Adventures at High Altitude

Heeeeeeeeey-hey-hey! (says handsome dan)

Wellity wellity well. How is every little one? We've got some people pictures for you this time, because there are a lot of people out here. One of those people is someone that anyone from AJ Baker PS will remember well...Todd Pearson. Todd and I ran into each other a few days before we came out here and found out from each other that we were BOTH moving out west with our girlfriends for the summer. This is after not seeing each other for 6 years over high school! Anyway, we exchanged emails and left it at that. Then one sunny afternoon, Todd and his lady, Janet, were wandering around Canmore on a visit from Lake Louise, when they walked into my store! And the rest is history....anyway we had a few rounds out on the patio and caught up on everything. It was great and so awesome to run into an old friend. Then we all went out and played a round of disc-golf (golf with a frisbee, essentially) and had a grand old time. It was wicked, and next time we go to Lake Louise we'll be hanging out again! Ya!

ALSO, as if that weren't enough, the one and only dream team, Amy and Stew, came to visit us for a few days over the weekend! We had a lot of fun: teaM pitchers at Boston Pizza, aviators at Safeway, and gargantuan sundaes and harmonicas at home! Pita Pits everywhere unite.

Thanks guys...and we'll see you soon.

Finally, we and most of the people we hang out with have been playing Ultimate Frisbee every Tuesday night, and it's a blast. Our roommate Hugh is an excellent player and he and our captain Tim have been helping us get better as a team and we're winning about half the time! Pretty fun, and some of the people I work with have joined up as well.

And some beautiful scenery for the road.

Thanks for watching! Bye for now. Matt Good tonight!

Peace in the Middle East.

Well, I was going to wait for some pictures to put up, but there's just too much stuff to tell. Mostly only interesting to a small circle of people, but nevertheless...

I got promoted at work, so I'm a tie-wearing, number-crunching, no-slacking hardass manager now. Ha..not really. But my boss is going away for the summer, so I'm filling in for a few months. Means a bit more money, a bit more flexibility, and dictatorship over the cd player. muahaha! I'm excited though, and enjoying the job and the people I work with a lot. Pretty cool!

More boring news, I got a TA position for both semesters in Communication Studies at school for next year!! So I get paid a lot to pretend I know what Marshall McLuhan is talking about. YAY! No more late night food slinging pour moi. Really cool.

Oh ya, Canmore has more bear sightings this summer than any other non-park community in Alberta. How's that for nature? Apparently, one was at the corner of 7th Ave and 7th Street the other day, just about three blocks from our house. So far, 51 bear sightings have been reported in the area, which is way ahead of the second most at 35 in Grande Prairie. Crazy, huh? Which leads me into....the film The Edge (with Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin) was shot in Canmore. I found that out when I saw all the signed photos up at local bars. It's the movie with the bear chasing them through the mountains. Fittingly.

Umm..well I have to go to work, but just wanted to share those tidbits! Things are great, will talk soon. I good you bid evening. JR.

Aloha!

SO, we finally got a bed, for only $75, and it's actually nice. We were going to get a mattress at Good Will, but then we realized that the sentence 'a mattress at Good Will' had entered our vocabulary and decided against it. The two weeks in the trailer park at the beginning of the trip was enough slumming for us. Also got some posters and dishes and a few things and feel like we're in much more of a real home now. It's nice.

We went to Banff last night to see some jazz at a festival, only to realize we'd messed up times and were too late when we got there, so instead we went drinking and found out that Matthew Good is playing at this little bar in a couple weeks, so we got tickets for that instead! Way cool. I am missing out on the Prince throwback tour after all, so I guess this will do.

Well, be well everybody.
Sayonara, Johnny and the Jets.

Howdy,

In an attempt to keep things up to date and share the beautifulness of Alberta with everyone, here's another BLOG post. By the way, for those (many) people who have misunderstood the concept of a blog: it's just the short form for web-log, as in a genre of log which is found on the web (of the world wide kind). The abbreviation BLOG is just a nerdy techy word we geeks use. Ta da.

Now that that's cleared up, we've been climbing like a bunch of crazed lemurs out here. The other night after work we went with a few friends up to Grassi Lakes, which is a pair of bright green ponds up in the valley between Rundle and Chinaman's Peak. It was gorgeous. Also, while we were up there, we checked out some really cool climbing walls and a bunch of people climbing them. It was really cool, and gave us the initiative to get into the sport a little more. MEC has some really good deals on climbing gear now, so next time to Calgary we ought to be coming back with some kit of our own!

However, Grassi Lakes was just a walk in the park compared to Chinaman's Peak! It took a little while and some intense leg exercise, but accompanied by Alec and Kaylee again, we got up there. What a view. Here's Canmore:

Seeing a beautiful valley untouched on one side of the mountain, and the other side covered in development sort of made me wish that we weren't here at all (we being people). It's just such an immensely powerful place...but then I guess we wouldn't get to see these incredible things if no one came out here. I just hope we take care of what's been given to us.

