Hello Dino Land

June 29

The World's Largest Dinosaur

We managed to sleep in this morning, which was a much needed sleep for all of us.  Staying up late and getting up early is getting to all of us.  Nicole and Scott made us a wonderful breakfast of homemade waffles, yummy strawberries, blueberries and watermelon.  It was great to be back in civilization with adult conversation, a clean bathroom with no mosquito or strange bugs, four walls surrounding our bedroom, an endless supply of water and a sink where we could  wash our dishes.

We left Calgary around 10:00am and headed towards Drumheller, the home of dinosaurs.  The tourist information centre was a beehive of activity.  It houses the largest dinosaur in the world, there is a hugh splash park where the kids could play and an aquatic complex.  It was scorching hot and the temperature gauge on our van said 29 degrees.  

Andrea with the Dinosaur Fossils

We visited the Royal Tyrrell Museum, which has an extensive display of dinosaur fossils.  I wouldn’t say this was a must do on my list of activities as we travelled across Canada, but it was very interesting.   The kids really enjoyed it, especially Natalie who recently worked on a dinosaur project at school.  It was amazing to walk through the museum and seeing all the fossils and dinosaur displays.   So much detail was done on each of the displays to ensure accuracy in the presentation of the dinosaurs.  Those people who have an interest in dinosaurs would really enjoy seeing this museum.  

Natalie with some thin friends

It was a lot busier at the museum than at other places we visited.  We learned school in Alberta just finished, so tourist season has begun.  When we were parking our car, a staff member from the museum approached us.  She inquired if we were from PEI - she noticed the 5 numbers/letters on our license plate and just had to ask us.  We said yes.  She said she worked at the Confederation Centre last year and absolutely loves the Island.  Francois also met a person at the Royal Bank whose girlfriend is from Summerside and her parents‘ (Leonard MacDonald and his wife) recently moved back.  It is always interesting to here stories about PEI and the connection people have to it.  

Hiking in the Badlands - really cool

We spent a good portion of the afternoon at the museum and then found a campground for the night.  The first tent site assigned to us was too small for our extra large tent, so we needed to get another site.  The kids were much happier with the second site because it was close to the park.

Francois next to a leg fossil

We had supper back at the Tourist Information Centre so the kids could play at the splash pad then we headed to the aquaplex as there was a public swim between 6 and 7:30.  What an amazing facility!  We were charged a family rate of $13.75 and we had the use of two pools - an indoor and outdoor pool, a hot tub, an indoor slide, diving board and a rope vine.  The kids had a wonderful time.  They were doing belly dives and running jumps off the diving board.  It was interesting to see David swim like mad to get from the middle of the pool to the side.   The girls loved the diving board, but they enjoyed the slide too - they could go down two at a time and seemed to have lots of fun together.

David with the Baby Dinosaur

After the public swim was over we headed to the Largest Dinosaur site and paid $10 to climb to the top of the dinosaur.  We were probably overcharged, but the kids had lots of funs and took lots of pictures.

We headed back to the campground for a quiet night.  At the playground, Natalie made a new friend, Keegan.  He has Down Syndrome and his mother told us he is always attached to older girls.  She said he can sense who will look out for him and not be mean to him.  I thought that was a great compliment for Natalie.

We always get into bed for the night around 9:30 in hopes to have an early night sleep for everyone.  Andrea said the birds were a little too loud tonight, but she still managed to go to sleep very quickly.

We say good bye to Drumheller tomorrow morning and head off to Edmonton to visit with the Allain crew.  Last year we celebrated Canada Day in Newfoundland with my brother, Chanel and this year we will celebrate it in Edmonton with my brother Rodney and his family.

Good night

Tanya