The Summer of Beer, Music and Automobiles

I cannot believe that summer is nearly over!  Where has the time gone?  Here’s what we did:

There are many small towns in Alberta and this summer we drove through a good number of them.  Some have great places to eat and some did not.  Behold the ‘Chef Salad’ my dad had in one such small town.  Yes, that’s iceberg lettuce, a slice of tomato, a cut up piece of sandwich ham and a cut up cheese slice like you might use on a cheese burger.  We all busted a gut laughing over the cheese slice.

 

My son was thrilled to learn there’s a hot dog restaurant that bears his name.  He asks us to take him there almost every day.  I’m pretty sure he thinks he owns the place and it’s so adorable that I’m ashamed to admit how many trips we’ve made up to Airdrie to visit Nathan’s Hot Dogs.

I had the extreme pleasure of attending Big Valley Jamboree this summer.  I hung out with Kim and Sheri and enjoyed listening to Travis Tritt, Tim McGraw and many other fantastic artists.  I came home somewhat dehydrated, overloaded with bad food and freckled from the sun.  It was absolutely fantastic.

These are the types of people who attend Big Valley Jamboree.  Saskatchewaners.  I’m pretty sure they’re the Newfies of the West because they know how to have a good time and are more than willing to laugh at themselves to achieve said good time. We were in stitches watching the antics of these fun folks.

 

I had a few beers.

 

And a few tacos

 There was awesome shade in the Chev tent and a super fun cover artist too.  Thanks to GM Canada for showing us the brand new, redesigned Chev Silverado.  It had a lot of smart features that I really appreciated – especially the corner step bumper.

I had a few more beers.  And I had to fight my husband off for these Melville’s.  He got away with a few of em…

For the first time ever I had a ride up the Banff gondola and it was amazing.  You have to go.  Have to.

Feist played at the Banff Centre.  I listened.  I liked it.

Champagne on a boat with a good friend?  Yup.  This is Sami and I and we had an inspiring time in Banff researching the location for Social Media Mountain.

The family and I took a jaunt down the Cowboy Trail.  Not that far really, just out to Millarville for the Farmer’s market.  We did a second trip to Black Diamond then we cut east to Nanton and it was a lovely drive.  I’d love to go farther down the trail and see Waterton – I hear it’s beautiful there.

This beauty took us to Banff and down the Cowboy Trail.  It’s a Buick Encore and it was so much fun to drive!  I forgot how fun it is to drive a little car that whips into parking spots like nobody’s business.  I also appreciated the passenger space – lots of room to adjust the seat and leg room too.

Well there you have it.  Lots of time spent listening to music, having a beverage or two and playing with cars.  I will note that I didn’t touch the beer and the cars all at once.  Don’t drink and drive people.  How was your summer?