From July 18th to July 20th I went camping with Geoff, Abril and Geoff’s friend Hui.
We had a good time. The weather was pretty good. One night/morning it rained pretty good and the tent leaked a little but after that it was all good.
We did lots of hour or so long hikes. We even got to go in a voyageur canoe with a bunch of other people and went around part of the lake. It was free and they had other events going on as well at the park.
See the pictures below Continue reading Camping and Hiking in Elk Island →

A little late with this post but better late than never.

I had a great trip to Toronto. As per usual the weather made it hard for me to get there. There was snow while I was driving to the airport and when I returned.
I got to see Erin’s new place in the Danforth. After Erin taught school we went for lunch at a Greek place near by. I had a pork souvlaki pita that had french fries in it with an iced tea. Erin had a vegetarian pita one with a ginger ale
For supper we went downtown to Bellwood’s Brewery. We shared a meat plate and fries. It was interesting meat but tasty. I had a Grizzly Beer and Catherine Wheel. Erin had a Stay Classy and a Phantom Limb. The beer was really good.
We took the long trip to the zoo though slightly shorter than from her old place. It was great to see the pandas! It was a little cool but in the sun and out of the breeze it was pleasant. We had supper at Matt’s place. It was neat to see where he works.
We had some other walks around her area and managed to finish watching Twin Peaks. It was quite a good show. We didn’t like the last episode though. I was hoping for warmer weather but we had fun.

Even more snow greeted me on the way back but I managed to make it back ok.

See pictures below Continue reading Back in Toronto →

Erin and I had a nice trip down to Calgary to visit my parents and Jaclyn and Pedro for Christmas.
I took a few pictures. The first ones are of our “Christmas” tree in Edmonton that continues to live.
The next ones are in Calgary. The weather was pretty good for Christmas. Not too cold and snow was there so it wasn’t brown. Click to see the pictures below. Continue reading Christmas 2013 →

Geoff and I went down to Calgary for a nice weekend to see the rest of the family and the pets before it gets too cold.

See below for pictures of the pets and people Continue reading September weekend in Calgary →

With Erin we went to Vancouver, the Sunshine Coast, Bowen Island and Victoria this August.

The photos are below, click one of them to see them all. At some point in time I will write up everything we did and edit the pictures more.
Continue reading West Coast 2013 →

Another July weekend, another awesome trip to Cadomin. In addition to Erin’s family Abril and Geoff also came up with us. We drove up Friday evening after work.

On Saturday we went to the Cardinal Divide. We brought a lunch and had it before setting off on our journey. We were looking for a geocache a few kilometers away. There was a trail in the general direction and we headed off. The weather was a little cloudy and unsettled. It was decent hiking weather, not too hot and not too cool for the most part. It would get windy and rainy at times. It was also sunny at time. The trail eventually started to go away from the GPS coordinates so we went off trail towards our cache. The terrain was now a little more hilly. Spongy in some places, hard in others. We could see a large hill that seemed to be where the cache would be. As we headed towards the hill we had to go around parts that were more difficult. Eventually we got to a point where we had to make a decision turn around and head back as time was getting short or go for it. Jake and Laurie offered to go back and get the car and we would go for the cache and then head for the road at the bottom of the hill. Going up the hill was more difficult as we had to cross a stream, avoid some snow patches, avoid scree and find a path to the top. We persevered and made it to the top! However the cache was not there it was lower down in an area full of scree. Matt and Erin went to look for it. They found the spot where it should have been but there was no cache there 🙁 Now it was time to go down to the road. Abril, Geoff and I were at the top so we went down to meet Erin and Matt get out of the scree. When we got there they weren’t there so we thought they must be further down and went to look for them. Still no luck! We sent Geoff up to see if they were up a bit on the other side. Nothing. He went up higher and eventually found Erin. Matt was missing now though. They eventually found each other and Geoff took them to us where we headed down together, a little later then planned. When we reached the bottom we could hear Erin’s parents and called back to them but couldn’t see them through the trees. We heard them drive away. We jumped over a stream we had been following down and got to the road. Shortly we saw them coming to get us and drove back to the cabin with them.

