Explore-Experience-Expeditions Gull Lake, Alberta, Canada

This trip took place shortly after my partner and I got together. I was surprised to be invited on a family trip, which was a golf tournament at Gull Lake. The tournament was a family one, so it wouldn't matter if I was bad at golfing because it was meant to be a friendly competition. This trip was a duration of three days.

Day 1

My partner and I packed our golf clubs, two bags, a cooler with food and drinks, our chairs, and our tent. We also brought a ferret along with us, his name was Rocket, he has since passed away. It was interesting to bring such a small animal along for the trip. It was also necessary as Rocket needed daily medications. We got him, our things, and ourselves packed into the car and drove to Gull Lake. We took the road leading through Calgary Alberta. The sun was setting in our rearview mirror and it was beautiful. When we arrived at Gull Lake the sun had sunk behind the horizon and it was difficult to see. We stopped around the campfire to talk with my partner's family. I caught up with his parents and met loads of aunts, uncles, cousins, and family friends. It was a tad overwhelming. After that we got Rocket the ferret out of the car, got our tent set up, and inflated our air mattress. We found an outdoor outlet with a massive spider living on it. After that fiasco, I was very tired and I turned in early for that night.

Day 2

I woke up to the autumn cold biting at my feet, the discomfort was enough for me to get dressed and walk out into the fresh morning air. I went to the outhouse and back to my tent since no one else in the family was awake yet. I could hear people moving around in their trailers. I gave them their space to get ready for the first day of the golf tournament. When I got back to our tent my partner was awake and he and I got our food ready to take over to his parents trailer. We were going to borrow an outdoor frying pan of theirs so he and I could make ourselves breakfast. We also used their kettle for tea. Shout out to his parents. Thank you so much.

After breakfast, we grabbed our golf clubs and drove to the Gull Lake 9 hole golf course. Now, I remember being terrible at golf. I remember once being at a driving range and missing every single shot for three hours. That was so embarrassing haha. Anyway, I expected to be just as awful this time around. Just to find out my golfing had greatly improved. I don't mean Tiger Woods improved, I meant that I could hit the ball better. There were groups of three to four people and the plays were evenly spaced out, to prevent groups from passing each other. I thought that was nicely planned out, it made it less stressful trying to get through the course. As we played our run the course was shining with freshly cut grass and dewy trees. However, smoke soon blew in from a nearby forest fire. That made the view a bit smudged. When our team completed the course we went back to the clubhouse to count our points together. We ended up getting 32 points in total. In golf, the less points you have the better. After that we headed back to our tents and trailers.

I went and changed into my swimsuit, and a black and white striped dress. I desperately wanted to go down to the lake and see what it was like. I asked my partner if he wanted to go with me, and he did. We grabbed our chairs and a sun umbrella to set up at the beach. I was shocked by the massive sand box that was between me and the water. I like the beach. I just also like having the lake closer to me. Luckily, I wanted to dip my feet in enough that the daunting sandy walk didn't stop me.

My partner and I walked in the shallow water for an hour. The smoke had gotten irregularly thick, so there weren't any great opportunities for gorgeous pictures of the landscape. I'll let you in on what was there though. There was a volleyball net, a park for little kids to play at on the beach, and a slide for everyone on the water. The lake is shallow for a while. I was getting a bit nervous to walk out further in case I "fell" off the drop off, so my partner and I went back to our chairs and umbrella. We sat down and shared some ice-cream, then went back to camp. When we arrived we found the boys in the family trying to shovel a hole for an underground fire pit that would be used for cooking. Both of us were ready to jump in and help whenever someone needed a break from digging. Eventually, everyone gave up on that idea because it was too hot out to use it. I can't remember if we had hotdogs or burgers for dinner that day, but we borrowed some supplies to cook again.

Day 3

I was gently woken up by the soft light of the autumn sunrise, glowing between the leaves of birch trees. I got out of the tent and realized that the smoke was blocking out the intense light of the sun, because of that I was confused about what time it was. Alarmingly, I found out that it was 09:00 am. Then we were rushing to eat breakfast, have tea and get our butts back to the golf course. When we arrived at the clubhouse, I picked out a golfing uniform, as the heat from yesterday in the clothes I was wearing upset my stomach. I picked a magenta and white uniform and we began the 9 hole course again. My drive was much better today. Especially for the last hole. My partner and his family friend had lost a golf ball, so they let me go first. When I hit my ball, it bounced on the fairway beside the green. I was surprised and I will admit, a little impressed with myself. After we finished up on that hole we counted our points together again and I believe we ended up getting 34 points so two more from yesterday. The experience was still so much fun.

We got back to our tent and while my partner made us some food before we went home I started deflating, packing, and deconstructing the tent. He and I then loaded the car together. We didn't argue once about packing it, and his family laughed about how they would've been yelling at each other already. We said our goodbyes, got Rocket and headed back home to our responsibilities.

I'd say going to Gull Lake was a successful experience. I feel more confident about golfing and feel more inclined to join people when they invite me out to a driving range or to a course.

Gull Lake is also a very small community, and I feel like I could meet most of the residents on the beach. I appreciate the glossy beauty attached to the greenery at Gull Lake, and I'm disappointed in myself that I didn't get any good photos to represent that.

Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed this addition of the Ex-Ex-Ex travel journal. Feel free to share. If you would like to see more pictures of the adventure, they can be found on the Amber Fierce YouTube channel in a music video format. I hope you're all able to hop over and take a look.

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Have a great day everyone!