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Sunday, March 26, 2006
Alberta Trip and Northern Wildlife
Its been a while since my last post - figured it was time to write a little something.
Last week we took a trip to Wetaskiwin Alberta. On our way there, we left Dease Lake via the Northern route and took the Alaskan Highway to Dawson Creek. What a long day... We had heard that the drive would be anywhere from 12-16 hours. Well, we hit some terrible road conditions and ended up at the 15.5 hour mark. The drive though, was well worth it. We saw a ton of wild life! Lots of moose, countless caribou, and even a few buffalo! (as well as a ton of others like, foxes, eagles, etc). The scenery on this drive is incredible. While in Wetaskiwin Lyndsay and I stayed with my mom. Was good to see her as it has been a while. We did the typical trip to West Edmonton Mall, and various shopping, and picked up some things we cant get in Dease Lake. On the drive there we were reminded that our little Honda, while incredibly reliable, and overall a great car, just doesnt have any power. When it comes to passing, or even hills for that matter, it certainly lacks a little. We found ourselves talking quite a bit about getting a new car, and if we could or couldn't afford it. So - while in Alberta, we went up to a Mazda dealer and test drove a new Mazda 3 Sport. I have to say I loved it - the car had a ton of power, about the same gas milage as our honda, lots of cargo space etc. Certainly a car we would buy... so did we buy it? No... A few reasons here but the biggest was the trade in value on our car. The dealership offered us a max of $2500. I know for a fact that I could get between 6-7000 selling it privately. Because we were away from home, that gave me a day to sell it on my own, and I really didnt think it was possible to sell it in a day., so we decided to wait until the summer and see what happens then. After the car idea fell through Lyndsay decided it was time to get a dog. Now, we've been talking about getting a dog for some time now, but I really wasnt all that excited about it - too much responsibilty when you want to go away, etc. Regardless, I agreed that we could go take a look. She saw an ad in the paper for some Shih-tzu Bichon cross puppies for $350. We drove down to take a look. These were suppose to be 10 week old puppies, but they were huge! I would say they had to be much older. Also their parents were not pure bread, they were also both crosses. These dogs were certainly not worth $350, so we walked. They were cute, but I am not paying $350 for just cute - besides, for $350 I want to enjoy the dog while its a tiny, clumsy puppy. We were there for about 5 nights, and left for home on the Friday. The first day was a drive to Prince George. That trip through Jasper was incredible! It was my first time on the Yellow Head highway, and Jasper was simply amazing and included two huge herds of big horn sheep. On the west side of Jasper we hit a bit of a blizzard that slowed us down a bit, but nothing too extreme. We arrived in Prince George around 2:00. Normally we would have continued on to Smithers or so, but we had booked a room at the Coast Hotel. What a great idea that was! Spent some time in the pool and hot tub, went out to The Keg for a great steak dinner, then back to the hotel to watch a movie, and hit the hot tub again. This was one of the nicest hotels we had stayed in, and with the Norther resident rate, cost us only $99! I think we'd certainly stay there again. The next day we drove all the way home, took around the 12 hour mark. Nothing really eventful happened here, but our highway (the 37) had a stretch of a couple hundred km's that was sheer ice. Normally the road has compact snow and slippery sections, but this was crazy slippery. Had to go around 60 for at least an hour of it. What a pain when you are on a 12 hour drive! We did make it home safe, and had a great trip. Lyndsay and I love living in Dease Lake, but it is certainly nice to get out of town every now and then! << Return to Blog << Return to DeaseLake.net |
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