July 30- Nanton and the packing to go head home.

Today was a mix of relax and busy. We spent the morning with Mary and Gerd relaxing and discussing family history. It was interesting to learn more about Paul's great, great grandparents. We were able to update the family tree information on Kerri's computer, and show Mary how Ancestry.com works. Kerri had found and shared some 1901 UK census data that showed Mary's grandfather.

After lunch, we headed to Nanton to explore. Nanton was just over an hour away, but Kerri still fell asleep. The first stop in Nanton was Ultimate Train Museum. This is a neat train museum and store that has a huge G-scale train set up in the yard. It is a neat place and there is a rideable train that goes around the set up. 

Next stop was the Miniatures Museum. This was a neat place. There were many scenes from the different ages. There was a First Nation scene showing Head Smashed-in Buffalo Jump and then it went onwards into the cowboy ages. A neat sign was the 1900 rules to be an Alberta teacher. We will let you read them so you can see what made them so unique.

Nanton is home to the largest candy store we have ever seen. It is a combination antique and candy store. There was every candy you could think off- from penny candies, chocolates, gum, etc. We also wandered down the street and checked out a few other antique stores, before heading back to Crossfield. There is also a the really nice Lancaster Museum (Bomber Command Museum of Canada) there, but we didn't make it this trip. As its name suggests, it contains a Word War II vintage Lancaster bomber, as well as many other RCAF and wartime artifacts. 

We also learned that the highway that travels through Nanton will be rerouted around the small town. This may spell the death for many of the small businesses which cater to the traveling public who stop to check out Nanton. Hannah likened it to the fictional Radiator Springs in the Disney Pixar movie "Cars."

On our way through Calgary, we stopped at Nancy's to say goodbye. We spent about half an hour with her and Kira before we continued on our way back. A quick trip into Airdrie to pick up a few things and then we were back in time to have a lovely dinner with Mary and Chico. After we had stuffed ourselves silly, we spent a good hour starting to pack our van Tetris-style. 

We still have laundry to do, so stopped packing for now. The rest can be done in the morning. As much fun as it has been to be on holidays, everyone is looking forward to going home.