Road Trip to Fort St John

On August 20 we decided to go to see my Aunt in Fort St John.  She has been up there a year an a half and was thinking of moving back down to Didsbury and working remotely an so we figured we should go up there while she was still there.  We planned on leaving earlier but then the boys came out and then I had 2 clinics and finally we had time.  I took a lot of pictures so its gonna be kinda a long post.

We thought we should do a few things on the way up there and I suggested the Giant Egg, Neil said its way out of the way so no big deal we can go another time.  Then we looked at the map and its prett well straight north of us so we went there our first day, was less than 3 hours, lol and we thought was so far.  It was totally worth seeing, really big, in a really nice park setting and it moves!

Then since it wasn't very late we decided to keep going and we spent the night in Spruce Grove, was hard to find a hotel but we did and did some shopping and had supper, not to hard a day :) The next day we were heading to Grande Prairie to meet up with Neil's cousins wife and kids, been a long time since we seen them so we figured it was time.  On the way we went by Mayerthrope and decided to stop and see the RCMP memorial where the 4 were killed a couple years ago.  Its good, everyone should see it, pretty sad day for RCMP and everyone else as well that had to happen.  The memorial was cool, all 4 RCMP statues were different.  Then we stopped to use the washroom at Little Smokey (not much of a town, but as we were wandering around we saw this hand ferry across the river, Neil wanted to try it but unfortunalty it was locked up, looked like a good fishing spot though (if I were a fisher)

After we left the family the next morning. actually they left us to go to work, lol.  We were driving to the UFA for gas and we saw a giant sundial so we stopped at it, time was right even, I wonder what they do for daylight saving time?  Then onto Beaverlodge where everyone was so excited for us to see the giant beaver......well I dunno, they had him at the end of a gravel parking lot and he looked kinda mean (and he was plastic)  Kinda cool but not really just a big mean beaver, lol.  And then coolest of all was the curved bridge on the old Alaska Highway.  We saw a sign saying it ans somehow I read covered but I thought that was weird up there and then we found out if was a wooden curved bridge, how neat!  And then we made it to my Aunts house finally.

She had a few things she wanted us to see, one was Charlie Lake it was by a restaurant we ate at on Friday night (really good!) and it had a memorial to a bunch of US soldiers who died on the lake when they were building the Alaska Highway.  It was winter and their boat overturned and most died, a few were rescued buy a local guy in his rowboat.  Amazing how many people we have told and they have never even knew about it.  Then she took us to see Bennett Dam, that was cool, huge and made of dirt!  And then on the way back we toured though Hudson Hope, a pretty town with pretty views.

The next day she wanted us to go see a neat overlook of the Peace River, but as we were like 2 miles from it they were doing road construction on the bridge and wouldn't let us get to it :(  But we did see the neatest log church, the Beatton River, which was cool we could just drive right up to it no big touristy spots, and then a lookout at the end of 100 street and we went to Taylor to see the sand sculptures.  Then it was home time for us even though I'd have liked to keep going Neil wanted to go home.  We stopped to take pics at the border and then on to Heinz creek to see the giant rail spike, even though we really just wanted a snack we saw it accidentally, and to see Neil's other cousin, her hubby and 1 of their kids at their farm in Grimshaw.

Then the next day on down to the Shaftsbury ferry and through the town of Falher which is honey Capital and then the wierdest things, the UFO landed in someones yard and then by Whitecourt we saw area 51.  That was unexpected.  That evening we also stopped by to visit Sherry and Martin, that was cool I think I should stop in everytime we go by and this time it actually worked.

And then we stayed the night in Stoney Plain and then came home after stopping at Leduc #1, the first oil well in the province and taking the Bleriot Ferry and viewing Horsethief canynon which we had heard of but didn't know where it was and then as we pulled into Drum we saw a dead dinosaur being taken away and they didn't even cover him :(

So after 2384 kms we finally made it back home, was a good trip next time I wanna go right up to Alaska, but that's gonna take some convincing of Neil yet.  Whew each day probly coulda been its own post, I could write so much more, but thats gonna have to go in my home scrapbook I guess.