\ˈgra-tə-ˌtüd, -ˌtyüd\
The quality of being thankful: readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.
Just popping in with some pictures from our week that express my gratitude for the beauty of this life.
For the first time that we can remember in 22 years of marriage, my husband and I have a house without kids! Our older two kids are away with the youth group on a missions trip in Mexico City, we’re really proud of what they’re doing. Our youngest is with friends at their cabin on a lake in a different province learning how to fish, paddleboard and all sorts of other fun things. We’re really grateful for all the opportunities they have during these weeks.
So, without kids, we took a few days off to take advantage of some time together. Here are some of the highlights of a few of our days.
We’ve done lots of fun things like trying new places to eat...this is a place called Love Pizza :)
Next we got up at 5 am one morning and drove out to Jasper National Park to spend the day hiking and exploring. These next pictures are all from Maligne Canyon. It’s a good hike that goes up the canyon along the river and you pass over 6 bridges, many waterfalls and beautiful scenery.
The canyon is so deep at some points I could hardly look over the edge.
Next up was another beautiful hike called Old Fort Point nearer to the town of Jasper, it offers beautiful vistas of the valley from a 360 degree view. This view shows Lake Beauvert and the Jasper Park Lodge.
This is of the valley headed the other way toward Mount Edith Cavell.
Something really neat happened as we were starting up the trail. We really try to be prepared hikers and have bear spray and bear bangs, and coming up the trail we saw evidence of a bear (read poop). As we walked up the trail a bit more we met a guy who warned us that there was a grizzly about 500 m up the trail. He said he wasn’t going to do the trail by himself as it’s not really safe, but if we would do it, he would do it with us. Bears are usually as afraid of people as we are of them, and the extra noise and number of people would be enough to keep him away. It turned out that this gentleman has hiked the Jasper area extensively, knew tons about the trails, mountains and surroundings, even showing us a secret little off-trail vista where the National Park has placed big red adirondack chairs in a wide open valley space that has amazing views.
We had such a nice time! For one, we didn’t run into the grizzly (always good!)...and for two we had an awesome time on a trail that was new to us, and were grateful for bumping into someone who knew so much about the area. 26 000 steps later on my FitBit, and a late drive home - with a heart full from a fun day together. Truly a beautiful place full of the majesty of God’s creation. I am always in awe there.
So, while one day was decidedly wilderness, the next day was very urban. We decided to take the old fashioned trolley car over the river in our city and head into downtown.
Isn’t it funny how you can live in a city forever and not do any of the touristy things? This was our first time on the 1930’s trolley - the only way that the city used to connect across the river. Now the trolley goes above a bridge and it feels like a step back in time.
There was a sweet mama and her two littles on the car with us. This little one was just two years old and very adorable. Here we are getting ready to cross the bridge over the river into downtown.
Here’s the river...looking quite muddy actually! Another bridge in the distance under construction.
This picture shows the bridge below and the rails on top of the bridge, and downtown in the distance. It’s a little crazy that you’re crossing on rails that are actually above the traffic on a bridge...again more heights I’m not as fond of, but still a really fun experience. Once we were downtown we walked to an outdoor food festival, tried a bunch of fun food and headed back.
Isn’t this a fun picture? It depicts the city’s history in mural form at the street car site.
Joyful for the fun adventures with my husband, he’s still my sweetheart 22 years later! Hope you’ve enjoyed a little of it with us.
1 comment:
Wow that was a lot of walking but all those pictures are just beautiful and so bears is always a good thing!! Yes it is funny the things we don't do right in our own back yards, glad you are enjoying time alone, that is always a good thing as the kids get older, when they leave for good it isn't as big of a shock :)
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