Sept 16 to 18 - LONDON and things British

Well, we made it to London, David flying in from Calgary, and Susan from nothern England. As it turned out our arrival times were pretty close, and we ran into each other near our hotel (Park Plaza Riverbank hotel)on the Albert Embankment in early afternoon. If you're familiar with Heathrow Airport, you'll understand why David felt that he had walked to London by the time he reached the 'Underground' at Heathrow to take into the city. Susan took a train from Corbridge to London, then a brief subway ride. The hotel was very nice and modern; full 'english' breakfast; conveniently located to many points of interest just across the Thames. Apart from David being up for what turned out to be 36 hours, after dropping bags off, we headed to the BMO offices to say hi and goodbye to colleagues that David worked with over the years -- it was a brief but very nice visit with June Diprose, Gary Olivier and Trevor Bailey. We walked along the Victoria Embankment side of the Thames for most of the way back (about a 4 mile walk).

Next day, following a full 'english breakfast', Susan and I went over to the London Eye (gigantic ferris wheel) and went for a ride --- it was a great day with clear sky so we could see in all directions. Refer to picture attached. In the afternoon, we met with Susan's cousin, Rosemary and husband Ron >> had a nice visit in the afternoon over coffee/tea. We then headed by underground over to Leciester Square, then walked over to Covent Garden market place to meet with Ruth (Susan's cousin) and husband Rob -- went to 'China Town' area for a great meal along with equally great conversation. It was a great visit. We then walked back to the hotel.

Day 3 saw us meet up with David's cousin Les and wife Pat. They planned a cruise up the Thames as far as Kew, after a drink and sustinence, we wondered around Kew Gardens to see and experience all kinds of botany, including a walking tour on a platform among the tree tops. It was a terrific day, and provided a wonderful opportunity to catch up.

Aug 31 - Sept 16 -- Ireland, Scotland & England

Susan and Sheila (cousin)I spent 3 nights in Ireland prior to going over to Scotland. Susan's first time in Ireland. Beautiful country and spent time with Tommy Brennan--a crazy Irishman who taught one year in Canada with Susan. He showed us the countryside and we had a great time in his small village with his local friends. Afterward, we went on to Glasgow and then Edinburgh. Susan had been in Scotland before with David when Chris was going to school in Edinburgh. Really enjoyed my second visit. The scottish people are so friendly and the food was good this time (somehow a noteable contrast to our first visit). We headed south to Northern England and did a walking tour along Hadrian's Wall--built 2000 years ago by the Roman Empire. We stayed at 3 different B & Bs. Luggage was moved from place to place by taxi. We walked 80 km and the vistas were amazing. Being use to hiking in the Rocky Mountains this was a "walk in the park" but we had a wonderful time. At night we enjoyed the pubs and meeting the locals. We call this the Cousin Trek. Two years ago four of us (all cousins) went to Spain. Next stop hopefully will be Italy.

August 31 2010 - Ireland, Scotland and England

Susan and cousin Sheila had a great visit to Dublin, Ireland and area, followed by a visit to a teacher friend (Tommy) in Cardiffstown, Kilmesssan, County Meath, Hill of Tara where they were introduced to many historical sights going back some 3000+ years; of course there were also Irish pubs! Then to Glasgow and a couple of days hiking on the West Highland Trail, followed by a train trip to Edinburgh (her second visit to Edinburgh) with some local sight seeing and hiking ("Arthur's Seat" was a nice walk/climb in Edinburgh.

The next leg of the holiday was to Brampton, England by train to begin the hiking and self-guided tour of Hadrian's Wall ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian%27s_Wall ) where she is enjoying the hiking, fabulous B&B facilities in Haltwhistle, and general sites (including pubs!!!). This trip continues through the 15th of Sept.

Sept 16, Susan and David meet up in London. Hopefully we'll be able to do some blog updates during the course of our travels.

August - visitors and travels

A brief update -- we had our first official visitors and overnighters since moving to Canmore. David's cousin Violet, and husband Larry, came to visit for a few days on their way back to Ontario from a houseboat vacation in BC. It was great to spend time with them and travel around to see some of the highlights of our 'backyard'. We're also hiking, but didn't do so last week as we had Susan's cousin Gayle Singer visiting from Ottawa.

