Canmore today WOW

Dog sledding is the best sport ever! We started the day down at the A&W parking lot in Canmore where the office of the  Snowy Owl dog sled company is located. A very professional outfit. They are very concerned with the health and happiness of their dogs, they take nothing for granted and go out of their way to make sure every one is happy but the dogs come first, always. They are very concerned that no one ever mistakes them for that gang of criminals that murdered all of their dogs in Whistler. In a comfortable Mercedes van we drove for half an hour up the mountain roads to the mustering place beside the upper Spray lakes.  The dogs were all harnessed up and waiting. The dogs love a good scratch, a kiss and cuddle and I tried to make friends with my team before we set out. From the looks they gave me I think they were doubtful of my abilities, but no more so than I was. A deafening cacophany arose as the dogs howled and barked and announced that was enough talking, lets get on with it already.
 After a pretty lengthy orientation the drivers were selected and we went out in groups of 3 teams. An instuctor on the lead team and 2 guest drivers each with our teams of six dogs spaced to a count of 20 behind. It is really hard to count to twenty when your dogs are pulling like crazy and you are putting everything you have onto the brakes and your heart is pounding. Fortunately we didn't have any turns or hills for the first 1/2 mile. After that I really earned my privileged position as musher. Bryan decided to ride, he wasn't really dressed for it as he only had jeans on and didn't want his legs to get cold. I think he was quite comfortable to be a passenger. I had no idea how much work there was to being a musher. And, how much strength it takes. Going up the hills I got off and pushed and ran with them a few times, ocassionally I cheated and skate boarded. That always got me a look from Cashew, my left lead. She was very doubtful of my abilities right from the start and rightly so. She would turn and look at me and her look said "lazy cow, put your back into it"..
I nearly dumped us into a creek as we tore over a bridge and the runners slipped out of the ruts. Fortunately, it was either one of my gorgeous, strong wheel dogs or myself saved us, I don't know which but I doubt that it was me. Rounding the corners I was leaning right and left, as I concentrated on driving the team through the trees. My knees were bent for an hour. I didn't know that I was cramped into a squat position until we peeled around a corner, then shot between two boulders and out onto the lake and I stood up straight relaxed and took a deep breath.
I had remembered to breathe.

 

this week in my world

Its been a strange week. Monday started out with a shock of cold and since we had only been back from the islands both near and far for a week we just couldn't believe that -27 degrees really could be that cold until we stepped outside.
I toyed with the idea of throwing a glass of water into the air to entertain you dear reader but then I thought that it would be stupid to get dressed up to go out side and fog up the camera for a cheap trick. That is really what we do up here for laughs in the winter. For some reason we lose all memory of how cold winter is and how to drive in it until it slaps us in the face a year later.
We think it is a really hoot to dress up in parkas and touques and throw water into the air and watch it turn to fog as it hits the air. More sane people in other parts of the world where the weather is warmer, splash each other with water in the pool or at the beach and toss their sun bleached hair and clink the ice cubes in their mai tais.
I hit the bricks running this week, my job is to take pictures of and do appraisals of properties and send them off into cyberspace from whence they came and from whence they return to me as listings and then "him indoors" work begins. So not only did I have to find coordinating winter clothes to do the job but I have to give my brain a jumpstart on winter driving.
I spend a lot of time coordinating my wardrobe and footwear and doing my hair and my make-up just in case the EMS people have to pry me from a wreck in the ditch. Our highways are always a skating rink in winter and no end of wingeing by the populace has improved the management of snow removal. So the Deerfoot is always in a state of closure or down to one lane. And of course I couldn't be caught out without my make up and in workout clothes.
By Tuesday I was sick of winter and having had a full 24 hours of it I thought it was time for a yoga class. I love my yoga classes because they are the ony place that I can really slow down and be present. I give lip service to meditating on a regular basis but the reality is I am like a squirrel in a cage most of the time and have to be sedated in order to slow down. I imherited this condition from my mother. We once made a Christmas dinner for 17 people which took 8 hours to prepare and my mother jumped up and whisked everyone's plate and away and had the dishwasher running within 17 minutes of sitting down. 
Anyway Wednesday came around and I fell into complete inertia and it took me all day to do one hour's work. So I snoozed.
Around 3 in the morning HIDs tapped me on the shoulder and said, do I have spots? I said no and went back to sleep. I hadn't actully looked but my brain was busy with a dream and I incorporated that question in a the dream.
At 5:30 he tapped me again and said can you look? OMG I said you are covered in spots, and lumps and you are hot. Go take an antihistamine. And I rolled over. 5:30 is damned early. We happen to have both Benelyn and Benedryl in the cupboard, He took the cold med not the antihistamine.  At 8:00 am we were up and he staggered to the kitchen where I got a good look at him in the light,.
Gasp. I said to him you have to go to the doc's right away. What have you been doing? What could you be allergic to? It took about an hour for my brain to process it and remember that he had been on an antibiotic for an ear and chest infection that he brought back from Hawaii. Poor bastard, he was just miserable. His face was developing lumps and I was afraid he would go into anaphylatic shock and his throat would close.
 Long/short, he got into a walk-in clinic and is now on a powerful antihistamine and is dosing. Poor guy can hardly keep his eyes open. Spots and lumps are diminishing. But never again can he take that kind of antibiotic.
I cruised Facebook. I have only been on that a few times. I hate social media. But, I noticed Ashley's Etsy page. You must check it out... Pottery Ashley Morrow... I hope this works out for her as she is currently unemployed and she will have to sell her stuff for several thousand dollars each in order to support herself.

