Over the Christmas break Afsheen and I went to the science center to see the Indiana Jones event. It was quite fascinating and lots of information about the movies and archeology as well. See the pictures below. Continue reading Indiana Jones →

I had a nice relaxing Christmas this year. I went down to Calgary to visit Jaclyn and Pedro. We made sure Skully got her required attention. Played games and relaxed.
We went to visit Stuart and Stacey at Dead Man’s Flats then did a hoodoo walk with their dogs in Banff. We also did a walk around my parents’ neighbourhood.

See below for my photos. Continue reading Christmas 2014 →

I just got back from the Grand Canyon for a 6 day backpacking trip.
I went with a company called Wildland Trekking. There was 4 of us plus 1 guide and 1 guide in training.

You can see more details of it here:
http://www.wildlandtrekking.com/grand-canyon/backpacking-trips/rim-to-rim-to-rim.html

We went Down the South Kaibab Trail (rim 1) then up and down the the North Kaibab Trail (rim 2) and then up the Bright Angel Trail (rim 3).
It is pretty spectacular and amazing how quickly the vegetation and rocks change all the time.
We had pretty much perfect backpacking weather. I wore a t-shirt most of the time. The last night was a little chilly but manageable.

After my trip my parents picked me up and I got to see their new place in Tucson and relax for a couple days before coming back to winter in Edmonton.

See below for my photos Continue reading Grand Canyon! →

Geoff, Abril and I decided to go camping again.
We tested out my new tent which was snug but fit us pretty well. It seemed to work well but there was no rain so tough to know that part!

On the way to the camp site there were bison on/near the road that we got some good pictures of.

We went on a long 17 km hike on Saturday. It was fun but not easy. It was pretty hot out and there were tonnes of mosquitoes and maybe no-see-ums. When you moved yours arms well walking you could feel the bugs hit your arm. We drenched our self often in mosquito repellant to help. We found one nice place for a lunch that was relatively bug free and we could sit on a log. We didn’t see any bison on the trail but lots of their poop! We did see a couple of rabbits.

We were exhausted after our trip and relaxed in the evening. We saw this weird thing moving at the campsite next to us. A squirrel had a furry blanket or something and was underneath and moving it.

Sunday morning we packed up and headed home.

See the pictures below Continue reading Camping again →

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 →