Alberta embraces the simpler life, and some farms (like Sprout Farms) offer wooden wagon rides pulled by draft horses. It’s one way to spend a summer day in Alberta, but the Edmonton area has so much more to offer. Here are some suggestions of things to do, when you travel to Alberta’s capital city, Edmonton.
Alberta is one of the most beautiful places on earth. I should know. I live here. Yes, I travel to other parts of the world, and I do so frequently; I would go nuts if I didn’t. But I love traveling in Alberta, too.
Alberta is home to the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Two of the most visited ski towns are located here, too: Jasper and Banff.
Travelers along the mountain highways will often be treated to the sight of flocks Rocky Mountain sheep (yes, they look like goats – but they are sheep).
The stingray deaths at the Calgary Zoo have continued to baffle authorities. The cownosed rays began dying en masse this past Sunday in a new exhibit that opened just a few months ago, in mid-February. Toxins or poisons are suspected in the rays’ deaths although recent water tests have come up as clean. Zoo veterinarians have eliminated the possibility of moisture lotions or sunblock creams as the source of any contamination of the touch pools.
As sad as the stingray deaths are, the Calgary’s Zoo, Botanical Garden, and Prehistoric Park, with over 290 species of animals, has so much more to offer its patrons. Opened in 1929, The Calgary Zoo celebrates its 80th birthday next year.
If you’re planning a trip to western Canada, be sure to include the Calgary Zoo in your plans. And here’s why you should do that . . .
Guns, knives, hand grenades, alligators, and bottles of water — these things will be confiscated if you try to take them through American airport security. But what currently is allowed in your carry-on luggage?
Since the terrorist attacks of 9-11, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has changed its mind repeatedly on what is and what is not allowed onto a plane. Nail clippers, once taboo, are now okay. But what about foods? Can you take your lunch onto the plane? What about lithium batteries? A camcorder? What about a tube of face moisturizer?
The answer is “Yes,” to some things, and “No,” to others. If you are still unsure, here’s a quick checklist of some of the most common items allowed and those disallowed in airport security.
Read on . . .
Airport layovers are seldom part of the travel experience we usually anticipate with joy. However, if you must be stuck in an airport, then make it the Chicago O’Hare International Airport.
We recently spent several hours there while awaiting our connection to Houston. The time flew by in this bright and cheery place. But the designers need to give their heads a shake. There’s a feature in the women’s washroom that gives pause for thought. Especially if you are visually impaired.
Read on . . .
Who are these people? We didn’t know them either, that is until we attended their wedding, uninvited. But you haven’t lived until you’ve crashed a Mexican wedding.
My husband and I don’t normally go uninvited to the wedding of strangers, but cheap happy hour drinks, great Mexican food, and authentic Mariachi music were too attractive to resist. An evening out at a local Mexican restaurant sounded like a great idea. We weren’t planning on the wedding.
Read on . . .
Looking for drugs? Do you need a tooth fixed? Or maybe you just have a yen for a darn good taco.
A visit to Brownsville, Texas is great but you must spend at least one day in a foreign country when in the area. And that’s so easy to do, because Mexico is just a short drive, or walk, away.
You can choose from a variety of entry points (International Bridges), but double your fun with a drive up Hwy 281, the “Old Military” highway, and hang a left at Progresso.
Read on . . .
There are some things you must do when visiting New Orleans: Take a Hurricane Katrina bus tour; eat seafood gumbo from a tiny deli on Royal Street; ride a streetcar to the huge St. Patrick cemeteries at the end of Canal Street; and visit haunted houses in the French Quarter. Above all, take a walk along Bourbon Street, but do it in the morning.
Bourbon Street is a magnet for the young and lecherous among us, at night, but a morning walk in the bright sunshine, devoid of the nighttime debauchery, can be a truly pleasant experience. Especially if you are a photographer.
Read on . . .
Okay, call me a traitor, call me a fool, call me any name you like but I had to take the chance. I made a decision, before a recent trip to southern Texas and New Orleans, to leave my heavy Olympus Evolt E-300 DSLR at home. I replaced it with a sleek little 12-megapixel Fuji FinePix F50 compact digital camera.
My husband looked at me askance as he repeatedly asked me if I still wanted to take my DSLR camera. I told him, firmly, “No.” That I would take my chances. And that I would live with my decision. Only time would tell if I had made a terrible mistake . . .
“Oh, look a snake!”
The urgency in my husband’s voice was alarming. We had just been warned by a local Texan to watch out for snakes inhabiting the bushes. And sure enough, in one of the older, more deserted, most appealing graveyards, just outside of Brownsville, along Highway 281, a snake crossed our paths.
Read on. . .
