On Saturday Geoff, Abril and I randomly decided to go to the Cariwest parade.
It was nice weather for it. It started about 30 minutes late, had a weird break in it that we almost left but was good weather and we had fun.
See the pictures below Continue reading Cariwest Parade
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
This Canada Day, I decided I wanted to practice with my camera and learn how to do fireworks pictures.
In the afternoon I took a walk around the Legislature and area to get an idea of where I wanted to be and where others were.
Ultimately I decided I would try from my brother’s balcony.
I went back to my place, got my tripod and remote shutter and went back to his place.
At 11pm the bridge lit up for the first time and there were some other fireworks at other locations going on in the background.
About 5 minutes later the fireworks started. Unfortunately about half the fireworks were behind a building but I still got some nice shots and learned some things that I needed to figure out.
See the pictures below: Continue reading 2014 Canada Day
For the monday of the weekend, it looked like a nice day so I decided to go for a walk around the river and take some pictures. The legislature building is no longer covered and there is lots of construction around the new bridge.
See the pictures below Continue reading Spring walk
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
On New Year’s Eve we invited Erin’s parents over for supper.
We made lobster. We had two lobsters for the 4 of us and they turned out really good.
After the lobster we had a bean salad from the cookbook I gave Erin for Christmas, steamed asparagus, a shrimp ring, Caesar salad and roasted potatoes.
For dessert we had pumpkin pie that Erin’s mum had made. It was all scrumptious.
We played some Dominion after supper and dishes. As it got closer to midnight we had Champagne that Erin’s parents had brought. We put on our snow clothes and headed to Churchill Square to see the fireworks. It was cold out but not too bad as we were dressed warm, got their as the fireworks just started and then walked back to my place.
Click below to see the firework’s photos! Continue reading 2013 New Year’s Eve Fireworks
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