What is this stone and why does it say mile on it?

Chad and I spent all day yesterday as volunteers at the CK Amazing Race; I was there shortly past 7:30 a.m. in order to photograph the start, and the party wrapped up around 8 p.m., so it was a long day. In addition to the full day event there was a 2-hour meeting on Friday night (3 hours for Chad) to go over the last minute details. With so much time required for the event, it was time to take drastic measures... we packed Liam up on Friday afternoon and shipped him out to the trailer to spend a night with Gramma and Grampa Cook. Not that big a deal for Chad, who has spent many nights on the road since Liam was born, but this was the first overnighter I had away from him. I cried as we drove away, of course, wondering if he would think that we were deserting him forever. Luckily it sounds like he had a grand old time without us; and I say luckily most of all because Liam will be spending 3.75 nights camped out with his grandparents when Chad and I go to Banff in September. I'm very, very thankful that the trial separation went well!

As far as the Amazing Race goes, that's a story in and of itself; it was an amazing (there really is no other word) event. 30 teams whittled down to the top 3 who battled it out for the $2500 first prize. Chad was a judge at several of the events, and I was an event photographer and also spent part of the day at Command Central. The events took the racers all over CK - some of the challenges included:

1. Hunting for your next clue in a trailer full of manure at TJ stables - then catching a chicken before taking a detour of either mucking out a stall or milking a goat
2. Singing karaoke on the roof at the Capitol Theatre downtown while your partner busked on the street below
3. Building a sandcastle at Mitchell's Bay
4. Rowing a dinghy out around Erieau
5. Shooting baskets or swimming laps at the YMCA
6. Hunting for your next clue in the Cornfield Maze

You see the Amazing Race on TV and think that without the exotic locale, you could never have as much fun; but I was totally impressed with the activities that were put together. It was even fun for the volunteers (something you can't always say). A team came from behind to win in the end, which (in my humble opinion) was too bad - the other 2 teams in the top 3 had been neck and neck in the lead all day, and seemed to deserve the win. Anyway, I will post a couple pics when I get my cards back - they are currently being processed by the race officials.