A long, long drive...

I drove from Edmonton to to Golden, Banff to Kicking Horse to Calgary to Kelowna over the course of three days, with about 13 children unrelated to me. 

There are certain things you notice when road-tripping with carsick, bored toddlers when your phone is dead (or about to die) and the radio/audiobook/CDs will only make your headache, and their crying, worse.

I noticed, vocally, often, the trucks like very fast giants always ahead or behind us.

I noticed the eagles and hawks and ravens peering down at us from telephone poles and old trees, or from their heights in the sky.

I noticed mountains--countless mountains--craggy and ancient, white-headed or bare, scraping shoulders and immovable and yet, always, beckoning us into and through their arms.

I noticed the rivers, which paled the further we drove until they were the colour of sea-glass, that dusty pale green-blue colour, glimmering in the sun or snaking under clouds.

I noticed the signs everywhere--unpronounceable place names and warnings of avalanches, deer, elk, snow, moose, grizzlies, steep turns and upcoming stop signs.

I noticed to entertain and distract unhappy small children. And in the doing, I noticed a lot more than I would have been consciously aware of otherwise. I'm a social traveller. It's not as fun for me to go somewhere if I can't enjoy it in the company of someone else, if I cannot watch them enjoy it too.

And children have an endless capacity to be entertained or awed or excited about something, as long as you point it out to them with great enthusiasm or respond to them eagerly. 

(There are exceptions. A tired, hungry, sick kid will be miserable with great gusto until they decide not to be, or are fed/napped/soothed).

So really, a road-trip with 13 kids was a drive in the park. 

​Here are the photos of our stay, which was beautiful and exhausting and amazing all at once. More photos and video are viewable on my instagram (just scroll down a bit).