Each year in PLP we usually do one or two trips. Last week, we went on a road trip down to Calgary and it was amazing! We toured around the Rockies for two days and then took to Calgary for BeakerHead, a huge exhibition of science and art.

Day one was a lot of driving. We left Seycove at 6:30 am and arrived at the hotel at 1:30 pm. (7 hours on the road) The day before we left, we were assigned a mini project. Since we were on the road, we would be stopping by many landmarks so our teachers asked us to choose one landmark along the way and make a 3 minute video describing the history of it. Our teachers made a list of all the landmarks we could choose from. I chose Craigellachie BC, which is where the Canadian Pacific Railway was finished and is where the last spike was driven. You can view my video down below.

 

We were also assigned a project at the hotel. Beside the hotel was a “ghost town”; it was a quaint little 1800’s western town which was also an outdoor museum. The town has old houses, old cars, old food, old clothes, old trains, old cars, old trucks, and even a huge roundhouse for trains! Our assignment was to make a movie under 10 minutes long that could be about any fiction story. Since it was a ghost town our group chose to do a story on a post apocalyptic zombie town. We ended up only having about an hour to complete it so it felt a bit rushed. You can view the video down below.

The next day was still a lot of driving but not as much. We visited three beautiful locations.

Rogers Pass

The Northern Lights Wildlife Wolf Centre

and the Banff Park Museum

Another 4 hours of driving and we finally arrived in the outskirts of Calgary to have dinner at Big T’s Smokehouse. We were then assigned our rooms at our new hotel, the Fairfield Inn. I was assigned a room with Luca, Marshall, Robin, and Owen. We didn’t have much activity that day, it was mostly just driving with some little stops.

This was now our first full day in Calgary. We were ready and excited! After breakfast we headed to the locked room! the locked room is basically a room with a locked door and a mystery to go with it. If you solve the mystery, you unlock the door and win. Our group was assigned sinister study which was a horror themed one that was actually quite hard and scary. There were a lot of locks and codes we had to figure out. After going a full hour over our time we finally solved the mystery. I was surprised as to how much time the employees put into these rooms. Ours was very elaborate. At one point we had to join our arms together and touch two pictures each on the opposite side of the room. Once we did that a huge shelf actually slid open automatically – our whole group was so surprised! After all of the groups had solved their rooms we had dinner at Wendy’s. (I know it’s not that fancy but it was the only option we had that was close by and fast.)

Next up we headed to the Glenbow Museum in downtown Calgary. The Glenbow Museum was AMAZING. There were so many stories and exhibits I couldn’t even count! First we checked out the war section. There were thousands of artifacts from almost any war you can think of. There were world war 1/2 weapons and armour, 1800’s armour, and even medieval swords and aboriginal weapons!

After the war exhibit, we went to the Alberta Aboriginal Exhibit. This exhibit included anything and everything about the aboriginal peoples in Alberta the culture, the music, the hunting, the relationships, the food. I will let these photos speak for themselves.

At the very end of our tour we visited the Buddhist art section. It was absolutely beautiful seeing all these sculptures and art pieces.

For dinner we ate at Red Lobster for PLP’s annual endless shrimp eating contest. My friend Kai ate 100 shrimp! I was eating for fun so I only ate around 30 shrimp. But in the end it was very tasty and fun!

 

We spent all of Day 4 in Drumheller at the Royal Tyrell Museum of Palaeontology. It was an almost 2 hour drive from Calgary to Drumheller but it was completely worth it. The museum was incredible! So much to learn and see about dinosaurs and ancient creatures. We were allowed a quick walk through the museum before we had lunch in the cafeteria.

After lunch we went on an organized hike through the badlands of Drumheller. The badlands were very interesting – lots of hills and open space. We learned a lot about fossils and plates around the Drumheller area.

Following

the walk we were assigned a quick mini project. We had to choose one dinosaur in the museum and make a 1 minute video about it. You can view my video below.

For dinner that night, we ate at Buffalo Wind Wings where they have a new flavour called blazin’ hot. This sauce is made with ghost peppers which are the 2nd hottest pepper in the world. I only ate one bite and my mouth was in pain for the rest of dinner. R.I.P mouth.

