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
Last Sunday I made myself a loaf of bread.
I found this recipe:
http://www.thekitchn.com/noknead-bread-i-35556
It sounded pretty good so I gave it a try and it turned out well.
See pictures of it below. Continue reading Bread
Due to the nice (relative) weather Afsheen and I thought it would be good to go see the Christmas lights at the legislature. It was a nice evening for it.
I got some good practice taking pictures of lights at night. I still need more practice!
See below for my photos.
Continue reading The Lights at the Legislature 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
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