Friday picture!

So my Friday got a little away from me yesterday. I did take my picture, but my five year old confiscated the computer last night, and since hubby had a long day and homework for his course, I was trying to keep her happy and quiet. So here is yesterday's picture:

I will have to go back in the summer and take it again as it is much better when the colours are better. But doesn't every place look better during the warm weather?

There is a gazebo along one of the trails in Thickwood, not far from Shayleen's school which I showed you on the first day. This picture was taken from standing in that gazebo, and you are looking at the now 10 lanes of traffic that cross the Athabasca River. It connects the downtown area of Fort McMurray to what we call "up the hill", being Thickwood and Timberlea, and of course, all the sites that lay north of the city. The last two lanes, and the Franklin Tunnel just opened in early December. Those two lanes are to the far right, and when you take those lanes, you can get directly onto Franklin, or you can turn towards MacDonald Island, our huge sports/community complex. Those two large apartment complexes you see were originally built by Syncrude in the late 70's or early 80's to house their employees. Many still call them the Syncrude Towers. It is hard to believe that when we moved here just 7 short years ago, this is what the bridge area looked like:

Back then when there was an accident on the bridge, which was a common thing, traffic would halt to a standstill, and would stay that way for hours. Thank God for new infrastructure. Since all these lanes opened, the traffic situation has been much better. There are still some kinks to work out, but I will give kudos to Alberta Transportation for making the situation much better than it was...which is funny if you know me, because the way they tackled the traffic congestion often brought a rant from me. Here's to moving forward!