Matt and I have been doing quite a bit of travelling lately... breaking in the new car as fast as we can, I suppose. :)

About two weeks ago we made the trip out to Kirriemuir, Alberta to go pick up some photos we had ordered from Sean McCormick. We could have had them mailed, but what fun would that be?

We started out a little late (something that's becoming a habit for us), but were on the road by about 9ish, a little earlier maybe. It's so nice to see so much of the province... it's amazing the variety of landscapes we have so close to Calgary. We went down into the river valley north of Drumheller, and that was so different from the prairies above, which was also different from the region close to Kirriemuir, which actually reminded me quite a bit of the Foothills. Unfortunately, I put the camera away for some reason after the big valley by Drumheller, and didn't take it out again until... Drumheller, which we passed through on the way back. D'oh! So if you look at the pictures, it mostly looks like we went to Drumheller. But Sean has proof we were there!

Getting to meet him, his wife Jennifer and his daughter Ashlyn was pretty cool. It's strange how well you can just fall into conversation with people you only know from the internet, because you already know a bit about their lives. We chatted about cameras and the problems facing small-town schools and parenting and family and all kinds of things. I also (accidentally!) taught their dog some bad manners... Sean had warned me beforehand that the dog liked to bark at new people. After we got there and sat down, I held my hand out to the dog, who had been eyeing us warily from the entryway. The dog came over, sniffed my hand, and settled in for a good ear scratching. Only the dog's not allowed in the living room. D'oh! Hopefully my breech of dog training hasn't had any lasting effects.

The McCormicks fed us lunch while we were there (mmm... that pineapple was delicious), and took the photo linked to above. Sean also had some nice things to say about us on his blog (aww, thanks!)... it was really nice getting to meet you guys as well! If you're ever in Calgary and have some time to kill, we'll return the favour and make you guys some lunch and have another visit.

On the way home, we ran into a huge storm by Hanna. It started off as rain... and then heavier rain... and then an absolute downpour. I was sitting in the car praying that it didn't turn into hail, because it sure looked like it could have and wouldn't that suck, banging our brand new car up less than two weeks after we got it? It didn't (thank God!), and we made it through. It kind of looks like the storm kept going east behind us, because Sean has some awesome photos of a nasty looking storm that came to their area later that day. I should have taken some photos myself but mostly I was staring at everything hitting our windshield and trying not to flinch.

We stopped in Drumheller on the way back to take a few quick snapshots of the touristy stuff. (Do you know they have dinosaurs? Because they do. Lot of them. All over. Dinosaurs!) It was baking hot down in that valley though and I quickly fled back to the air-conditioned comfort of our car. We also got tailed by a Ferrari on the way back, and Matt wanted a picture of that, so it's in the gallery linked to above (click on the photo at the beginning to get there).

All in all, a pretty good trip!

So that was Kirriemuir... next up (once I get my photos sorted): West Cove, Alberta! :)