Happy Canada

We just returned from a trip to Canada, where we visited our friends Marcel and Fran. They live west of Edmonton, in a beautiful forested area. I mean, miles and miles of green, tall trees, deciduous and evergreen. And it rains there, a lot. When I gave blessing on the food, I expressed gratitude for the rain- when their daughter gave the blessing, she expressed gratitude for the sunshine!

We spent a week RVing in Jasper National Park. Right outside of Jasper town limits, I saw a white wolf trotting down the jogging path. During the evenings we heard shotgun blasts, but Fran told me they shoot blanks at bears to keep them out of the camping ares. Surprisingly we didn't see very much wildlife this trip- last time we saw elk, moose, mountain goats and a bear. All of the trash cans are bear-proof, even in the towns. At our campgrounds, it was obvious on several cans that bears had clawed at them, there were big ole scratch marks around the doors.

We took a boat cruise on Maligne Lake, I'll post some pics. The Columbia Ice Fields draped across the tops of the mountains next to the lake, and there were several glaciers dripping off the tops of them, one looks like a big teardrop sliding down the mountain.

Banff is quite a pretty place, but very touristy. Jasper is further north, and while it's very busy, it's less flashy or expensive as Banff. I did find a beautiful jacket there; it's turquoise colored, with an embroidered outline of a wolf on it. The whole thing, including the fabric, is made in Canada. I'm really motivated to buy from this continent as much as I can- preferably American made, but Canada and Mexico are fine too. They are our good neighbors, and I want to support our industry. May I say, it's nearly impossible to find US made fabric???