Breathtaking

The loom and they loom and they loom.  Then, suddenly you're in them.  The magnificent Rocky Mountains.  You head west from flat Calgary and there they magnificently are.  Never having visited Banff, stepson Scott's eyes bugged further and further from their sockets as we approached.  "This is unbelievable," he stammered.  Yes, the Canadian Rockies are breathtaking. 

We were heading to Banff for lunch to celebrate my blank-6th birthday.  How I am this old I have no idea!!??!!  Dressed to the back teeth to deny the hideous number, I sank into a deep chair in the upstairs lounge.  Ordered an Alberta beef burger and settled in to enjoy the moment.  I have learned that even as I watch my weight, dreary and mind-numbing salad doesn't have to be on every blessed plate.  I order something with fat or carbs and then just don't eat the carbs.  The rest tastes yummy.  But my stomach has shrunk to the point where I can hardly finish anything. 

Today I put on a cute blue skirt I had purchased a few months ago -- proud that I could fit into it back then.  Had to scrub it because it was falling off me.  I swear, I am just dropping weight daily. 

On the way home, I decided we would visit my favourite buffalo herd.  Pulled up alongside the fence, turned the radio up on the country-and-western station and sure enough, they ambled over.  They are beautiful beasts.  Scott grabbed his camera and shot away.  Buffalo?  None in the Ottawa Valley.  He was blown away.

When I got home there were a couple of messages waiting.  One from stepdaughter Sarah and the other from daughter Susanne.  "Geez, who is this French daughter," I wondered as I listened.  The message was from her classroom, where she teaches French.  What was next?  A rousing rendition of 'Bonne Fete' in French from all her students.  It was absolutely beautiful!  They were all singing to me in French. 

All-in-all it was a fabulous day.