Susan and Gayle took 2 bicycles and first did the Goat Creek Trail beginning just off of the Smith Dorian Road and following the creek into Banff (about 20 km), then took the bike trail back to Canmore that parallels the highway -- total trip about 45km. Their next adventure was when they headed down to Waterton National Park to do some bicycling and hiking. They were joined by cousin Sheila McHugh from Lethbridge, and hiked the 15 km from Waterton south to the end of the lake, ending up in the United States; from there they took a boat back north on the lake. Susan bought and carried bear spray while on the hike --- the bears must have known because they didn't show up during the hike, and everyone returned safely. In fact, they saw very few animals.

During Susan's time away, David finally got out his bicycle and used it to get to and from town to pick up essentials such as a netbook and wireless router!!! We're now more fully connected than before with new ways to 'waste time'. Also went into the Bank of Montreal branch on a few occasions --- yes, I've spent more time in the branch here during the last 2 months than I likely did during our whole time in Montreal and Toronto -- a very nice and welcoming branch; we know some of the staff by name and they recognize us -- really nice feature of a small town. Thursdays continues to be the market at the civic centre, and fresh fruit is definitely the order of the day. Last Sunday David did a motorcycle ride (the Golden Triangle) with the Chinook Wings from Calgary -- met them at Dead Man Flats, rode to west to Castle Mountain Junction, then to Golden (B.C.), south to Radium for lunch at the Radium Resort Springs Course, then north up hwy 93, and west on the Trans-Canada to home. A few animals along the way -- Golden Eagles, deer, mountain sheep. A very pleasant day with good travelling companions. Wednesday evening was a ride into Cochrane to meet up with some other riders and our friend Doug Kilborn -- went south to Turner Valley --- nice road with some curves (definitely the roads tend to go straight out here compared to those in eastern Canada -- curves and twisties are always a gift when on a motorcycle.

Currently, we're getting ready for Susan's trip to Ireland/Scotland/England at the end of the month - packing and repacking. David will join her in London for 3 days, then on to Paris for 4 days, and then to eastern Europe for an 18 day tour out of Vienna. Hope we can do some blog updates while on route, but we'll wait and see on that count. Very smokey here in the valley today due to the forest fires in B.C. -- a strong wind from the N.W. -- basically staying inside today. Hopefully that will clear by tomorrow and we can go back to enjoying the outdoors and related activities.

Aug 4, 2010 - Hike to Rummel Lake plus other info

East off of the Smith Dorrien / Spray Trail, the trail head is 38 km S of Canmore and the hike has a vertical of 375M (1230 ft) with a return distance of approx 8.6km (9:15 start; finished at 3:00). This was a hike with the Canmore Meanderthol group. This day hike for both of us meant meeting some people for the first time, and reacquainting with others that we met on a previous hike. In Canmore, it seems that most people have come here from elsewhere, so meeting people is relatively easy and certainly easier than we thought it would be. The hiking group affords great opportunity to talk with people during the trek, and changing position during the hike means the opportunity to talk with someone else. Conversations tend to cover a wide variety of topics, and may include anywhere from 2 to 4 people depending on the subject and physical effort of the hike. Today was of moderate temperature with good weather; a cool wind at the lake meant putting on a coat while there); this was a relatively gentle climb and the hike was very pleasant. Two very nice views; one being partway up, with a view of Spray Lakes and the valley (see pic), and the other at Rummel Lake (see pic). While we had the opportunity to hike further up to the ridge to a couple more smaller lakes, that would have added another 2 or so hours to the day, so we decided that the Lake would be our turnaround point, as it was for about 13 others that were on our hike. We've signed up for next week to hike to C Level mineshaft entrance located on the eastern lower slopes of Cascade Mountain and above the abandoned town of Bankhead (near Lake Minnewanka).

Larry and Violet (David's cousin -- of which he has but very few) will be visiting this weekend from Ontario (they'll be travelling from the interior of BC) -- our 'first official' visitors. Looking forward to sharing our new home with them.

We're in the process of switching our licenses/car registration over to Alberta. It strikes me strange that a utility bill can be used to satisfy the proof of residency requirement in order to obtain a driver's license -- all rules don't need to make complete sense, but they support a base of thinking that we needed to understand to achieve our end goals!!! New tires going on the motorcycle to complete certification. Hope to have our vehicles registration, licenses and Alberta Health Care applications taken care of tomorrow morning -- more 'off of the to do list'.

That's it for now.

