Welcome to the Badlands

 Day 1:  It's quite a trek through rural Alberta to get to Dinosaur Provincial Park, but when you are greeted by this stunning view of the Badlands from the upper parking lot you've hit the jackpot.  YES, if you look in the above photo you'll notice that I have my hand holding Xavier's shirt as he tends to see rocks as something to climb on or over and not a barrier to stay behind.  It's quite the cliff.  Jackson can be trusted.  The "X" factor however needs a helping hand LOL.

 Cool dudes inside the field centre still wearing their sunglasses!

Hoodoos form the bulk of the terrain, thanks to erosion of the sandstone and the slower rate of erosion of the ironstone "cap" on top.   Cool "popcorn" rock as well, really called mudstone that absorbs water and swells to about 10x it's mass and gets really slippery and slimy  (we didn't see a drop of rain so I'm only going by the info signs!)

 Our little dinosaur hunters look well equipped, hats, sunscreen & bug spray needed here and lots of water - good thing we came in the fall; apparently "hellaciously" hot in summer.  You can camp right on site too! 

Real-life fossil displays in situ, like this headless Hadrosaur, give a more accurate idea of how the paleontologists work.  

Day 2:  Drumheller

 The World's Largest T-Rex -  you pay $3 and you get to climb up the stairs as many times as you want for the whole day (ha!)  - it's a good view of the city out of the dino's mouth and if you look closely you can see the splash pad and wading pool / fountain where the boys galloped around for an hour cooling off. 

We had to buy one of those dino dig rocks that you break open with plastic hammer and pick axe tools to find a little dino inside.  Mommy was smart enough to get the boys to do this messy  job in their swimsuits at the outdoor picnic table next to the splash pad.  

The Royal Teryll Museum - awesome!   Hundreds of amazing fossils.  We've been to the ROM previously to see the dinosaur display, but there's no comparison with the amount of dinosaur fossils found in Alberta. 

 T-Rex discovered in Alberta

Staring contest:  

Woolly Mammoth being attacked by sabre-tooth tigers

First souvenirs from our trip - a pair of cuddly T-Rex dinos nicknamed "Crunch" & "Munch".  We'll see if they fit into the suitcases for the flight . . .  (eye rolling)   They did carry them around all day and they are guarding over the boys from the couch while they are sleeping tonight. 

Prairie Scenes

You don't really understand the vastness of Canada without actually starting to drive it.   And the big sky of the prairies, the openness, the space.  Far from a "boring" drive, we enjoyed the expanse around us and the extra few seconds you are given to take your eyes off the road (because it's pleasantly straight) and glance around to your right and to your left.  I found it much more enjoyable as a driver to be able to use cruise control and take in the sights.  Dave took most of the photos though and for some reason, they often include farm machinery . . . I suppose that's scenic enough.  

What the boys were doing as we were driving . . . 

  

 We got to count the train cars for this one - 130 and it included 3 engines (front, rear and in the middle).  Sooooo many trains across sunny Saskatchewan.

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 Lovely picnic spot on the side of an unpaved road by a hay field . . . it's quite hard to plan your stops when many of the towns say "no facilities or services".  Luckily we have a cooler and had stopped at the grocery store in the morning for a roasted chicken, spinach salad, cheese & pepperoni sticks - it worked!  We keep picking up the 50% off stickered stuff from Zehrs since we're going to eat it that day anyhow. 

 

What the boys were doing while we were driving (Nintendo DS - special trip presents - thanks Rachel!)

 So we ditched the Transcanada for the later part of the day.  It was a bit controversial as I'm kind of an idealistic traveller.  I see a road on a map and think that I can go there.  Dave looks at the map and asks if I really want to travel more than 50 kilometers on a gravel / dirt road??  In our minivan loaded down with gear??  Undaunted, I said "yes" to adding 2 hours to our journey.   

 Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park  - thanks for the recommendation family, it truly is beautiful, but Dave kept asking for a dune buggy / 4 wheel drive / anything but a mini-van!  We drove through the whole park, which meant that Dave drove on the unsealed road for a good part of the 2 hours drive where cattle roam freely . . . yes mom, there are no fences, so they wander right across the road!    If you're thinking of coming this way, may I just suggest the sealed section nearest Elkwater (Alberta side)?  The rest was pretty, but that was the best area. 

 This is the highest elevation in Canada in between the Rocky Mountains and Labrador, something like 1400 meters above sea level . . . I kept having to pop my ears.  We got out the boys binoculars right here and with Xavier's camera, that kept them busy for awhile!  It was an amazing view.  And worth the trip.     

 

 Saamis teepee welcomed us to Medicine Hat after our "scenic route" kind of day . . .  and that's why you didn't get a blog post yesterday.  Wasted = Sleep. 

Next stop . . . DINOSAUR HUNTING! 

Kid-Friendly Canada

Our scenic route needs to take into account that our kids don't actually know what "scenery" is . . . so we've been trying to incorporate lots of kid-friendly hands-on activities to balance these long driving days (6-8 hours / day).    Sometimes this is REALLY easy: 

1.  Science North in Sudbury
      Butterfly conservatory

 Fin whale skeleton

 K-Nex race track

 Human Body exhibit -  There are buttons to push to hear the various sounds produced by the human body.   Sneeze, burp, heartbeat, hiccough, tummy rumbling and of course the young boys favourite once they discovered it . . . farts.  YES, my children got to stand in public and push a button that made a fart noise.  YES, they did it repeatedly.  YES, they giggled hysterically.  YES, my husband stood by grinning.  And, YES, I just walked away and looked at different display!   

 There were a few Olympic themed displays, so you could test your athletic abilities.  The boys also did this sprint start repeatedly (it was timed on the wall above each lane and they are REALLY competetive, so they kept saying "Just one more time!"), and lucky for them it was only the 4th day of school, so there were only preschoolers in the building wandering around with blankies and soothers (literally), and no one else was lining up waiting for a turn. 

 Finally we ended the day with a beaver feeding.  Yep, sweet potatoes, rat chow, pear and greens, hand fed by a staff member to Drifter, the beaver.  Great info session!       

2.  Children's Museum in Winnipeg  - Recently renovated - and easily the BEST Play-Based Learning environment I've seen (walking to age 10)  http://childrensmuseum.com/ Thanks for the recommendation! 

Look carefully for our faces and hands . . . (push pin wall)

 Hard at work! 

 The BEST water table ever  (H2O shaped!), they played here for almost 30 minutes alone! 

 Daddy's favourite:  Pom-pom's in a vacuum tube travel all around wall and you can switch the direction of the airflow so they pop out and fall through the air or go into the collection basket (another 30 minutes!)

 And the last 30 minutes was spent here inside a lasagna, placing giant foam tomatoes in the right matching holes in the walls to complete the "recipe" . . .

 There's a restored train from the 1880's, complete with LOTS of flashing lights and buttons and switches for the kids to press inside. 

Or course, right outside at The Forks in Winnipeg is one of the coolest playgrounds I've even seen! 

By now Dave was tapping his watch as we needed to drive all the way to Regina before night fall and it was after midday.  Gotta burn off the energy somehow!

3.  Wascana Park in Regina  (specifically Candy Cane Playground) - Regina claims their Wascana park is larger than Stanley Park, Vancouver or Central Park in NYC . . . it's quite beautiful to drive around and through and it has these fun climbing structures (among other things!)

 QUEENIE  - the Canada Goose!  Loved it! 

   Even I couldn't resist spinning around on here with the boys! 

For those of you who were hoping for more "scenic" photos . . . I'll work on another post!