Reed Deer - Welcome to Oil Country!

---

---

Well it's funny... this stage of the blog is about our stay in Red Deer, but what did we actually do in Red Deer?? Not as much as we did outside of Red Deer! First of all, our trip to Red Deer was an amazing adventure, we took a 4 and half hour detour through the Rockies on our way to Calgary. The mountains we absolutely beautiful, we would have camped in there had it not been snowing and minus 5 (or more!). Not only were the mountains beautiful, but the wildlife was quite the sight and were everywhere. We got stopped dead on the road by a group of Rocky Mountain sheep. As we came to a halt they stood in front of us for about 2 mins before deciding to run off the road then up the hill next to us. It was unreal, luckily there wasn't any traffic either, mind you the entire drive through the Rockies we may have seen 5 cars, completely to our advantage. Once we got back on the highway it was a 2 hour drive from Calgary to Red Deer. Once we were there we stayed with Christian's good friend from university; Dayna and her boyfriend Lee. Amazing hosts they were and amazing cooks as well, let me say we were there for almost a week and we ate well everyday! As for our real experience of Red Deer, unfortunately we didn't actually have one... we spent most of our time outside of Red Deer. One day we spent in Drumheller which is about 2 hours away from Red Deer. In Drumheller we visited the Royal Tyrell Museum of Palaeontology. The museum was a showcase of dinosaurs mostly found in northern United States and in Alberta. It was a great place to visit and Christian and I both learned some interesting things we didn't know about how fossils are made, found and dug up. Not to mention dinosaurs are pretty cool! We also had a day trip to Edmonton where we spent the whole day at the West Edmonton Mall. We walked around the mall all day and still didn't see everything. On top of that we spent an hour skating at the rink in the middle of the mall, and got to see the end of an animal show where they keep seals and penguins at the mall for shows and presentations (which is pretty sad in reality...their tank was so small 😞. We didn't get to do everything that the mall has to offer but just to some it up, on top of the 400 plus stores, there is a swimming pool with water slides and wave pool, an indoor bungee jump, a full size amusement park with rollercoaster’s, a shooting range and many other attractions. The mall is insanely huge and defiantly a must see if in Edmonton. While back in Red Deer though, we spent most of the time just catching up with Dayna and Lee (Christian and Dayna lived together first year university so there was a lot to talk about...), as well we went 5 pin bowling which was really fun. Neither of us had ever played 5 pin before, so it took some getting used to but we had a blast none the less. Christian picked it up quite fast, bowling in the high 100's both games (as for me, well I didn't do quite so well...I think I'll stick to the ten pin myself). We did get downtown Red Deer a coulple days, as I went to Hot Yoga again (what can I say... it's addictive...) and it is really quite nice, I'm sure it's even nicer in the summer, but the snow and cold prevented the streets from being overly occupied. Red Deer (or should I say Drumheller, Edmonton and Red Deer) was a great time and it was fantastic to spend time with Dayna and Lee! We both hope to get back and spend some more time with them and their great city soon.

---