting_her_manners also, have a great trip nr! 220328 ... past the last time i was in alberta was for a conference i have mostly all forgotten but before that i attended a weekend workshop on bison and biocultural relationships between banff and the prairies, around when bison were being introduced to the park. a memorable factoid was the amount of time projected for bison to approach the more public parts of the park was very similar to the projected time it would take wolves to learn to hunt bison successfully, so that the first tourist siting of a bison had the potential to be a corpse. in any case, may all your wildlife viewings be alive and at a safe distance. 220328 ... past there was also a blather meetup with leif that visit! 220328 ... nr thank you all! the only wildlife i've seen up close so far is a rabbit on my evening walk home the other night. it was grey and wouldn't let me get a picture in time. calgary is only okay. i mean, it's fine. but it's too grey and not very scenic. lake louise is beautiful and the ski hills are intense. i only fell on my butt once, which i am glad about. seeing the rockies from 7500 feet above sea level in banff was just... unreal. i had/have no words. the experience brought tears to my eyes. 220403 what's it to you? who go blather from