Hiking, snakes and shopping

For the finale of my vacation we spent the day on a long hike.

Horseshoe canyon was formed by glaciers and is therefore very natural and rugged. Some of the hills are sandstone, others are like slick black popcorn.. Bizarre, I know. 

We spent a good 2 hours going up and down and all throughout the canyon. We even saw a tiny snake! When we found ourselves up high I pretended to fly again and when we were well grounded I kept my eyes out for Dino fossils... The child in me can't help it! You know you wanna find a dinosaur bone too!!

When we eventually tore ourselves away from the raw beauty of Canada's badlands we stopped in at Reptile World in Drumheller. Basically it is just what it sounds like. There are aisles and aisles of terrariums full of snakes, spiders, frogs, lizards, crocs, alligators, tortoise's and turtles. I even held a snake! What a brave girl I am!

On one of the tanks we read that this particular Nile Crocodile was confiscated from a woman's carry-on luggage on her way back into Canada. Really. Her carry-on. I guess she found it in a market and decided on a whim to buy it. It was only about 20 cm at that time but is now easily around my size.. What was she going to do??? Keep it in her bath tub?!

The whole place doesn't take to terribly long to get through and so the obvious thing to go do after was have ice cream. Again. 

And finally to end the day we went swimming. With a bus load of 13 year old's. 

Dear parents, please forgive me for ever being that age. 

Realistically we should all just go from 12 to 14. 

Anyway, after swimming it was off to our last fire and roasted supper before bed.

Feeling reluctant to have my vacation end we packed and loaded everything and decided to drive the short trip to Calgary for some shopping. Great choice. It was my first time shopping at Crossiron mills outlet mall and it was AWESOME! Please take me back.

Drive, drive, drive and finally Home. 

xoxo