Okay, it does get hot here. I just had to move out of our house and onto the back deck (newly refurbished, by the way) and am now sitting here in great comfort. The neighbor has guests, with kids, making a racket, of course, but ear plugs can do wonders.

Also, I'll just say that while warm the humidity's low and it's quite lovely sitting here. There's a breeze and no bugs (though mosquitoes can be a problem this time of year). In fact, in just the last little while the temperature's begun dropping (this is evening) and soon, I'll bet, I'll want to put on a jacket or something. That's Calgary for you!

Yesterday and the day before we were on our greatest mountain adventure to date. We figured, hey, we'd better enjoy these mountains while we can 'cause who knows about health, or oil prices, or changes in plans, or what have you. So we booked the Bear Mountain Motel Friday night in Waterton Lakes National Park and, while there, took two easy/moderate hikes and a one-hour canoe trip at Lake Cameron. The latter place was amazing--still had snow in places and the whole park was pristine. In fact I can literally say it was like something out of National Geographic since in the spring that magazine featured the park (plus Glacier National Park in Montana, with which it is contiguous).

The little village of Waterton Park, in the middle of the national park, is a place you see wild animals walking around like they own the place. Well particularly see deer--lots of them. They sit there in people's yards like big dogs. This time we saw a deer and her fawn, up close, in someone's yard. The fawn was actually suckling from the mother and the mother was looking all alert about a big dog walking past on a leash. (There are signs in the village warning people to not let your dog close to the deer because the deer, if they have fawns, could attack them and kill them!)

In the village we also saw a big horn sheep--looking quite mangy, shedding its winter fur and with only one horn--staring over at us. Also I'll just mention that we saw a lot of holes in the park and these little ground squirrels poking their heads out. They looked different from the gophers (Richardson Ground Squirrels) we're used to--bigger and different coloration--and it's because they're Columbian Ground Squirrels. One of them was standing there squeaking away, sounding like a bird, or more accurately, a rubber ducky squeeze toy!

Both hikes involved wonderful scenery and both gave us a work-out. By the time we drove back to Calgary yesterday evening, we'd pretty much used up our energy, but not to the point that we made ourselves ill or something.

We have much to be thankful for living here. It's been a hard, hard, time in some ways, but God's granted us some compensations as well--like the mountains!