Okay, so you asked for pictures....

There goes Bryan, trotting off for his morning walk along the beach. Not to shabby eh? Easy to take a stroll at 72F degrees in the morning. Not so easy to get up and get dressed and start the car and drive through -15 C or so to get the the gym.

The sand is very deep here, unfortunately I didn't discover until the last few days that the snorkeling was exceptional on our very own beach and I didn't have to drive anywhere. There were coral mounds around which the fish would collect and hide. Any disturbance on the sea floor would bring them out to feed on the microscopic organisms that floated out. What a feast for them and for my eyes. All I had to do was float.

I loved the drift wood that washed up. There were plenty of little wee sticks but not many large logs, I guess being out in the middle of the Pacific ocean not many sources for trees. Those that washed up high enough got a really neat silver sheen as they polished smooth.

We  found a beach which was off the beaten track. and I mean beaten track, we have never seen a road so rough, not even in Fiji. Pot holes as big as a man hole and nearly as deep. Real tires eaters. This beach was on the lee side and so no rough water,. People were camped and some were set up with several tents and permanent looking surf fishing rods right under the No Camping sign.

this is part of the rough road.

practicing with my new Nikon 9100 on the macro ...this is sand.

There and back in a day

It does strange things to your body and head when you get up in the morning and fly somewhere and come home and put your head on your own pillow.
We arrived in Comox at 10 am and were greated by Louise who graciously volunteered to pick us up at the airport along with the miriad of other things she had to do. Today was the day of Mike's Memorial.
Her whole family was there helping, along with her 5 grand children and Mike's son and daughter from France.
The memorial was lovely, people spoke of the Mike they knew, and since he had so many facets to his life, everyone's story was just a little different.
Jenny said that as a child she was sure he was 100 years old for all the things he crammed into his short 70 years.
He was in the Israeli army, he caught cobras in the desert for venom, he owned a pub in Germany and one in Canada as well as a hotel in Liberia. He was a record producer, a farm hand, a cab driver, a realtor, an importer/exporter....and the list goes and on and on.
Tears were shed and old acquaintences were renewed and I think Mike would have liked that most of all.

what a day

Today we did nothing but lie on the beach. Tomorrow we must go home, we are both ready to leave as we as relaxed as we can be. My day was perfect, I snorkeled on our beach and saw some wonderful fish, just a couple of yards from the water's edge. When I ungracefully staggered back to my beach chair tripping and  stumbling on my flippers, I looked up and there were whales. God this is an ungainly sport though, I ate more sand trying to get my flippers off.
The whale show went on for a couple of hours. Huge splashes from their breaching and fountains of exhalations. I just couldnt believe my luck, to be in the presence of these massive beings.
Back to the fish, I saw a little scarface blenny, lots of angel fish and so many endemic to Kauai.
So, back to YYC on Tuesday morning. It appears that the balmy days at home will be over and we will bring some nasty cold and snowy weather with us.
In the meantime aloha.

helicopters and whales

I definitely have to get down to some relaxing time. I am not a mellow traveler, I like to explore and do stuff while my erstwhile mate likes to snore on a  chair on the lanai. He is willing to let me drag him from pillar to post but I can see he needs some down time so I think its beach chairs for him and snorkeling for me for the next few days.
Its hard to post from here as I am not yet comfortable on the playbook...its a size thing I guess, but this was the helicopter and it flew us right down into the crater of Wai'ale'ale. This is the wettest place on earth and although this is winter in the middle of the rainy season the wall of water falls is drying up. water falls yes,but not as full as they could be we saw whales in the ocean below. However today we went on a whale watching tour on a catamaran.
I took my new Nikon camera and not the BB playbook which is what the pictures posted here were taken with. So no whale pics to post but we saw plenty. All were young males and they were rolling and breaching and gave us a great show.

zorry the guy i