July 17-24 2010 - Montana, Wyoming (Yellowstone), Idaho, BC

Susan decided to organize our new home further and get to know Canmore and some of its people further. I was to be off on this mortorcycle trip - a little vacation for 10 days. This was a GWTA- Gold Rush trip (my motorcycle group) but I was solo for the first two day. On the Saturday, headed down to Lethbridge to visit with 'cousin' Ray, then off to Billings, Montana until the Friday. Took the Highwood Pass and the 'Cowboy Trail' (hwy 22) -- cool but sunny to start, with gophers sunning themselves in the middle of the road -- they seem pretty astute, and skittered off of the road as I approached each one. Montana - talk about big sky -- seems at times that you can see forever. Chose to take secondary roads as I thought they would be quieter-- I was right as sometimes I didn't see another vehicle for 20 minutes, and maybe only 4 or 5 vehicles in a couple of hours. Stopped to watch a few antelope cross the road -- a nice distraction. The scenery changes dramatically from time to time, and some of the valleys seem to appear out of nowhere presenting a little oasis of trees, greenery and water in what is otherwise some dry, flat and brownish territory. Almost forgot to get gas at one point as I was looking at a thunderstorm that I paralleled for a few hours -- missed it but for a few large rain drops. Billings, Montana is in the lower flats as I dropped down from the plateau that seems to form much of Montana; arrived on schedule and met up with a few friends from Ontario.

Monday was a ride sponsored by Bear Tooth Harley to Red Lodge and Rock Creek Lookout -- a trip I would repeat at the end of the week. On the Wednesday my friend Doug arrived from Calgary, staying at the KOA campground (the KOA in Billings is the first one ever established and from which grew KOA across North America). Thursday took a trip to Ponty's Monument (part of a geographic feature associated with Clark's travels (of Lewis and Clark fame). The large rock sandstone pillar also has Clark's signature and date (1806) carved into it. Enjoyed the Lewis and Clark state museum and its offerings.

Following the many events at GWTA Gold Rush, on Friday July 23 Doug and I headed off to Cody, Wyoming by way of Bear Tooth Pass (11,000 ft), Cooke City MT, Chief Joseph Hwy (10,000 ft pass). Very strong winds at the top of BT Pass, and cold dry air. Fantastic views. Coming into (and out of) Cooke City we came across a VERY LARGE bull buffalo meandering down the highway -- the road was his as far as we were concerned, and very cautiously made our way past him (as for size, think if a very large horse but with twice the mass!!!).

Wyoming is very western/cowboy like, and everything is Buffalo Bill 'something'!!! Great gunfight reenactment just off of main street. The bars look like they're in the old west. Recycling is not a big feature in Montana/Wyoming -- a remote area with lots of space, so everything goes to landfill (beer bottles in the bar are just tossed into a big bin --- so they break into small pieces and then get efficiently carted off to the landfill!!).

Yellowstone National Park on Sat July 24. We were expecting very high volume traffic, but such was not the case. A fantastic geological area. A volcanic crater approx. 40 miles across, with lakes, valleys, and many geysers. Saw Old Faithful and other noteworthy areas in the park -- this will be a place for Susan and I to go to and explore further for a week or so. Just an amazing mix of geography throughout the park -- we'll try off-season maybe next year. Stayed in Driggs, ID for the night. Next day off to Columbia Falls (near Whitefish, MT) for overnight, then the next day north to Fernie, BC, the Crowsnest Pass, Cowboy Trail north to Longview, AB, and the Highwood Pass again to arrive back in Canmore in late afternoon on Monday July 26. Great trip. Enjoyed Doug's company for the return portion. Approx. 4,400 km.

July 28, 2020 - Paget Lookout and Sherbrook Lake

Wednesday is our hiking day (at least we are getting into some routine), and we're with a group called the 'meander'thalls) -- nice to be in a group and get to meet more people. Many are like us, from elsewhere, so meeting people is easy. We can choose the type of hike (this was a 'B' class (what we're best suited to currently) -- a nice easy pace -- 10.4km in length, and about 525 metres (1,722 ft) of vertical ascent in Yoho National Park. The reward of the hike up is always the view, and the lookout did not disappoint. On the way down, we took a 4km hike to Sherbrook Lake to enjoy the colour and scenery. Managed to keep ahead of a brief thunderstorm that hit just after we finished the hike.