Jan and I went to Jasper for the weekend. Every year we go and take Becky and Hayden – Becky works with me at Wave Media. We stayed at the Jasper Inn. Shawnee is the General Manager and President Elect of her Rotary Club. We had a great time brain storming with Shawnee and President Sue – and Gerry Lavasseur. Gerry owns the Inn, and is the Charter President Rotary Club of Spruce Grove. It was fun hearing Gerry’s ideas and marrying them with the enthusiasm of Sue and Shawnee’s.
Kevin and Anna at Grande Cache on the way to Jasper
We also brought along Anna. Anna is a English Second Language student from Osaka, Japan. She is here for 3 months at our local College. Karly met her at the library. She doesn’t get a lot of opportunities to travel.. and she said she dreamed of seeing the Rocky Mountains, so we brought her along! Her English is just fair, so there was a lot of “oohhh” and “aaaawww”. It sure is fun showing off things we take for granted to a foreigner.
On the way back we picked up a hitch if you can believe it. We haven’t done that for decades! But it was a gal with a “Grande Prairie” sign on the Yellowhead Highway. She looked harmless. She just returned from Africa, and is a student from Toronto. She is hitching to Yukon! “Seeing the world.” Very pleasant. We dropped her off in Grande Prairie and she was off. Very nice chatting with her, hearing about her hitch hiking travels through Africa. Wow, brave. She said she rarely was uncomfortable and never in danger in her travels. it sure made for a fun 3 hours of driving for the 3 of us.
So, two young people who made a good weekend – great.
When we dropped off Anna she said that seeing Jasper made for the “BEST DAY EVER IN CANADA! ” That sure was nice to hear. She goes home December, 18 with memories of Jasper, Alberta in her mind forever.
Kevin Hilgers 