Nightboarding 2: Electric Boogaloo

Its been awhile since I got up to Cypress Mountain and out snowboarding, but this week my friend Mike and I got back in our weekly groove of fitting in a few evening runs after work. It was particularly foggy and there were a few times I took wrong turns and nearly found myself on unfamiliar runs, but those problems were quickly solved.
And before any parents or in-laws go fussing, I got myself a proper helmet this year along with the padding, goggles, gloves and snow pants I have from previous years, so I am well insulated and warm.
It was so misty at the top that most of my pictures don't really show much and with any luck I'll get better ones in a week or two, so I'm finishing off with a panorama (click it to enlarge) of Vancouver that I shot from a viewpoint part way up the mountain. You can see Lionsgate Bridge in the middle at the bottom with Burnaby on the left and Kitsilano on the right.Everyone that has been making noise about coming out to visit for snowboarding officially has no excuse to not be out in the next few months ;)
SPECIAL UPDATE: The following week Kathryn came up the mountain with us and not only had a great time but greatly improved her skills and seems to have gotten the snowboarding bug in a major way.

The Amusing Paradox of the Vancouver Winter

Most weekends when I call up my parents my father will ask how we're doing in the snow, either having read about weather warnings in BC or likely because its very snowy in Manitoba. Vancouver gets very little snow to be honest and its typically fleeting. The picture below shows the first of two snowfalls we had this year. The second was actually a heavier fall but I didn't get a picture of it in 2 days and by then it was gone. For those of you in Manitoba I'll let that sink in. Gone in 2 days ;)
Most winter weather out here is grey and rainy with the occassional bright day thrown in for good behavior. This photo is from Christmas Day of 2009 and shows a light covering of morning frost out by Stanley Park as we were out feeding chickadess and seeing raccoons.
Not that the entire city is spared mind you, since we live by the sea and have a very low elevation we have it easier than other places. This picture is from our first winter in Burnaby when we were living part way up Burnaby Mountain and had some heavy snow for a few weeks and probably a month of some sort of covering.
The downside to all this mind you is that Vancouver is totally unprepared for actual snow. The bus lines shut down in more than half an inch of snow and nobody has any idea how to drive safely on a good day much less in the snow. Any day even resembling winter is a good one to stay home or take transit if you are truly forced outdoors.

Tubing

Tubing has been on Kathryns list of things to do since we moved here and I feel very silly that it took us this long to get properly fit it in. With her brother Steven in town for the week we finally had the excuse and time to go and took a shuttle up to Cypress Mountain for an afternoon of recreational winter. The snowboard hills are on the mountain further away in the picture below.
The tube park itself was snug but given that its more for kids we still had a thoroughly enjoyable time. The only downside being that there were lots of lines for the lift up (though you can walk up and we often did) and there were lines again at the top to prevent heaps of people from colliding with each other. It was understandable structure but it does somewhat slow down your afternoon to wait in line every minute or so.
All it all it made for a most enjoyable day and got us out in the snow for a fun day of sliding, exercise and enjoying being away from screens and the like. Steven was kind enough to bring up a new waterproof/crushproof/freezeproof camera that I have been coveting for awhile now so it was also fun to get pictures while sliding around and not worrying about breaking anything.

The Biodiversity Museum

After months of meaning to go, Kathryn and I finally made our way out to UBC to look at the Biodiversity Museum. The crown jewel of said museum is the articulated blue whale skeleton suspended in the entry foyer. Buried in PEI in the 80s, the skeleton spent 20 years getting vaguely cleaned up naturally before a group of professors and students exhumed it and moved it across the country for mounting and display.
Beneath the whale there are rows upon rows of display cases containing articulated skeletons, stuffed birds, plant samples, and endless jars of preserved fish and reptiles. The cabinets are both museum and univeristy collection with every 3rd case having a facing out display for visitors and the rest being closed for preservation and student uses.
Each of the rows in the picture above is a decent sized display of specimens, with the whole museum containing thousands of different animals of all sorts. Our visit was long overdue and very enjoyable once we finally made it.
By blind luck we also ran into some of our friends from Vancouver Island that happened to be in town and in the university for the same 5 minutes we were passing by and we met up for dinner with Roger and Colleen in the evening.