It was pretty stellar to climb a real mountain. Alec was telling us that it's over 9000 feet up at the summit (for my Ontarians, Blue "Mountain" is about 800 feet...a big eight hundred..woowee...let me have my moment). The valley floor is at around 4100 feet, so it was a fair way up, and we could see all the mountain ranges around. Wicked - and I saw my first big horn sheep, AND a chipmunk on top of the mountain, a long way from any trees or vegetation of any kind. Crazy!

Besides all that, working, trying to find a bed, we've been hanging out with some friends. We went to Banff for the first time the other night to check out a friends band and got a look at the tourist mecca of the Rockies. I like Canmore better, but watching the Tuesday night parade at the local bars was some funny stuff..and drinks aren't bad prices, believe it or not.

Well I think that might be it for now...umm...yup I think so.

Giddy up, JR.

Buenos Dias!

Anyone who has checked at all recently realizes we haven't written anything at all for FAR TOO LONG. This isn't because nothing's been going down on the WEST side, but because we've been everywhere but the internet cafe. With that said, here are a few stories and long overdue pictures from the last couple weeks:

GEOGRAPHY LESSON, pt. 1:

There are some pretty incredible mountains around Canmore:

The Three Sisters (this is the view from our window...seriously)

Ha Ling (Chinaman's Peak, so named because of an old story in which a Chinese rail worker was dared by his colleagues that he couldn't get up and down the mountain in time for his next shift...he did it and so got his name on the peak)

EEOR (East End Of Rundle...like the Winnie The Pooh character)

Been hiking around the valleys and slopes of these mountains for a while now, and some very exciting plans to scale them in the near future! Along with these, the climbing walls, the caves, and the white water to raft (which Jess has been doing, I haven't yet), Canmore is like a big playground. Plus, we're only a few kilometers from Banff National Park. Elk and Marmots and Bears, oh my! I saw my first Elk across the river the other day while hiking, snapped a ton of pictures, and then on the bus the next day saw about 15 more Elk.

LAKE LOUISE, highest settlement in Canada:

On my first two consecutive days off of work, I went up to visit my very good friends Amy and Aisling in Lake Louise, where they are working for the summer. It is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, and we shared some good times with their roommates over $149 shots of scotch and $99 cigars (well...looked at them at the Chateau Lake Louise anyway) and had a great time.

Then the next morning Jesse came up with a couple work friends, Alec and Rachel, and under Alec's knowledgeable guidance we hiked for 6 hours! Up to Mirror Lake, Lake Agnes, two teahouses, the Beehive, and the glacier, all under the watchful eyes of Mounts Aberdeen, LeFroy, and Fairview. It was an incredible experience, and these pictures almost do the views justice. Plus, we were on the lookout for grizzlies which had been seen in the area several times in the days before we went hiking...pretty crazy. In fact, the Lake Louise trails were closed the day after we got back because of the bear sightings. However, with the help of Alec's dog Kaylee we managed to avoid any encounters, and instead saw a bunch of Marmots - I had no idea what a Marmot was, but after hearing them screaming up on the rocks, I was informed. They look like a cross between a Groundhog and a Capybara, with more fur, and they make this high-pitched whistling sound that is really loud. Neat to see them waddling around up on the rocks. Frollicking, one might say.

ELI, man of the North:

My very good friend Eli Purchase took the time out of his cross-Canada drive to come visit us for a couple days in lovely Canmore on his way up to the North West Territories. We had a wicked time and shared some pints...ah yes, while reminiscing about the good old days. Thanks man.

#4 833 5th Street, Canmore, AB:

Also, since our last posting, we've moved into our house, and it's really nice! Big, chalet style place with a fireplace, nice big bathroom, and all the things we need (except a bed..we've been sleeping in our sleeping bags...that makes almost a month..wow). We'll get there though! There are three black rabbits on our street that appear to be tame, but not anybody's pets. They just hang out, which is pretty nice. It's also nice to have hot food and hockey games on the TV. Speaking of which....those Calgary Flames are making quite an impression. Iginla for Prime Minister....game 7 heaven.

Du Hast:

We don't have a lot of pics of our friends yet, unfortunately. Also don't have any from Hooligans, which is equal to Billy Bob's out here, for those from Hamilton way - except drinks are....$1 until midnight. Great place to go if you're Michael Jackson (umm....because everyone's 15). Yikes.

Alright, I thank you for your time. I promise to write again sooner, so I don't have to remember everything from the next two weeks! This week we're going to Calgary, and planning to climb Chinaman's Peak.

Bon voyage, Johnny.