Birthday Away in Jasper You Say?

Birthday morning...two suprises!! Two books I had been drooling over for a while became mine in the early morning of my 30th year.

Friday at work....push through the day, get my aged bones to 3:06 and into the car. Move East. Then South. Then East.

Jasper.

We arrived in Jasper just after the stroke of 10pm, tossed our clothes in the hotel and ambled our way down the strip towards the Brewery. We spent the evening there, then awoke the next morning to sunlight, coffee, breakfast and left for a snowshoe in the mountains. Saturday night we re-enacted our Brewery sojourn, made our way to the Downstream Pub, then off to the Ded Dog Pub...then walked the whole city looking for food. Nothing to be found, we went back to our hotel room and called it a night. Excellent food (best purchased dinner ever!), amazing beverages, and a whole birthday weekend of fun. Good times, as always, in Jasper.

Afternoon coffee break with our books...

The drive towards Maligne Lake, nearing our trailhead.

ABOVE and BELOW: Munching away on a lunch of carrots, cheese and bread in the forest. Crystal wants me to delete this picture of her....apparently she looks weird but I thik she looks lovely.

View....of.....beauty. Jasper in a frame. This was near the end of the hike/snowshoe. The trail continued through thick brush - a melee of fallen trees, actually, and perfect bear dens so we decided to leave fate alone and call it quits shortly after the lake ahead of here.

Another view along the hike...

Crystal walking ahead...

Stopping along the way to play with the antlers casually left along the trail. Beauty flogging your eyesockets from beyond....monters of the geologic realm sitting, waiting to be climbed. In the summer. Wait until the summer.....

First Drink of my 30's.

Apple crumble, and only 29 candles short.

Taking a break from rambling bar talk to learn me some astronomy...late at night....among the drunkards of Alberta.

Crystal drinks so fast the camera cant catch her....

Warming up with sweet, sweet kisses (and steaming hot pizza on its way!) after a rowdy night out.

Before we headed home we took a little tour of the area, stopping at a nice shale outcrop along the road. I, of course, decided to go play with the rocks.

Playing.

Co-Pilot at attention.

Co-Pilot and Pilot. I think shw woke up about two hours later...just in time to stop for a muffin and a coffee. Curious timing, that.


We also saw, and hung out with for some time, a woodpecker that was quite in to this one tree no matter how much we disturbed it.

Views of PG

Winter Shorts

A healthy hodge-podge of recent events that have made it to our camera. Hiking has been sparse, but the sky and the snow has been incredible. Here are a few sultry snippits:

Taken from the roof of the school, the moon and its celestial neighbours put on a light show!

This was taken in December, as the waxing crescent moon was slowly being hidden by the cranbrook hill.

Sign of all signs. I think the ? should have been a !, but that is open to discussion by the vociferous grammar prone.

Sunset within the milky fog of a Prince George wintery afternoon.

Moustaches are for more than just good looks....its all about water conservation!

Us, during a hike to the Cranbrook Hill Greenway Trail this latest saturday afternoon.

A borrowed 'scope that made its way to the deck last night. Crescent venus appeared in the eyepiece beautfully!!

Pumpkins and Dressing

Here are some recent pics from the wet and wild PG of BC:

Crystal with her newly carved pumpkin. The guts, horribly, are in visual distance of the litle critter who was just disemboweled. Below, the scene gets worse....dont let the happy face of the pumpkin get you thinking it was happy to see its innards spread out around it like that!!

And then....after ingesting enough pumpkin seeds...

Say it....your proud. I know. I worked in this highly comfortable outfit (gym class and all), getting more laughs that I intended. I think most thought I looked....um....how did they put it..........like the ugliest woman they had ever seen. I took it as a compliment.

Below are random group pics from our latest "mystery pizza" affair. This party took us through nine pizzas!! The fuzzy bit on the first pic is from condensation on the camera lens...oops.

Today is the day....

LHC at CERN is a go for Wednesday...naysayers beware, for proof of your err is coming. Wait for it....wait for it.... oops, still here.

Kudos, you fearless, authentic academic minds. Kudos, you inventive and questioning scientists. Kudos, to everyone involved and to the ideas and understanding to come.

Kudos.

Southern BC - Hiking the dream(s)

As the beating heart of summer ticked on, we set out for the southern climes of BC where the craggy peaks reach the sky and the sun tickles your skin. Camping our way south and then west, we left PG and hit the mountains....

___________________

Our first "real" stop was in Nakusp - camping, swimming, fine pizza dinner with a fine german pint, hot springs and an evening under the starry sky...

Ferry ride linking Nakusp (et al.) to the rest of the province...well, linking them quicker than older land routes. Free... :)

Stopping along the side of the road to pump up the boat that would take us across the lake (Summit Lake) to a mountain range on the far side. Once we crossed, stashed the boat in the bushes and made the delicate climb up the bouldered slope, we were stymied by time and the cliffs...but, a glorious hike and a peaceful paddle on a hot, steamy summer afternoon!






After our boat ride, our scramble up a ridge and a beautiful drive we landed in New Denver, and ... possibly the biggest chess board I have ever seen. Here we took a small cafe break, refuelled ourselves and breezed our way south towards Nelson...