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Silver Skate Festival part 2

For Family Day in February we went back to the Silver Skate Festival in Hawrelak Park in the afternoon to check out the daytime activities.
It took a while to find parking as there were already a lot of people in attendance.  We walked through the snow garden and saw the finished snow sculptures.

We made s'mores and took a picture to get an Alberta milk cow print buff.

Next I took Emma through the snow fort to go down the ice slide.  I was wearing my winter moccasins and the leather slowed us down.  We barely made it to the bottom.  I told Emma she should try going again later by herself.

We made our way over to the heritage village.  We made some Bannock,  watched the blacksmith and then popped into a canvas tent to warm up and try some Labrador tea.

Then Emma and Andrew tried on some snowshoes and tromped over to another fire where we saw some traditional drumming and a circle dance.

After returning the snowshoes we ducked into a teepee to warm up again and were treated to some more Bannock and some Labrador and mint tea.  The floor of this teepee was lined with spruce boughs.  It smelt amazing!  We ate our Bannock and drank our tea while listening to a Cree elder talk about her life.

Finally we let Emma go for one more slide down the ice slide before making our way home.   We wanted to go on a sleigh ride also but there was a bit of a line and enough wind that we were ready to head home and warm up.

I think the Silver Skate Festival is something that we will add to our list of family traditions.  It is a well put on event with a lot for families to see and do.  We really enjoyed everything we saw and did and we didn't even get to do everything.  Next year we will be sure to visit again and try new things.

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