Trip to Vulcan, Alberta to meet Spock & Visit with Uncle Bill & the Daveys

One of my favourite parts of Nathan being a sculptor, besides the #1 fact of seeing the hand of God continually provide for us and answer prayer in interesting ways (but that's a book right there), is the fact that we get to meet all kinds of random interesting people! We never know what's around the corner, but suddenly we are meeting people and learning all about them.

Nathan & I have just returned home from dedicating the bust of Spock in Vulcan, Alberta! What an adventure! The little town of under 2000 was crazy-excited to have Leonard Nimoy come "home" for a visit. (Spock, Nimoy's Star Trek character, is from the planet Vulcan, so the little Alberta town by the same name has taken it and run with it and Nimoy has really advocated on their behalf) It was quite fun to be a part of the excitement. We were able to be up there with the VIPs, within the first to greet Nimoy and then we got to go into the Trek station and personally meet him and shake hands with him. Of course, everyone was vying for attention, so it was a bit of a chaotic day, but we did meet him. Poor guy-he just wants to retire and hand over the attention to the new Spock. This was his last public appearance.

Leonard Nimoy standing behind the unveiled bust of Spock

Vulcan parade-it was very funny to see all the people dressed up and to see how the town posted pictures and messages on their storefront windows

We were invited into the Trek Station with about 30 town leaders, so we all stood around in a circle and Mr Nimoy came around and spoke to each of us.

Here we are inside the 'Trek Station' before the whole event got underway. Can you tell that we just watched our first Star Trek movie a month ago?!

Leonard Nimoy-who also acted the Prophet Samuel in an old movie of David-my personal favourite of his roles! He's been acting for 66 years, as well as some directing, and is more than ready to retire into a quiet life, doing some photography as a hobby!

Nimoy unveiling the sculpture. (the mayor is the guy dressed up behind) I thought Nathan did an amazing job! We also had a chance to talk with a guy from CBS, who was the one to check out Nathan unbeknownst to us before Nathan was asked to do Spock. It'll be interesting to see if it leads into anything further. We still laugh over the fact that we have never watched Star Trek and when we got the email asking if he'd sculpt Leonard Nimoy, we asked for photos because we thought he was a founding father of the town!

For me, the best part of the trip was that we also got to stay with our friends, Todd & Julie and meet their beautiful not-so-new baby Nia and play with Josh & Asher, who are the same age as Caleb & Levi. We were disappointed to have left our boys behind especially, as they would have had such a great time playing. I'm quite sure Nathan's highlight of the trip was going gopher shooting with Todd! Todd tells us one farmer figures those gophers cost him $10,000 in one field alone-so it was really official farm business!

Here's the video I took of Nimoy's speech & unveiling-I apologize for the shakiness! Yes-they forgot Nathan's name-which of course I think was completely inappropriate, but they were awfully excited! The mayor-dressed in Vulcanwear is giving most of the speech and we had a chance to talk to him quite a bit beforehand. He's actually an appliance repairman by trade, but a really good guy!

So that's the Vulcan part!

Other highlights of the weekend were:

-having dinner with Uncle Bill in Calgary when we arrived

-nearly getting kicked out of the Vulcan Art Gallery when Todd tried to be sneaky, taking a photo of a painting-we had met the gallery owner earlier, who wanted Nathan to come and check out the gallery-which we did-but she didn't notice he was there. (everyone seemed a bit flustered and the owner was in the midst of knocking down a painting and breaking the frame)

-having dinner in Deifenbaker's Railcar

-Going to the Badlands-it looks like a smaller version of the Grand Canyon! Nathan & Todd hiked up the hoodoos with the boys and we can't wait to bring the kids back to camp there

-of course the part that made the weekend for me was being able to hang out with Julie and get to see her in her beautiful home her husband built and catch up with the family and see the town! There is nothing I love more than long talks with good friends-especially when there's good food and talk of good books involved!

-and I have to mention the car-wash/liquor store called 'Buds n Suds' which features bartending at such events as weddings, parties & brandings!

Keep posted for Nathan's big unveiling in 8 days: unveiling the Homecoming sculpture in downtown Victoria next Tuesday for the Canadian Navy's 100th Anniversary! It's a frantic week for him as he and Bob Palmer get this sculpture finished on time!