Hinton to Elk Island National Park, AB

Aug 3

odometer 97563

It was a rough night with the kids as all three were up during the night, and Thomas was up twice to feed. I'm feeling really tired today, I'm weary of planning and organizing so much. Sometimes I feel like I have to think of everything - my brain never stops! I guess its a fair trade off, since DH does all the driving, maintenance and repairs….

Taking the Yellowhead (highway 16) on the way home. Dull driving today, the landscape is fairly flat east of Hinton, well-treed and lots of ranches. We are now making much better time - no headwinds and a fixed axle helps. We stopped in Edson to replace the crap tires that came with the trailer with radials. Around Edmonton, the landscape was much more rolling. We are no longer following the trains like we had been for so long, I miss them!

At DH's request, we went to the West Edmonton Mall. It wasn't my idea of fun, but he has made so few requests on the trip I was happy to indulge. It was pretty cool, with a skating rink, water park, and amusement park. We watched the Sea Lions' Rock show and bought ice cream. Then DH wanted to check out the Apple Store. It was unbelievably busy, and there was a huge lineup of the iPhone 4. I will never understand why people would lineup to buy a phone, but then again I hardly use our cell phone. The store itself was cool, with all kinds of stuff set up - even an area for the kids. Well, their marketing worked, because I ended up getting an iMac Pro for my birthday. I think DH bought it more so he wouldn't have to hear me complain about his computer (it runs Linux) and to get the free iPod Touch.

We ended up in Elk Island National Park, about an hour east of Edmonton, around 7 pm. I didn't know much about the park, but it didn't take long to realize it was a bison sanctuary. We saw wood bison on the south side of the Yellowhead, and drove past several plains bison as we drove on the parkway.

It ended up being a late night, as we were at the mall much longer than we anticipated. We ate around 8 pm and all kids were asleep around 10. I shudder to think of the struggle it will be to get them back on their normal schedule when we get home…