Me again.

It seems I'm the only one blogging lately... I guess I'm the only one that cares about our faithful readers =)

I should really be in bed but I decided to post some pictures instead because everyone has been asking about them. Now that we have a somewhat fast and stable internet connection (back to civilization =) there should be some significant enhancements coming to the blog.

We still lack an editor to make the images small enough to post directly to the site so I'm just going to give a brief description and then the link so you can choose to download them or not:

1) The view from the plane window, leaving Toronto
2) The James Joyce Pub - where we had our first dinner in Calgary
3) The Saddledome! - due to a rain storm this was a drive-by shooting
4) A shot of downtown Calgary - my favourite picture so far
5) The view from the top of Tunnel Mountain in Banff - the mountain we climbed... notice the much larger mountains in the distance =)
6) there is no #6
7) Lake Louise - our 3rd attempt at a picture. 1st was a picture of dark, 2nd was a picture of blizzard, 3rd time's a charm!

ok, I really have to go now... more pictures to follow.

Toodles.

Jasper got cancelled: flipped over tour bus and a tour bus blocking both lanes. Here's the story:

Roll-Over

About half way to Jasper on the icefield parkway (right before Saskatchewan Crossing) we came upon a full-sized-van on it's side in the ditch. We didn't see the actual accident but we were the first ones on the scene. Us and a couple who were behind us sent word to the warden station and pulled the scared Japanese tourists out of the van. Luckily no one was hurt and another van in the same tour came along shortly after and took the passengers along to the next service station/restaurant.

Sideways Bus

About 30 minutes past the roll-over we came to a part of the highway known as "The Big Bend" where a full-sized tour bus (greyhound style) had slid sideways across the road and was blocking both lanes. We decided to wait for a little bit at the rest area at the bottom of the bend to see if anything would happen. After a half hour of waiting a warden showed up and told eeryone waiting that it would likely be another 3 hours before the road was passable.

Needless to say an executive decision was made to turn back to a guaranteed warm bed at Lake Louise and a "do nothing day" was declared. A little disappointing but such is life.

Dinner

Yo took it upon himself to make reservations for "The Dining Car" restaurant in Lake Louise. The restaurant was a 1925 restored C.P.R. dining car and the "special dining car" was a 1906 executive car used by the 3rd president of the railway when he travelled - it had room for himself, his chef, valet and secretary. IT was interesting and we were encouraged to explore the restaurant during the meal.

Because it was off-season we had the whole place to ourselves and so spent a lot of the time chatting with the waitress and the cook. Yo Adrian had caribou and Chief and I had the beef tenderloin. The food was excellent. I will be returning to this restaurant next time I'm in the area!

There's more but it's late and I'm tired and I have a long day of hiking through Vancouver tomorrow.... I'll update later... maybe in the morning.

Toodles.

It's me again. I'm in Lake Louise

Update:

1) views are still amazing
2) no gondola ride, too cloudy/cold/snowy to see the mountain - maybe one in Jasper
3) hot springs is a good thing - I like having snow on my head and my body in hot water
4) still no sasquatch - getting worried - although we did see some mountain goats and some caribou up close

We're leaving for the Columbioa ice fields (glacier) soon (as soon an Janey becomes conscious) and then will continue on our way to Jasper this afternoon.

We decided to go and see what Lake Louise looks like at night last night - guess what? it looks like dark! at night. We couldn't see a darn thing but that didn't stop us from taking pictures =)

Anyways, on our way out of town this morning we're going to go back up to the lake and take the token tourist shots - now that we can see it.

I'm in the mountains now.

1) the views are amazing
2) gondola ride comes tomorrow after we climb the darn mountian =)
3) hot springs is right after the gondola ride - I'm going to need it after climbing a mountian
4) saw one really hairy guy this afternoon but so far no sasquatch... maybe they live farther north

I think cheescake and pork jerky for breakfast came back to haunt me... but we managed to hike a smaller mountain today and do some shopping so it wasn't that bad =)

The smaller mountain was practice for the hike tomorrow (I just want to state for the record that I think we're a little loony to climb the mountain but I'm outnumbered and tomorrow about 11am I'll be in the middle of nowhere climbing the biggest mountain I've ever seen.)

Internet time running out again, toodles.

Off we go into the mountains.

I have very simple expectations of this next leg of our trip:
1) amazing views
2) gondola ride
3) hot springs
4) sasquatch

I'll keep everyone posted on our progress.

Cheesecake and pork jerky for breakfast is good! =)

Gladys you're amazing =)

Thanks to Miss Yam, all the error statements on the site has been removed, plus we now have a guestbook where you can leave us messages =)

Anyhow, I gotta get moving, we're leaving for Banff in about 5 minutes...

Cousin Eddie is a cat. Pretty old cat, but a cat nonetheless.

Oh, and if you're wondering about Yo Adrian, he's still around, but he's been experiencing an extreme case of writer's block. Though what he's been lacking in writing, he's certainly making up by taking pictures. Speaking of which, I think the boys will be figuring out how to get them up soon... I'm just hoping I get to veto which pics they show...

