CaptainOrange

BTW, when I say "Day 2," I'm not counting our first travel day. Deal with it, or do some mental math. On-the-fly. Your choice. Thought I should say something. Day TWO  begins with another neighbourhood walk. This time through Historic Edgefield. It's a pretty amazing place. Large yards, grand pillars and chimneys everywhere. We tried to go to the highly rated Sky Blue Cafe but, on a Sunday morning with 20 churches within a 5 block radius  (I'm not joking), people were bursting out the doors, the wait list was huge and I couldn't even find an employee to talk to.  I was disappointed. Then, a botched google search for "pancakes" lead me to Bagel Face Bakery . I was worried as Wendy and I approached the door. It looked like, possibly, an old laundromat had been converted to a dining room, or something. Walking in, I could hear a groovy bass-line that I recognized. A good sign... Bizarre Bagel Face Bakery Mascotts Inside, 20kg bags of...

When will disaster strike? Okay, so the whole reason I was able to come on this trip with Wendy was because of the horrible flight problems that we had with Delta when we travelled to San Francisco, last winter . With serious arm twisting, Delta conceded to give us several travel vouchers each and with even more arm twisting, were convinced to allow them all to be used on the same future trip. Wendy, on the other hand, is being paid to fly to Nashville to present on Purposeful Professional Learning at the Learn Forward 2014 conference . On the whole, it should  be a pretty cheap vacation... for me ;) So, the flights? Surprisingly, no problems. Everything ran about on time and the airport was busy, but sane. There was a bit of confusion when, on the second flight, we weren't seated together. A kind woman who was on her own, offered to let me have the seat beside Wendy. After what happened with our San Francisco flights, this was definitely the most uneasy part of the trip ...

Wendy and I are leaving for Nashville today. I'll start posting about that in a few days. Today, just a little update for those of you who are either far flung or have been too busy to catch up since my last mountain trip. As a disclaimer, many of these pictures have already appeared on G+ or FB. We did a family photo shoot at a couple of locations on the river bank. There was some grumpiness and hard feelings (aging parents and teenage girls have some body issues, in case you were unaware), but mostly we had a great time. There were Halloween shenanigans... Wendy is a genius when it comes to Value Village shopping. Months ago she found me some great felt boots. They were the basis for one of my favourite costumes ever. Sure, you say... Mike as a pirate, how novel! Get over yourselves. Yes, I could have (and have in the past) whipped up a costume for free. However, this is a costume that required some effort. Boots - Felt VV find -- $5 Pants - Lululemon. I wear the...

Sunset Giving Me the Finger Dave and I managed to miss two years in a row of doing a mountain trip together, but schedules and luck finally co-ordinated. On September 3rd I jumped in the van and drove the 8hrs to Canmore, AB.  I love the time driving... exploring new music... stopping to take pictures on pure inspiration. If I had thought carefully, I probably would have planned to be near Drumheller for the sunset. I was just lucky, I guess. Horseshoe Canyon -- Sunset Knowing I was going to be in just before midnight, I never lingered long while taking pictures. There is no sense in making a long drive dangerous by being tired on the road. Dave and I were up mid morning and hit the road. We passed by Banff and Lake Louise and crossed into BC,  winding up at Yoho National Park.  We began our journey with some quick elevation gain following the Iceline Trail. Dave reckoned that doing the more difficult hike when we had lots of energy would be better...