2008: Week 35

It's been a while since the last post! With a lack of internet access (I was forced to pay for an hour in Starbucks - but I didn't drink their coffee), and Blogger not talking to my hosting service for a while, suddenly 3 weeks have passed!

After finishing work on August 15th, Matt and I headed to Vancouver to visit his sister, see Radiohead, and then go camping with friends at Tofino, a beach town on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Then it was back to Calgary to pack up our stuff, because tomorrow we head off to Ottawa for the next step of our adventure.

Best of the (last 3) weeks
- The end of work for a while.
- Radiohead (despite the rain at an outdoor concert).
- Finally driving from Calgary to Vancouver and seeing the much-talked-about BC interior.
- The sunset seen from the ferry between Vancouver Island and the mainland.
- Beer on a sunny patio in White Rock.
- The long-awaited arrival of Ethan - congratulations!

Worst of the (last 3) weeks
- Camping in the rain.
- Packing up a wet tent.
- Packing up a tent in the rain when it's 6C! What happened to summer?
- Leaving friends in Calgary.

2008: Week 33 & 34

You'll have to wait just a little longer for an update - I'm on vacation and will be mostly offline until the end of the week. See you then!

2008: Week 30

Another week...another week. It was a routine week for the most part, with few stories to tell. Work is quiet, and the summer weather makes concentration difficult - who wants to be stuck in the lab when it's sunny?

The weekend was spent camping in Banff National Park. We stayed at Castle Mountain (my favourite campground) and managed 3 short hikes. Rather less than what we planned, but whatever... July is peak flower season and I saw some new species and some old favourites.

I also enjoyed seeing the effect of fire on the landscape, and comparing it to the rapid regeneration I've seen after bushfires in Australia. We spent time in 2 fire-ravaged areas, one burnt in 1993 (a controlled burn), and the second in 2003 (wildfire!). The area burnt 5 years ago is still a barren field of sticks - the only green comes from fireweed. In a few weeks the green will turn to bright pink as the fireweed comes into flower. The area burnt 15 years ago has regenerated a little more - there are now small pine trees around 1-2m tall starting to take over. Despite the slow recovery, fire is important to the alpine environment, allowing small leafy plants to flourish and provide food for many of the animals who live here.

Best of the week
- Going out for lunch - 3 days in a row!
- Hiking in July, peak wildflower season
- Looking forward to up-coming adventures (details soon!)

Worst of the week
- The poor health of a friend :(
- 4 years today

2008: Week 27

The first few days back in Canada were a calm change from my visit home. Tuesday was Canada Day, but I was tired, and Matt needed to work, so the only festivities for us were watching the fireworks from our balcony. On Wednesday I finally returned to work, and of course nothing had changed. Summer at the University is very quiet - I think about half my colleagues are on vacation. Even my boss has disappeared for a month!

On Thursday afternoon I left early, and we headed out of Calgary to Waterton Lakes National Park for the weekend. Waterton is at the very southern corner of Alberta, and the park is continuous with Glacier National Park in Montana and Akamina-Kishinena Provincial Park in British Columbia. The weather was a little odd - mostly sunny, but we did experience a brief (and intense) storm which knocked the tent around quite a lot!

Other highlights of the weekend were spotting a grizzly bear, a moose, and plenty of squirrels, chipmunks and deer. The wildflowers were at their peak, so I took lots of pictures, and managed to spot several species I'd never seen before. And finally, on our way home we visited the buffalo paddock, a rather bizarre part of the park where a herd of "wild" bison live in a large fenced-off area. We were able to get up quite close (staying in the car of course!).

Best of the week
- Camping and exploring Waterton Lakes National Park
- Discovering that the tent is much more weather-proof than I thought!
- Coming home to Matt.

Worst of the week
- Back to reality at work.
- Discovering the dog got into my room (and in the garbage) while we were camping.

Weekend pictures ... finallly!

Waiting for a campsite

Mt Rundle by full moon

Cascade Mountain

2008: Week 20

Busy, busy, busy is the best the description for the last week. On Tuesday I flew to Seattle to meet with some collaborators at the Institute for Systems Biology, and to attend a NW user-group meeting for our high throughput microscope. Unfortunately, work has been so crazy that I left with an un-started power point presentation for the talk I was scheduled to give on Thursday. I'm usually not that much of a procrastinator, but this time I was up VERY late the night before putting together my slides. Aaaggghhhh!!!

I flew back to Calgary on Thursday night so that we could get away early on Friday for our first camping trip of the season. After a few dramas with closed campsites, and very long check-in lines we finally had our spot and set up the tent. The rest of the weekend was rather laid-back, with only one hike, on an easy trail. At the top of the trail was an additional loop trail through a canyon, which we decided to try. After a fairly scary walk along the snow-covered creek-side track we came to a bridge, crossed over, and saw ... a bear! Well, Matt saw a bear (he was ahead of me), and we immediately turned around and clambered back over the ice. So there's no photo, but we made it home without an unpleasant incident.

Blogger is having trouble posting photos right now, so I'll post some weekend pictures tomorrow.

Best of the week
- Catching up with giant tropical penguin for coffee and a Gravity Pope fix.
- Getting away from Calgary for a weekend in Banff National Park.
- A long weekend! Happy Birthday Queen Victoria!

Worst of the week
- A magical mystery bus tour of Seattle trying to find a power adapter for my computer (note to self: check all computer equipment before leaving home). Eventually I managed to find the Apple store.
- Busy, busy, busy: stress, stress, stress.

New photos

Lake Minnewanka, originally uploaded by thegreendragonfly.

I've posted some new photos from 2 recent trips to Flickr. Firstly our short visit to Ottawa and Ithaca at the end of May, and a camping trip last weekend to Tunnel Mountain.

Summer Camping

Our campsite, originally uploaded by thegreendragonfly.

Last weekend was the Victoria Day long weekend here in Canada, which is the "official" start of summer. It's also the weekend where most of the campgrounds in Banff National Park open for the season. We found out on Friday morning that our Saturday French class was canceled for the long weekend, so we both left work early, ran around like crazy people for a few hours, and then headed up to the mountains to camp.

We had a wonderful weekend at the Two Jack campground just outside Banff, even though it was cold and wet most of the weekend. Having somehow gained a reputation for being a princess when it comes to camping, I managed to prove myself after surviving freezing temperatures (it actually snowed the last night), intermittant rain, and plenty of mud.

Highlights of the weekend included watching a huge bird scoop a trout out of a lake and eat it, climbing the base of Cascade Mountain to get a view of Lake Minnewanka, lots of wildlife, and the Ottawa Senators beating Buffalo on Saturday to secure their spot in the Stanley Cup Final.

Pictures are posted on Flickr.