Mum creates her own language

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Squawking crows and pouring rain greeted us at the crack of dawn. We stayed in our tents to see if the weather would improve but to no avail. Around mid morning we headed into check out Jasper and its shops. It was pretty tourist focused so after a while we jumped in the car and headed to Medicine Lake. I was fascinated by one of the stories I read about it. Firstly I’ll let you read the following that I grabbed from Wikipedia:

Medicine lake is a geologic anomaly in the sense that it is not actually a lake but rather an area in which the Maligne River backs up and suddenly disappears underground. During the summer months during intensified meltwater runoff the lake (which during the winter months is a meandering frozen river) fills to levels which fluctuate over time and with the runoff events. Much like a bathtub that is filled too fast for it to drain, it becomes laden with water until it can slowly drain as the tap flow is reduced. The underground system is extensive and during the 1970s researchers used a biodegradable dye to determine the underground river's extent. The dye showed up in many of the lakes and rivers in the area to the point where it became clear that the underground system was one of the most extensive in the world.

Ok so now you know a bit about the lake, the story that I read said that during the summer the lake was quite a tourist hot spot and so they had a ferry service that operated. The company that operated the ferry became annoyed that the lake drained in winter and effectively halted their business. So at the end of one summer in an attempt to block the lake from draining they used … get this … mattresses, sand bags and bundled magazines. Needless to say that didn’t work.

Whilst on our way to Lake Maligne, Mum made a strange comment that almost went unnoticed.
This is how the conversation went:
Mum: I feel like lasarn for dinner
Me: What? You mean lasagna?
Mum: No, it’s called lasarn
Me: What are you talking about? It’s lasagna.
Mum: No, me and Dad call it lasarn
Me: Is this true Dad?
Dad: Yeah, it’s lasarn (I think siding with Mum only in a show of solidarity)
Me: Well how come all three of your children call it lasagna, along with the rest of the world? It’s LASAGNA!
Mum and Dad: Nope, lasarn

Anyway after a long debate we arrived at Lake Maligne. It was still raining, but the lake looked eerie and added to its mystery, maybe there is a Canadian version of Nessy in there. The day got weirder when Nic and I spotted a birds nest above the door on the outside of the unisex toilets. Dad was trying to get Nic to get on my shoulders and take a photo down into the nest. We briefly entertained the idea before realising that if someone came out of the toilet they would have thought we were some sort of perverts.

The afternoon involved checking out Maligne Canyon, Lake Patricia and Pyramid Lake. Boy did we see a lot of lakes and mountains! We also spotted more animals, firstly some elk with huge antlers and then a family of mountain goats which were so friendly they came up to our car and started licking the windows. Quite a strange day really.

The highlight was undoubtedly when we went to a restaurant for dinner and Mum tried to order the “lasarn”. To my delight the waiter had no idea what she was talking about. Hopefully she has learned her lesson and is no longer trying to create her own language, ha ha.

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