Banff and Canmore

On Sunday Dec.19 Erin and I drove to Canmore for a couple of nights to see the mountains and do some skiing. We stayed at the Falcon Crest Lodge and had a nice room that even had a full kitchen for us to use.

After we arrived in Canmore we did some grocery shopping. We bought food for supper for another day and lunch when we were skiing and some breakfast food. For the evening we watched the Get Smart movie which we borrowed from the hotel.

We had planned on cross country skiing on Monday but it was quite cold out and the weather looked better on Tuesday so we decided to do some sightseeing instead. We drove up to Lake Louise and stopped for lunch at a little sandwich stop nearby. Lake Louise looked quite nice but it was very cold. We basically just walked to the lake took a few photos and got back in the car. Next on our list was the Banff Gondola. We drove to the gondola and it felt much nicer there. Inside the gondola was quite cool but when we were up at the top, the sun was out and it was warm enough to walk around a bit. We made it to the top of the boardwalk and had very nice views of the mountains. After driving back to our hotel we had a supper of pizza, salad and wine that we bought the day before. To rest in the evening we borrowed Battlestar Galactica Razor and enjoyed it.

On Tuesday the weather was much better so we made up some sandwiches and fruit for lunch and got ready to ski. We went to the Canmore Nordic Centre. We also rented our skiis from there. It was basically the first time I had gone cross country skiing. It was a lot of fun though it took me a bit to get the hang of it. It is a good thing I did not bring my camera with me as I had some pretty spectacular wipe-outs on some of the sections when going downhill. I had a lot of fun skiing with Erin and after a day of skiing we drove back to my parents in Calgary.

The photos I took are below:[smugmug url=”http://gallery.pfink.ca/hack/feed.mg?Type=gallery&Data=15208049_UXCdL&format=rss200″ title=”Christmas%20in%20Canmore” description=”Dec.19%20-%20Dec.21″ imagecount=”100″ start=”1″ num=”100″ thumbsize=”Th” link=”smugmug” captions=”false” sort=”true” window=”false” smugmug=”false” size=”M”]

New Audio Stand

I bought a new audio stand to replace my existing “stand”[smugmug url=”http://pfink.smugmug.com/hack/feed.mg?Type=gallery&Data=14736529_Lr3gS&format=rss200″ title=”New%20Audio%20Stand” description=”November%2020%2C%202010″ imagecount=”100″ start=”1″ num=”100″ thumbsize=”Th” link=”smugmug” captions=”true” sort=”true” window=”false” smugmug=”false” size=”M”]

Toronto

This past weekend I got to go to Toronto to see Erin and see some friends eat lots of food, walk through a lot of Toronto and had a great time.

I arrived late Wednesday night and Erin was there to greet me and we took a cab back because it was late. I slept in a bit as Erin went to her first class. I walked down Bloor St. to the university and met her for lunch. The weather was nice and sunny and in the low teens for most of my trip. It seems like Toronto is a month behind Edmonton in terms of getting to winter. After lunch Erin had another class and I read a magazine for a bit before heading out for a walk around the U of T campus. I took some pictures and quite a few of squirrels. They are out everywhere before I slowed my self down on squirrel pictures. After I got back Erin was done her class and we headed back to her place. Erin made some couscous with some grilled eggplant and zucchini and some tempeh bacon. It was quite good, my first veggie bacon. After supper we went on the hunt for some olives so Erin could make martinis. We went to quite a few stores before we found the right ones. After martinis we made some scrumptious chocolate cupcakes for my birthday.

On Friday we went to Union station to meet Erin’s friend and then chatted with her and had a lunch/snack at Starbucks before walking up University Ave. for a bit before dropping her friend off. We then walked to Kensington Market to a neat vegetarian restaurant called King’s Cafe. It was Asian type food some pretending to be meat or just vegetarian versions of food with meat. We had some dim sum items that were quite tasty though sometimes tricky to eat with chopsticks! It was kind of foggy during the day and really foggy as it got darker and darker. It was quite a neat fog as it did not go that high and was pretty low.

