Blog for April 16, 2017

Our Calgary bucket list…….

Our time here in Calgary is getting shorter and shorter, and we have a bucket list of things we yet want to do. Yesterday we planned for three separate activities on the list; the first for me to run through an area I had not yet seen, and for us the Glenbow Museum and the Calgary Tower. 

For those of us who work in the office, Saturdays are our preparation days, our P-days as the missionaries refer to them. I began my day fairly early so I could run through an area around the Glenmore Reservoir that I had not yet seen, except off in the distance. This route took me around the business end of the reservoir, if you will, over the dam and past the water processing plants, then on to the north side of the reservoir and the golf course.

 

The ice on the reservoir is beginning to melt in spots and is nearly ice free near the dam.

There is a construction project underway to improve the dam and the water treatment facilities. Unfortunately, the project completely blocks the view toward the downtown area and the river that flows out of the downstream side of the dam, which is what I had hoped to see.

 

In one of the blogs written last summer I described our visits to Heritage Park and taking a paddle-wheeler ride out around the reservoir. From a vantage point along the reservoir’s trail one can see where the paddle-wheeler is kept high and dry in the off season. 

At the completion of my run, I took the car to a car wash, then returned home to help Kathy finish cleaning our apartment. Shortly after noon we headed to the Glenbow Museum, which we have heard so much about. 

The museums here in Alberta are excellent and the displays are wonderfully done. The Glenbow Museum was no exception. Unfortunately, we were only able to see about half of the museum before the 5:00 p.m. closing time. The more permanent part of the museum features early Canadian history, especially Alberta, and displays of the trans-Canadian railroad and the changes it brought about, Prohibition and the expansion of the Royal Canadian Police Force to help enforce it, Canadian men and women who helped shape western Canadian history, and so on. The museum has special displays which change from time to time. We enjoyed the mineral exhibit, a very large display of African artifacts, and I especially enjoyed a special display of warriors through the years including weapons used, protective clothing worn, and changes of fighting techniques and weapons as warfare evolved from close combat to delivery of bullets and bombs from a distance. These displays included Japanese Samurais, Maori fighters, medieval knights, etc. and ended with a comparison of how wars are fought in more modern times and the technological advances necessitated by these changes.

Will it fit?

Be sure to read the sign

Curtiss Jenny Aircraft

As mentioned, the 5:00 p.m. closing time came much too soon and we had to leave the museum, but another of the things on our bucket list was very near by, viz., the Calgary Tower. We walked the one block distance to the tower and took the elevator to the top where the 360-degree view is ordinarily unlimited. Unfortunately, soon after we arrived the weather settled in and it began to snow, so our appreciation for the view from the tower was rather limited. Hopefully be able to return soon. We understand that the view at night is spectacular, especially during the week when the cleaning crews are working in the high-rise buildings and the lights are on. Anyway, I will include a few pictures of our visit to the tower. We had hoped to have dinner in the restaurant at the top of the tower but would have had to wait from 5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. for the next available dinner reservation. We drove home in the snowstorm instead.

Canadian Mountie Bears at the base of the Calgary Tower

Today was bright and sunny and the snow quickly melted away so it has turned out to be a nice but cool Easter Sunday. We had a wonderful Easter service. We had previously invited the two missionaries in our ward for Easter dinner and the time is drawing near so I will leave very soon to go pick them up.

We hope you have had a wonderful Easter, which, if one truly understands what happened on Easter, is the most significant event to happen in the history of mankind. May I say how grateful I am for the wonderful gift of our Savior, for His love and teachings, for the atonement He made for the sins of the world, and most importantly, for His ability as the only begotten of the Father to willingly give up His life. Thus the bands of death were broken and we are given the opportunity to return to the Father and live eternally. The challenge, of course, is to live so that we may realize that great gift in our own lives and in the lives of our families. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. I bear testimony of the truth of that statement.