A Non-Hiking Weekend

Thanks to our lovely Alberta 'spring', we've gotten to enjoy our fair share of snow this winter.  I was getting quite tired of snowshoeing in waist-deep white stuff again, so decided to take the weekend off hiking.  It's turned out to be a great decision as I've been doing things that I normally wouldn't have.

Last night I went to Fish Creek Environmental Learning Centre for a Spring Star Night put on by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.  There would be talks and displays, and as my star knowledge stops beyond what I have on my MEC star wheel, I thought it would be an opportunity to learn something.  It was refreshing to see the information presented so that a 'normal' person could understand it.  I learned about the planets and the night sky.  The Big Dipper had so far been the only thing I can identify in the sky, so the next time it's clear I'll try to identify Virgo.  The astronomer giving the one talk also mentioned how even though Pleiades gives us the most 'famous' meteor shower here, it is mostly due to it being in the summer.  Geminids in December is apparently a grander show.

Today I decided to go for a drive to the Royal Tyrrell Museum.  I have never been to it for I really don't care much about dinosaurs.  It's been on my to-do list for a while now and I have to admit that I was blow away and will be sure to go back for return visits.  The displays were top notch, and a special Burgess Shale exhibit was a bonus.  The lighting inside the museum was just perfect for photography, even though I wasn't sure how much I would get at first (low light and handheld only).

Along the way I took side streets to scope out some small towns that I have in my Southern Alberta Backroad Mapbook.  Some of them weren't really towns, but I saw a lot: a couple of kilometres from home about 20 soliers were training in uniform, with loaded backpacks and carrying rifles ... in the middle of the city.  Around Carbon I saw the most colourful wild roosters, though they were gone by the time my camera was turned on.  I discovered a 'town' by the name of Sharples that was really just a few abandones buildings, but took some time to explore inside the grain elevator.  And I passed through Beiseker, Carbon, Drumheller, Linden, Acme, and Irricana.  I've definitely had my fix of prairies after usually aiming for the mountains.