Rocky Holidays

Last Thanksgiving weekend, Carolyn and I went to visit our friends Andrea and Jeremy in Alberta. They moved out there last summer when Andrea got a ministerial placement in the metropolis of Killam. I can confirm that there is at least one stop sign in the town.

They were gracious enough to drive many hours and many hundred kilometers to show us the amazing Rocky Mountains, so I thought I should finally share some photos. Furthermore, I upgraded my computer over Christmas so I can do certain post-processing techniques (such as panoramas) much quicker.

We flew into Edmonton in the evening where we met Andrea, Jeremy, and Hiro. From there we drove straight to Canmore. Jeremy has booked us a great chalet, and this is the view we found in our backyard the next morning.

We drove into Banff National Park - my first visit - and headed for the Banff Gondola. The view on the way up is amazing, and once you're at the top - spectacular. We hiked around for quite some time and I took a number of photos. I think Jeremy and Andrea learned how time can slow to a crawl when I have my camera.

We then headed to Lake Louise for another short hike. Right on the lake is the Château Lake Louise, which is amazingly large and without a doubt has the best-smelling bathroom soap I have ever used. Everything since has left me wanting more from my hand-washing experience.

Just south of Lake Louise is the pristine Moraine Lake. I have never witnessed water so turquoise. Apparently it is one of the most photographed locations in Canada, and I can understand why.

Me and Carolyn at Moraine Lake.

Jeremy and Andrea at Moraine Lake.










To our dismay (and relief) we didn't have any real bear sightings (ask Carolyn), but on our way out of the park we had the pleasure of coming across a family of deer.




After ingesting some overpriced raclette in Banff, we headed back to Canmore. The next day we started the trek back to Killam. We stopped in Drumheller at the Royal Tyrell Museum. Sadly we got there too late to see any exhibits, but not too late to purchase some gifts for our dinosaur-crazy nephew. There were some dinosaur replicas outside the museum that Hiro was not too impressed with.

Late in the evening I finally got to check another thing off my life-list: seeing a moose. The photo isn't great but it's proof.


We finished our our visit with another few days in Killam, enjoying some balmy weather and a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner.

The times are changin'

It's a rainy Saturday afternoon, so it seems like a perfect opportunity to keep the world up-to-date on the latest happenings of my life.

October 31st was my last day at the company I have been with for over 4.5 years. No hard feelings, but it was time to move on. It certainly made for some interesting goodbyes though, seeing as I was dressed up for Halloween. I may post a picture if I get a hold of one, but let's just say that I'm sure I made a lasting impression.

I decided to take a week off before starting my new job, just to decompress, clear my cache, and get some stuff done that I've been meaning to do. I'm very excited about my new job; the product looks slick and useful and I think I'll get lots of opportunity to show my skillz. They are in north Waterloo so it's a short commute, but hopefully the Intrigue can handle a few more clicks.

[Side note: I'm not mentioning any company names because I'd like to keep some degree of separation between my work and private life. Please keep that in mind if you make comments.]

As I mentioned, I've had the week off, and while I didn't quite get done everything I envisioned, I'm happy with what I have accomplished. But instead of having one massively large post, just click here and here to see what I've been up to. Other than that I've been playing lazy househusband (fairly well I think!)... I may get used to the "stay-at-home" thing. ;)

They can't sell beer on Sundays????

It's a good thing for Utah that they have some awesome national parks.




The first time I've ever seen Krušovice available in North America, and I can't even buy it!!! Arg.

Tales of Tobermory - Part 4

Flowers, flowers, and more flowers! (And maybe a butterfly).


Some Castilleja (commonly known as Indian Paintbrush)... I think. This was on our hike in Singing Sands Provincial Park.


A pitcher plant. It eats bugs. And if you're not careful, it'll eat you too. Don't fall for it's innocent demeanor.


An orange lily. There were many of these scattered throughout the region. Very lovely.


Some sort of fern. With shadow.


One day...


Viceroy butterfly in some sort of plant. Can anyone identify it? The butterflies just loved it.

Tales of Tobermory - Part 3

Ok, the weekend is coming up, and we're heading to Tobermory again, so I'd better catch up with my previous Tobermory pictures.


Scuba divers at Big Tub.


The Big Tub lighthouse.


Kayakers in the harbour.


Plant, stone, and shadow.


Nasty, nasty bugs. These little buggers were swarming all along the road we were biking down, sticking to our clothes and in our face too. Blech. Gross. This one was one Carolyn's helmet. It's about 2-3cm long.


Night shot of the mist above Larry's Lake.

Tales of Tobermory - Part 2

More pictures!


Pink flowers.


Carolyn practicing safe photography.


A stop along the trail. We biked down Dyers Bay Rd, along Georgian Bay.


Some cool plant. I liked the green/red contrast.


A turkey vulture we happened upon. Not the prettiest of birds.


Carolyn waiting for me on the path, at the end of the bike trail.


Gears. Who can pass up rusty old gears?


The lighthouse at the end of the tunnel. Apparently you can volunteer to live here and take care of the place from March to November. Between December and February, the road access is closed. At this point we had biked 10km, and were about to bike back another 10km. Yay us!

Later that day...


The previous day, on the way to Owen Sound to see Ratatouille at the drive-in theatre (which I really enjoyed, btw), we had not taken the opportuntity - we were running late - to photograph these mustard fields that looked amazing in the sunset. So we timed it so that we could do it after biking. The lighting wasn't as good, but the yellow is still overwhelming.


Yellow and fence.


Lost in the flowers.


That evening, Carolyn whipped up some delicious cider-infused chorizo. Now that's camping!

Tales of Tobermory - Part 1.1

Whoops, forgot to post these photos last time. These are more night shots from the same night.


Tree, with Carolyn taking her own night shots in the background.


This is the limit of the family land, ending at Larry's Lake.


Another photo of the moon reflecting in Larry's Lake. Don't ask me who Larry is.

Tales of Tobermory - Part 1

Well, we're heading out tomorrow for a photo-hike around Webster's Falls, so I figured I ought to catch up on some posting. Here are some pictures from Day 1 of our trip to Tobermory.


I managed to get pretty close to this guy and caught him mid-squawk. Either he was calling for reinforcements, or he wanted me to feed him.


One of the grottos in the area. We were hiking around Cyprus Lake in the Bruce Peninsula National Park of Canada.


The turquoise water here is so beautiful. I remember coming here as a kid with my cousins, so it was great to finally revisit.


Bursting with fiery colour. Can anyone tell me what flower this is?


Fairly sharp image of this butterfly. I think I need to stop-down the aperature for these close-up shots, since only a bit of the subject is in focus.


This shot was taken around 1:30am. We stopped outside a farmer's field to take some night shots. Unfortunately, I forgot my remote, so we were unable to do longer exposures than 30 seconds (unless we were to hold down the shutter-release button for several consecutive minutes). This necessitated a much higher ISO, but the pictures came out OK anyway. This picture is not very good, but I always think it's neat that it looks nearly like daylight, but with star-trails. The large white post in the background is a wind turbine.


Another night shot, taken from Carolyn's family's land. The bright object is the moon.

And we're off...

... to Tobermory for a super-long weekend! Happy Canada Day everyone! Hopefully we'll have some pictures to post next week.