After being here in Western Canada for three days, I finally got to see a glimpse of the Rockies. We were at the Canada Olympic Place (where they held the ski jump, bobsleigh, and luge events during the 1988 Calgary Olympics) riding up the lift to the top of the hill when I looked to my right, and like a painting painted into the sky, the mighty stretch of Rockies appeared. The sight was breathtaking, absolutely gorgeous. I couldn't help remembering that song His Wondrous Works. God is an amazing artist, the Almighty Creator. I was awestruck for quite a long time. I've seen tons of pictures of the Rockies, but seeing it with my own eyes, without any window panes in between, was beautiful. So as much as we were disappointed that the summer bobsleigh run was closed, and the winter bobsleigh run wasn't opened yet, the view from the top of the hill and from the top of the ski jump ramp was spectacular.

Then we went to the zoo =) I haven't been to a zoo in a long time, so it was quite amusing. And the really silly thing is that the air is so clean and crisp in Calgary, when we got to the zoo and smelt the animals, our senses recalled a flood of Waterloo memories! hahah!!! =) Oh, and there was a rather interesting incident with the elephants that I'd rather not post. Email me if you really want to know what we saw.

After the zoo, we struggled through Calgary rush hour (yes, that does actually exist), picked up Miriam, and headed to The Keg for a feast of steak. Well, I ordered the Filet Mignon, Ryan got the New York Peppercorn, Yo Adrian a tuna steak, and Miriam chicken fajitas, so only 2 of the 4 of us got red meat. During dinner, we were talking about cheesecake, so Miriam took us to The Cheesake Cafe for dessert. Needless to say, we were stuffed and satisfied...with lots of cheesecake in doggy bags. Yummy =)

The amusing thing about dinner was that Ryan, Adrian, and I became "VIP". Since Miriam works at The Keg, they had to ring up our bill differently, to account for her employee discount. Well, in the process, they decided to deem the rest of us "VIP" and gave us a special rate too =) And if you want proof, I still have the receipt, it actually says "VIP" on it!

Ok, I think that's enough for now. I still have a headache, I'm coughing, and my nose won't stop running. And we're heading to Banff in the morning. Drugs are bad, but I might make this one exception. I want to be alert and awake for the Rockies tomorrow. So off to bed I go... scary thought that I'm sleeping before many of you in Waterloo sleep, though I'm in a time zone 2 hours behind... 12:35am my time, 2:35am your time...

Good night.

She did too!

Today was the wrap-up of our time in downtown Calgary, from here on in we'll be going to the attractions around the city. I've walked through downtown many times and feel I know the place better than most. My feet hurt.

This morning's sights included Banker's Hall, Saddledome, Eau Clair Market, all the significant financial buildings (we're accountants, we can help it) and the Calgary Tower.

After a quick lunch we piled all of our stuff in the car and drove out to Aunt Mary & Uncle Rob's house (that's where this entry is coming from) and got all settled in here. Enough of hostel life for a little while... it was fairly comfortable and all but there's a lot to be said for having your room and not having to pay to use the internet.

Uncle Rob is making us his Greek marinated chicken and it smells soooo good. After dinner we plan to make a quick stop at the local mall just to see what we can see and to see if there's anything there we can't live without. =)

I got to meet my cousin Eddie at long last.... he looks pretty good for his age.

Must go, tummy-monster needs food.

I did NOT get PROBED... I prefer to think of it as searched... all because of my laptop... oh well, staying connected is well worth the hassle!! If you really care to know what happened, email me, and perhaps I'll post the story at a later date... it really wasn't that big of a deal, just a big annoyance, that's all...

Today was another day of firsts. I went to South Calgary Chinese Evangelical Free Church for the first time, met Josiah's mom (I've met Miriam before, as many of you have as well), and they took me to Dim Sum in Calgary's Chinatown (wasn't bad either!), grocery shopping in both a chinese grocery store (MSG cookies all the way!!!) and Safeway, and Auntie Cheryl and I went shopping at the nearby mall. But I think the highlight of the day was having Auntie and Miriam tell me all about Jo as a kid, PLUS show me pictures =) I can tell you, my tummy was hurting from laughing so hard for a long time afterwards!

I like vacation. To be more specific, I like vacationing with Ryan and Yo Adrian. We don't really make definate plans, we kind of get around to doing things and seeing things, and everything functions at a nice and easy pace. We also get lots of time to eat and sleep! I suppose in a way you can call it "eatting across the country" (Ryan's term) and "sleeping across the country" (referring to my dozing habits...reminiscent of school...)

We got a chinook today. I like chinooks =)

Calgary is a strange city and I'm still trying to put my finger on what's different about it. It's like a small scale Toronto populated by small town folks. The people are really friendly, the city is very spread out, and I'm hungry now... Yo Adrian and I spent all day hiking through downtown and our feet are about to fall off... If Janey would just get back from where ever she wandered off too....

That reminds me... Janey got probed going through airport security in Toronto... somehow she forgot to mention that in her entry.. hmm....

Internet time about to expire, must go.

Banh