Finally, the reason we came to Calgary- BeakerHead! The plan was to tour around Calgary visiting all of the BeakerHead exhibit’s. First stop, the teeter totters! This exhibit was approximately 20 teeter totters lined up that were connected to light and speakers. If you went back and forth on them in the correct order you could make a song! After we were done checking out the teeter totters we went over to the Star Wars AT-AT building competition. Our class was split into three groups and were asked to make anything we wanted with some pipes and connectors. We tried to make a camera but eventually it morphed into a car so we just rolled with it. After the building contest we went to the baton class. At the baton class we were taught by an instructor to do really cool tricks with just a simple stick! It was very fun and it turns out, my friend Marshall  had a hidden talent with it – he was so good! After the baton class we left the main BeakerHead area and went to a separate BeakerHead exhibit called Mars 112. It was a rented room that was supposed to simulate an astronaut’s base on Mars, and what it would be like to be alone on mars. It was very cool, my friend Marshall made a whole video on it.

After our dinner at Blaze Pizza we went back to the main BeakerHead exhibition to see “The Serpent Mother”. The Serpent Mother is an enormous metal snake that had gas pilots on each part of its tail and in its mouth. At the end of its tail it has a huge mouth that when opened, shoots diesel fuel 30 feet into the sky and then lights it on fire! It even has multicoloured flames! This exhibit was my favourite and I’m pretty sure it was everyone else’s as well.

Today was my favourite day of the whole trip. Our last moments in Calgary were spent up the Calgary Tower! This was also another BeakerHead exhibit where they completely converted the tower into a space station. We were handed VR goggles so that when we entered the elevator it simulated that we were actually going into space! In the end I did happen to grab a couple of photos too.

After our lunch at Spicy Amigos we drove an hour and a half until we reached Banff National Park. We visited the Cave And Basin National Historic Site where there is a huge cape that has a tiny hole from the ground. To get inside, we had to go through a man-made tunnel that led us into the huge cave. There were crystals on the ceiling and strange enough, endangered slugs lived in the cav

We drove about an hour to arrive at the dock where we took a boat cruise of Lake Minnewanka. All I can say is that it was absolutely beautiful, and I will let the photos speak for themselves.

After dinner we stopped at the Banff Hot Springs to chill in the 40 degree water.  (For some crazy reason towels were only available at a cost to “rent”, so I just borrowed my friend’s.)

Today was the day of exploring nature. We left the hotel and drove two and a half hours to the Columbia Ice Field, the only ice field in Alberta! We took a huge bus with wheels taller than me- almost as big as a monster truck! I had my water bottle with me and got to fill it up with 100% pure glacier water! (It was very tasty)

Once we were done at the glacier we visited the Glacier Skywalk. The Glacier Skywalk is a 24 million dollar structure that hangs 950 feet above ground. The floor is made of glass so you can look down which was a really cool (and scary!) experience. There were also wireless phone type things that gave us a full audial walk-through of the structure, and to learn the history of the land around it.

After visiting the glacier we drove two hours to take some photos of the beautiful landmark, Lake Louise. Here are some photos I took:

We drove another hour and had dinner at the Husky House, where I ordered the king of the road burger which was a little overwhelming: two patties with an egg in the middle which couldn’t even fit it in my mouth properly! Once we got into our hotel rooms I realized I forgot my ipad charger on the bus (which was locked) which meant that I wouldn’t have a charged iPad the next day. Fortunately I came up with the idea of setting a timer on my phone for 3am to then unplug one of my friends iPad’s and plug mine in so it would charge. First thing in the morning, I checked my iPad and it was fully charged! #LifeHacks2017

The next day was one of non stop driving. We only had one stop, at the enchanted forest where we were given an assignment: Make a 3 minute fiction video using props from around the forest. We went with the action/thriller genre mostly because it is the easiest style of film to make. In the end I think our video turned out great, special thanks to my group Logan, Marshall, Adlih, And Kai. You can view our video below.

This trip was AMAZING – I learned so much about Alberta! I learned about aboriginals and how they used to hunt bison, I learned how the Canadian Pacific Railway was built, and I learned how people discovered this land! I cannot thank my teachers Ms. Willems, Mr. Hughes, and Ms. Maxwell enough for this adventure that I will never forget.

Next up, Ottawa!