I write this driving from Winnipeg east toward Ontario. It's been a while since an update, so I will try to catch everyone up chronologically as best I can. We spent a few days in Edmonton, and on the drive between Edmonton and Winnipeg, we stopped at Riding Mountain National Park. We've been having a wonderful trip, but have had limited internet access. Should be some new pictures up soon, though.

Edmonton

After a delicious breakfast, we spent Carol's birthday at the Fringe Theatre Festival in Edmonton. At the Fringe Theatre Festival, we saw some exciting street performers, ate some chocolate covered bananas, and went to play at the kids' area. Eli liked the sandbox. On the way home, we stopped by the Edmonton science museum, which had several interesting exhibits, including a cool exhibit that allowed you to use forensic evidence to try to find a criminal. We visited the planetarium, where Eli freaked out, then ate (and spilled) Indian food and cheesecake for Carol's birthday dinner.

The next day in Edmonton, we went to Fort Edmonton, which we thought would be a small fort. Once we entered the site, we found that it turned out to be an entire city over many acres, with actors and all types of 1890s - 1920s era pieces. The main feature is the entire Fort Edmonton, reconstructed from notes and maps. Fort Edmonton was a fur trading post that was central to Edmonton's development. We spent a lot longer at the Fort than we had anticipated because we were having a great time.

The following day, Day 11, we took Carol to the airport and said goodbye, and spent the day catching up with a lot of things that we had neglected--some shopping, an oil change, and fixing a small problem with our hitch.

Riding Mountain National Park

We had a good day at Riding Mountain National Park, where we discovered the beach. It had been a very hot day, but about 10 minutes before we got to the beach, the sun went behind a cloud and the wind picked up. This made our brief dip in Clear Lake a little bit colder than we had anticipated.

The next day, we wanted to see the Visitor's Center, but got our directions mixed up and ended up missing it. We saw the Wishing Well, which was a natural spring and had a nice garden. We took the East exit from the park. We saw a black bear yearling on the way.

To be continued ...