On Sunday we went to Jasper. On the way to the town we saw some mountain goats on the side of a cliff. It is amazing how they can just move around on the ledges. They were pretty scruffy looking not having much hair. We had lunch at a nice picnic table by the river. After lunch we went to to Athabasca Falls. It was quite nice there. The water was higher than normal. I hadn’t seen it before so I couldn’t compare it. I got some good pictures there. After losing Matt for a bit at the falls we headed to Mount Edith Cavell and Angel Glacier. It had changed quite a bit. There was a landslide when another part of the glacier fell into the lake. You aren’t even supposed to go to the lake anymore.

See the photos below Continue reading July Long Weekend 2013 →

I went to visit Erin the week after Easter (because it was much cheaper) and it was a better weekend. The weather in Toronto was OK while I was there. Certainly better than the snow I had as I was leaving Edmonton.

When I arrived in Toronto, Erin was there to greet me and we went to pick up a car rental. Picking up the car was smooth enough except when I was trying to leave the parking lot, I went the wrong way and had to turn around to get out. I did my first driving on Toronto’s freeways and managed to survive. There was just one scary incident with a car kind of passing us, half in my lane and half off the edge. It was late at night so there wasn’t too much traffic.

We decided to rent a car so we could go to near Kitchener and see Jamey and Jen on their farm on Saturday. We had a nice visit. I took some pictures of their kids and they have grown a lot since we saw them a year ago. Driving there and back was ok, nothing too scary but it is way busier than Alberta highways. We returned the car back to the airport and took transit back to Erin’s place. The subway was going under some repairs so we had a little detour on buses but we caught the connections well and it didn’t take too long.

On Sunday we went for a little walk around Erin’s neighbourhood and then to her Uncle’s for supper.

On Monday we went to High Park for a walk, took some pictures at the mini-zoo which is still there for now. We had a decent meal at a vegetarian/flexitarian restaurant where it is buffet style and you pay based on the weight of your food.

Tuesday was my final day and we walked along Bloor, Erin got some gifts for a friend. We were going to have Korean for supper but it started to pour and so we decided the chicken place near her was a better idea. My flight back was smooth enough and I managed to remember where I parked my car and make it back home for a late night before work the next day.

Click below to see pictures of the trip Continue reading Toronto April 2013 →

I went to Calgary for Easter to see my family and the pets. I took some pictures of mostly the pets.
See the pictures below. Continue reading Easter →

Over Christmas Erin and I had wanted to go to Star Wars Identities because it was in Edmonton. We decided that early on New Year’s Day would be a good time to go and it was. It was not that busy until near the end when we had spent a long time going through everything. It was quite neat and I recommend any one who is into Star Wars to see it.

There is a lot of information about all the props, costumes, etc. There are neat concept art and ideas that they had but changed later like Luke was going to be a female! There is a science aspect to it about what influences people to be the way they are and uses Star Wars characters as examples.

As you go through you build your own identity. Here is mine http://sw-id.com/50e338e225926

Here is Erin’s: http://www.starwarsidentities.com/hero/en-ca/50e338f298be3

Click below to see my pictures Continue reading Star Wars Identities →

After Christmas on a cold sunny day we went to the zoo. Our main goal was to see the Penguins, Tigers and Hippos.
We were successful in all accounts. The penguins weren’t busy because it was so cold and we could stay there as long as we wanted.
The tigers were running and walking around and let us get some pictures. Once we got cold we went indoors and our lens all fogged up!
The hippos were eating and swimming once done. I guess they don’t have to wait!
I got some quite good pictures I was happy with the results.

Click below to see the pics Continue reading Calgary Zoo Winter Time →