Road Trip for Ice Cream
When I was little, I grew up in Golden. When we'd go to Calgary we would stop in Cochrane and get Ice Cream. Cochrane is an interesting city. It's a big city but when you are in the historic downtown area where MacKay's Ice Cream is in, you'd think it was a tiny village. It's fantastic and in the beautiful foothills of Southern Alberta. The shops are great and the ice cream is top notch.
I got back to Alberta from Tuktoyaktuk on Monday. My friend Taryn picked me up and we went to her new place. She asked what my plans were for the next day, I didn't have any so she proposed a road trip to Cochrane for ice cream! A couple years ago when I found out that Taryn and our friend Hannah didn't have their driver's licences I tried to bribe them with a road trip to Cochrane for ice cream if they got their licenses. Taryn finally got hers but we never got to Cochrane.
We stopped at Save On Foods for snacks and drinks and picnic food before heading out. We took Highway 2 down and it was full of traffic that couldn't figure out that the right lane is for passing not for going slow.
Once we got to Cochrane, the line up at MacKays was CRAZY. They don't close until 10 so we walked around and poked in the shops. We got great posters at The Vintage Verandah, Italian Sodas at Cochrane Coffee Traders and I got a really cute pair of shoes on sale at The Shoe Closet. Where the service is top notch.
Once we decided to get in line for ice cream it moved pretty fast. I got Cherry Custard and Haskap Berry. Taryn got Colombian Coffee and Cookie Dough. There are a huge variety of flavours, from Keso to Halo Halo to Avocado to Jolly Rancher. As a kid I always got Maple Walnut and Butter Pecan.
On the drive up to Drayton we took Cowboy Trail and a little detour through Highway 471. The roads were empty, though occasionally gravel and the views were BEAUTIFUL. I've driven Cowboy Trail before a few years ago and it's my favourite. We had to stop occasionally to just take in the view. It made us feel proud to live here in this amazing beautiful land. It was a couple days after Canada Day and politically/historically, it's often hard to feel proud to be Canadian for reasons other than not being American. But this land hat we live on, I'm grateful that my ancestors immigrated here so that I can experience this beauty.
