Down By the Riverside!

What a perfect day thus far! My husband went out at 8am for fresh deli sandwiches, muffins and cold drinks. He brought them back to store in the refrigerator in our hotel room, ate his breakfast, then we picked Mom up to spend the day together. What fun she had riding around the city with us while my husband picked up new filters for his spray mask in the industrial area of the south east, then drove into beautiful old Inglewood to pick up an order of assorted loose leaf teas he had ordered from home last week. We went to drop off a cheque across the city at the home of a friend who has knocked himself out buying groceries for Mom, then back to the south west to her bank in Signal Hill. She thought we were finished with the errands and would have to return her to her facility, so we surprised her when we drove to our hotel instead. Teehee Dell went inside and emerged a few minutes later with the cooler and our picnic pack, then announced that if she was up for it we would take her out west near Bragg Creek for a very simple picnic. Mom was so excited she appeared to actually be glowing! haha We braved the massive road construction project and subsequent traffic tie up to drive the closest route, but it was fun for Mom to see all the changes being made to the roads and overpasses.

We found a secluded picnic table at the Allen Bill Ponds picnic area, only 8km downstream from Little Elbow Falls and far less congested with people than the Falls picnic area was. The table was situated in a small clearing in a giant spruce tree forest and we could hear the Elbow River rushing past. Even though the water level in the river is extremely low right now, exposing many gravel bars and sandy banks, there is a curve in the riverbed right beside our table and what water was in that bed was racing and churning at top speed. After our lunch we walked a short distance to a comfy bench sitting on the bank, only about five feet above the water. We sat there enjoying the bit of spray from the water and the view of the southeastern slopes Rocky Mountains with the puffy clouds in the blue sky above.