CaptainOrange

Wendy had a conference in Calgary in early March and, as is my wont, I tagged along for a mini vacation. I took the opportunity to catch up with Dave ahead of Quest New Year.  He toured me around some of his favourite trees. Dave loves trees, so that doesn't narrow it down much, but in this case it meant Douglas Fir. They were majestic in a very classical sense. Broad, straight, and tall. Calgary has number of them along the banks of the winding Bow River. We talked about trees a lot during the visit, and at one point he told me of a tree that he had seen, where the North Saskatchewan River exits the Rock Mountains, known as  The Whirlpool Point Pine. This tree is thought to be one of the oldest trees in Canada. The actual age is not known with precision (the reasons are various and I'll avoid trying to sound like an authority), but 2000 years is a modest estimate. Dave dropped a pin on my map and told me, if I had a chance, to go walk around. He let me know that the locaiton ...

Artists rendering of our Christmas tree Christmas(ish) Letter I make the season difficult. In some ways it is made that way for me and in others, I bear total responsibility: Moving Dad twice in November was more than either of us bargained for. We moved him once from his apartment into my Uncle David's house. Then we abruptly moved him from there to a great place on the riverbank--with a brief couple of days staying at my place in between. I was glad to help out in his time of discord and need. Also, he took me out for veggie burgers basically all the time :) Three (onion) Rings for the Elven Kings... In a similar vein, Merlin came to stay with us for a couple of weeks at the end of November. Some things about the visit were difficult, but on the whole, I was glad to get to know him a lot better and I managed to use him as an excuse to play a bunch of games and buy myself some new clothes. Win/Win! Merlin is a bit older looking than last time I saw him Once we had the house to our...

Anwyn and I are back from getting this year's Christmas tree. It was hard to find the time to travel 2 hrs to St. Brieux and then back, given how trying the last month has been, but I'm glad I did. The Road about 2/3 of our trip was on a pretty good one lane highway. The remainder was a hodgepodge of gravel of varying widths. With the recent snow and ice, some of those parts were treacherous (icy, bumpy, narrow). The Rescue On one of the gravel bits, at a 'T' intersection, we found a pickup truck who missed the 'T' all the way off the road in the ditch at about a 30 degree inclination. I can't believe I neglected to take a picture. The occupant was fine and I was going to take him to a nearby farm and see if we could get some help. We decided to first try the tiny ratchet straps that he had in his glove box. Miraculously, they survived just long enough to drag him up and out of the ditch. One of them snapped just as he got back onto the road. Wildlife - Down...

Caves Were Promised! stovetop espresso (of course) brad brought the tiny camping espresso maker that we gave him more than 20 years ago. We have used it on various hikes including in Italy. Now, in Greece :) Attempted Breakfast We tried and failed to get breakfast in Stoupa. There was only one place open (VERY local) and there was only toast on offer. Could also have been a language barrier? We got coffee and set off on an exploratory hike at the beach. Shoreside cave we spent a bunch of time carefully climbing our way out through razor sharp rock formations to the entrance of a cave. It is too cold to swim in at this time of year (without wetsuits) so we had to settle for a few photos from the outside . I amused myself by utterly exhausting my arms and shredding my hands while carefully climbing the rock formations. Another Cave? After searching for over an hour, through even more dangerous rock than this morning, and based only on a single google maps post, we managed to find a beaut...

The Venetian Castle of Nafpaktos On the road toward Olympia, for a strangely low price of 2 euros, we were free to wander the outdoor portions of a 15th century castle. Sadly not allowed on the battlements, but very cool, nonetheless. Bananas good Bakery As we drove, I stopped on the road to try and get a picture of a hovering hawk at the seaside. Not an amazing picture, by any means...     Hawk of Good Fortune However, while stopped we checked out this nondescript shop along the roadside.     Bakery of the Gods It looks like nothing on the outside, but has every kind of greek baked good that you can imagine. The prices were also really reasonable. I'm not sure who they were selling all of this to in the middle of nowhere, but what a lucky find. Olympia!  We are staying at Hotel Pelops, a vintage hotel that feels like it is from the era of my grandmothers youth. Old, highly polished mahogany furniture with tiny wheels on the bottom, plates on the wall, ornate sh...

Getting out of Athens 10:30 Travelling light with no checked baggage has several drawbacks. Everything is carefully organized and it is a bit of a pain getting it back into place each time I use anything. I don't have everything I want with me. And the few things I have for clothing need to be washed several times during the trip. Honestly, I should have been okay with just washing clothes once, but it has been so cold (for Greece) that I've been wearing all of my long sleeve shirts and sweaters, so they get dirty and I don't want to wear shorts or a T-shirt. All this to say, we found a laundry mat and had coffee while we waited (twist my arm). I also too the opportunity to find the perfect photo opportunity to show you a standard street set up for Athens. I don't know if I mentioned the traffic in my last post, but it is bad. The streets can be incredibly narrow usually two cars wide, with a row of parked cars on one or both sides. Sometimes only wide enough for 1 vehi...