Saturday we met my friend Jamey and his wife and twin girls at the Royal Ontario Museum. We walked around the museum, had lunch and saw more of the museum. We had to check in our backpacks and because they had a jacket in the back pack we got charged for it. We got angry about it but there wasn’t much we could do. I had been there before but nothing really seemed all that familiar to me. I think they have also added on to the building since I was there last. There was a special exhibition on The Warrior Emperor and China’s Terracotta Army it was pretty good but a little busy. It would be nice to go through it when it is less busy and you have a lot of time to read and see everything. No pictures were allowed in the special exhibit. We got some picture’s with Jamey and the babies before they left to go back home.

After the museum we went back to Erin’s place to find a place to eat supper. We found two Italian places that sounded good on Elm street. We took the subway downtown and saw a busy street when we got there. The road was closed and they had a tasting of some sort going. There was also some entertainment like a guy on stilts or a guy twirling fire on a stick. We found the first place but it was full and we needed a reservation. We walked down the street some more and found Frascitati’s. They asked if we had a reservation and we said no and then he said he would go check and fairly quickly came back and got us a nice table. We had bruschetta for an appetizer and some house red wine. We both decided on a creamy tomato angel hair pasta with lobster. It all tasted very good. There were large chunks of lobster in the pasta and even the lobster shells were cut in half and placed on the plate to make it fancy looking. It was a very good meal.

Sunday was my last day before heading back to Edmonton. It was a little rainier today. The other days were all sunny but it wasn’t pouring and much warmer than Edmonton would have been. We took the subway to High Park and walked through part of the park to a big natural pond, Grenadier Pond, that had some ducks and nice houses overlooking it. After our walk Erin made some good Tofu Toes, which are like chicken nuggets but made from Tofu. It doesn’t taste like chicken but they are not greasy at all and go well with different dipping sauces. We then took the subway and bus for a smooth ride to get to the airport.

My plane left a little a late but arrived in Edmonton on time. I had intended on taking the shuttle bus back but for some reason the next one was leaving in 1.5 hours. There were some other people there that were not happy with that so four of us shared a cab and the price ended up being basically the same.

My photos are after the link:
Continue reading Toronto

Jasper!

I had a busy fun-filled weekend. I went to Cadomin and stayed with Erin and her parents at their cabin.

On Saturday after driving to Cadomin, Erin and I went on a hike by Whitehorse Creek.
Sunday we went to Jasper and had stops at Maligne Canyon, Medicine Lake, Mount Edith Cavell and the Miette Hotsprings.
Monday we walked around Cadomin and headed back to Edmonton.

The weather was beautiful. There was lots of good food and a nice big fire in a fire pit for marshmallows.

See below for pictures.
Continue reading Jasper!

Warm Weather!

Edmonton finally had a beautiful spring day. I took a nice walk by the river and saw a Pileated Woodpecker, it is a giant sized woodpecker. It is around the size of a crow. I heard a weird flying noise and it sat in a tree close to me for a second and I got a couple of pics.[smugmug url=”http://gallery.pfink.ca/hack/feed.mg?Type=gallery&Data=11869267_ptmjy&format=rss200″ title=”River%20Valley%20Apr.17%202010%20plus%20a%20cat” description=”River%20valley%20in%20Edmonton” imagecount=”100″ start=”1″ num=”100″ thumbsize=”Th” link=”smugmug” captions=”false” sort=”true” window=”false” smugmug=”false” size=”M”]

Last day in Australia

Today is my last full day in Australia and tomorrow I make my long trip back to Canada.

Maroochydore was nice. Got in a couple beach days and then back to Brisbane for some exploring of the city and seeing some museum, sciencentre and art gallery.

I hope to add some posts with photos and more details about my days in Australia.

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and more

Today I went to the lone pine koala sanctuary and saw some of the shows and presentations they did and also hugged a koala and got some pictures of that. Also touched some kangaroos and a snake.

Yesterday was the Australia Zoo which was quite good too and touched a koala bum and petted some kangaroos. The crocodiles are quite neat and they have lots of them.

Tomorrow I am leaving for Maroochydore. A beach town and will probably relax on the beach for my birthday maybe I’ll do something else.

Brisbane

Made it to Brisbane and my hostel. Basically took as long to get to my hostel with the shuttle bus as the flight took but all is well. Tomorrow is Australia Zoo day so I will be taking lots of new photos. 4 Blackhawk helicopters were circling around downtown today, I guess they are doing practice for something for a couple weeks.