Sun, Jul 31 2005 - Alberta Culture Tour: Vulcan Trek Station (View Original Event Details)
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Holy heat-wave today! Definitely a horrendous day for hiking, which is why we were glad we were indulging in an Alberta Culture Tour field trip today to Vulcan and the Carseland Weir (although we still wilted pretty good at the weir).
Honestly, there is not much at Vulcan. It's a do-once. Certainly not a do-more-than-once. There's a tourist info center with lots of kitschy Trek stuff. There's the Starship Enterprise, however, we had one unhappy moment today when Liza informed Ken that it wasn't the REAL Starship Enterprise. All I need to know about life I learned from Star Trek:
- Seek out new life and new civilizations
- Non-interference is the Prime Directive
- Keep your phaser set on stun
- Humans are highly illogical
- There is no such thing as a Vulcan death grip
- Live long and prosper
- Having is not so pleasing a thing as wanting; it is not logical but it is often true
- Infinite diversity in infinite combinations (IDIC)
- Tribbles hate Klingons (and Klingons hate Tribbles)
- Enemies are often invisible - like Klingons, they can be cloaked
- Don't put all your ranking officers in one shuttlecraft
- When your logic fails, trust a hunch
- Insufficient data does not compute
- If it can't be fixed, just ask Scotty
- Even in our own world, sometimes we are aliens
- When going out into the Universe, remember: "Boldly go where no man has gone before!"
More to do at the weir... we "hiked" through a weed-filled bog to a slightly-stinky sand dune where we snacked and frolicked (this is truly a rural Alberta pleasure). Ken took a stroll through the quick-mud. Emily found a leech, and Rhonda O promptly produced an empty bottle to become home to said leech. Some stood around in the water to cool themselves (did I mention it was freakin' hot today?). We saw some pelicans, although none close enough to get a decent photo. Darn it. Rob, Samantha and Rhonda O narrowly escaped death from falling in the weir. Wendy, Denise and Christina narrowly escaped total wiltedness by retreating to the parking lot bench (with the only spot of shade available). Discovering said patch of shade, everyone else decided that the new Angling Regulations (posted on the bulletin board behind the bench) were extremely interesting.
I don't know which we needed more today... our spirits of adventure, or our senses of humor. We're just very glad we brought both.
-- Rhonda