If I could turn back time...

Our last trip out during our summer vacation to Alberta was to Heritage Park in Calgary. here are the Girls stood by the windmill near to the entrance.

Heritage Park is a living museum. The largest of its kind in Canada it reminded me of the fabulous living village museum of Iron Bridge back here in the UK.

Above were some school children enjoying a day out and in full traditional costume enjoying their traditional lunch on the lawn.

This is a truly romantic place and you can't help but feel yourself transported back in time as you stroll along the 1910 village with its dusty roads and vintage cars and horse-drawn carriages, its 1880 wooden walkways and the barriers where you can tie up your horse just like John Wayne did in all those movies. Inside all the buildings are totally authentic from a hospital to an ice-cream parlour and drug store. The guides are dressed up fully as period characters and are so helpful and informative that again it just transports you back to those days...


This is a first class exhibition of what life would have been like one or two century's ago. Below is Katie getting 'dealt with' by the Bank Teller as he produced her certificate of dealing. He was very entertaining...

This is me going back to my roots in the Blacksmiths and Wheelwrights shop. My paternal Great Grandfather was actually a Wheelwright in Shropshire.

Katie introduces Sarah to her new Friend.

Here are two very tired girls on a big day out! We all started to feel jaded in the heat and so we went for a ride on the steam boat. Janet and Katie found some shade whilst we waited for our boarding call.

The trip around the park on the steam paddle boat was very refreshing. It cooled us all down and gave our tired legs a much needed rest.

Everybody say sleep!

The heat started to get to Eamonn and at one time he began to show signs of stress... He'd just finished a 'rap' rhyme and was last seen spinning on his back when I took this one.

We also had a trip on the steam train (anything for a sit down!) around the park which was another occasion to sit back and imagine what it must have been like. Everything is so carefully detailed in Heritage Park, just to make sure that one has the opportunity to indulge in the past and fire up the imagination. It's just like on the old western films that we've all seen. the sights, sounds and everything, along with the added features of smells and touch...

One last treat was a whizz on the Caterpillar. The four girls climbed aboard and took a trip back in time to Southport or Blackpool or Margate 20-40 years ago. As the ride started to speed up the covers came over and the screams started. Eam and I stayed at the side to take pictures... and mind the bags... and stuff!

As the evening came closer and the park started to close we started the debate about where to have dinner that night.

Once again we'd had a truly magical day out and this was just another fantastic chapter in our wonderful trip to Alberta in the summer of 2008. So many new experiences, so many new sights, sounds, tastes, smells and sensations.. So much new knowledge and so many enhancements and supporting evidence to already ingrained facts from our own childhood. I hope that my musings, ramblings and photographs have been interesting to you. It's such a pleasure to be able to share our adventures and wonderful memories with you.


We all had a truly fabulous time and I can't wait to go back again!

xxx