The first thing we did after settling in was go for a walk around the "block", block is in quotes because everyone in Raymond lives on a minimum of 10 acres.. So a walk around the block turns into a small marathon. It was nice to stretch our legs after the long drive and we got to watch a spectacular sunset in the process.
{Judy & Max's house= top photo}
Monday morning we got up and drove to Lethbridge. Our first stop was the 'high level bridge' which is the longest (5,327.625 feet) & highest (314 feet) trestle bridge in the world--there are longer & there are higher, but no other longest highest. The bridge was built by the Canadian Pacific Railway and it recently celebrated it's 100th anniversary. We also climbed up to the observation point to get a better look.
{High level bridge}
After the bridge we stopped for lunch and we had our first experience with Canadian cuisine: Poutine (i.e. fries with gravy & cheese curds) I thought it mostly tasted like mashed potatoes.
Next, we headed over to the Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden. This garden is a friendship garden between Canada & Japan. The bell in the bottom left picture is a friendship bell and its sound is supposed to send out a message of goodwill and understanding. When Marty and I rang the bell it was shockingly loud but also satisfying. It was so nice to be in the middle of a city and feel like everything just melted away. We sat under the gazebo for a while and listened to the stream run by and I know it sounds cheesy but I felt so cleansed afterwards. Who knew you could find Japanese Zen in Canada?
{Nikka Yuko}
Tuesday, we slept in and then we got up and took a tour of Raymond. We went to the town hall/ library and wandered through the shops on main street. Raymond is such a charming little town..
{Raymond}
Later that evening we went to visit a Hutterite colony. Max & Judy are good friends with the Hutterites in the area so we got special permission to tour their facilities and get a behind-the-scenes look at their lifestyle. We were really impressed with how hard they work and how much they really take care of each other with their sense of community. I didn't take any pictures because they are frowned upon in their society and I didn't want to be disrespectful.
After the Hutterites we went out to dinner and then went on another long walk through the Raymond countryside.
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