What a great day!

To our friends and family:

We have made it to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and have had a great day!  However, our cell phones don't work here...so we will have to communicate chiefly through this blog!

We toured a wonderful place today called the Heritage Park Historical Village (Subtitled: How the West Was Once).  It was filled with authentic period buildings, workers in costume, appropriate to their various trades, great food and wonderful shopping!  And it was like 62 degrees and overcast -- we had to wear long sleeves!   Yeah!

One solemn note:
I talked trash to my wife.  There, I said it.  I am sorry, but it happened.  I am even more sorry that I couldn't back it up. We were playing midway carnival games, and I told Natalie she had NO chance to knock these milk bottles down. She promptly stood up to the mark, took only one of the three baseballs from the young man, cast them at the milk bottles, and won on the first try.

I stood up, took all three tries and...failed. Womp-Wah.  I had to play a second time to win.  She has already brought it up several times today and I feel confident in saying that I will hear this story replayed over and over again in the next few years. ;-)

My favorite part of the day probably was the show which taught us how to be a Voyageur (the fellows who had the hazardous job of transporting the furs down river to the major outlets).  Our guide was a very eloquent man who taught us about paddling and the songs that they sang, the dangers they encountered and the things they would take along with them on the journey.  But my favorite part was that he chose Natalie as a volunteer!  She would serve as the doctor when the guide was hit with multiple arrows when they were hit by a surprise attack!  I love that Natalie gets into EVERYTHING she does, and you can see from this picture that she pursued her part with GUSTO!

I think my wife never looks more beautiful than when she is rested and has something that deeply interests her...last night we had a long rest and today was a day of learning and discovery!  Here she is in the middle of that day, and I cannot imagine any woman could possibly be more beautiful, can you?

We don't know exactly what the communication conditions will be over the next two days...but we should be in Anchorage sometime late Wednesday evening...much love to all, and I hope you aren't sweating to death!