More Manitoba Mammals

There were quite a few other mammals to be seen this summer in Manitoba, starting with this little wild rabbit I saw while taking a walk through the Forks. He dashed across the path and stood still just long enough for my auto-focus to kick in before jumping through a hole in the fence. They are a not uncommon but always pleasant sight for me, and somewhat less so for my mother-in-law and her wonderful garden.
A trip out to Oak Hammock Marsh found us a handful of very tame and curious Richardsons Ground Squirrels, one of which in particular was willing to pose until we were practically sitting on him with his nose in the lens.
And last but not least, the icon of Manitoba, the bison. They were unfortunate in being on the wrong end of the "there's so many of them we can kill them forever and never run out" line of thought of early settlers. Their once massive herds have been decimated to a number of protected herds in provincial parks and some small herds raised for meat. This individual is from the latter group as there was a small group of them near the marsh.

Animals in the Field

A life long dream came true this summer when I came across wild horses in the Chilcotin. First time I didn't have a camera. Wandering around in the bush we came almost face to face with a stallion and his mare and foal. A lovely sight. We also saw a herd of 8-12 drinking and grazing near a small lake. These three we were lucky enough to see several times as they seemed to like a grassy meadow that this rough logging road went right through. There is a stallion and two mares. There are some documentaries about horses in the Chilcotin. People living there still lose the occasional horse to the wild herds.
This was a problem. Walking up an access road that goes to the block we need to survey we ran across these tracks. It had rained the day before and these tracks were so fresh they were still damp in the middle as you can see from the photo. Some investigating revealed another set of tracks and another. One big set and 2 small. A mother cougar and her babies! We left pretty quick. I wasn't hugely concerned as where we parked the truck we got snorted at by some wild horses and I don't think they would have been so relaxed if a huge kitty and her brood were close by. Some research into tracking that evening showed that the tracks were really fresh as it was warm out and they would have dried out fast and they hadn't had a chance to do that yet. When we went back the next day I made sure I had my machete and I sang lots.

Manitoba Legislative Building (inside)

Back in the days of the railway, Winnipeg was situated right in the middle of the country and had high hopes for becoming a transportation hub and all around huge city like Chicago became. Time didn't play out the way they'd hoped, but a very elaborate legislative interior was part of the payoff for thinking big. Tours of the interior are free to anyone passing by and if you've never done it, its certainly worth a look. The main entry plaza (click panorama below to enlarge) is pretty spectacular and those giant bronze bison were brought in without scuffing the marble floors by using giant pieces of river ice to slide them through.
The assembly chamber itself is a goodly size and filled with statues of philosophers and paintings of saints with seats on both sides for the ruling party and the opposition. There was no session going on the day I passed through but if the politicians are meeting there is a gallery above here where the public can watch.
And this is the interior of the giant dome at the top of the building looking up from the middle. There's a hole in the 2nd floor that lets light all the way down to the ground floor where there's another neat room below.

Manitoba Legislative Building (outside)

Canada lacks castles in general and Manitoba falls particularly short to that challenge, but it does have a very nice legislative building near the downtown core. As far as I can tell, most of the parliament buildings were built to the same general design but I guess if it ain't broke you don't fix it. The Manitoba legislative is made from Tyndall stone which is a sedimentary stone quite often filled with fossils, so the exterior of the building is full of neat worms and shells if you look closely. (click on the panorama below to enlarge)
On top of the central dome is the golden boy; holding a sheaf of wheat in one hand and a torch in the other, but apparently forgetting to wear pants, he shows how Canadians are always charging forward to greatness without perhaps thinking things through properly.
And since it was designed and built by The Masons there are all sorts of weird things like sphinxes on the building. Traditional Canadian sphinxes. A part of the heritage of the European settlers, indigenous natives and the metis all rolled into one: sphinxes. Okay, I really don't get them either...

Sheena and Co.

Sheena Santa is one of the best friends I made in my years in Winnipeg. We met at the same CG course back in '97 and had a goodly number of years having perfume fights in The Bay, partying at Die Maschine, and being generally troublesome.

File Photo circa 1998.

So when I was out for my friend Jasons wedding I made sure to find the time to catch up on old times and see how she's doing. Happily married and with a few wee ones, she's done pretty alright for herself. Shown below with a more grown-up look and her daughter Tegan.
I also finally had the chance to meet her husband Hugo (shown with their son Kieran) and he is every bit the gentleman and all-around nice guy that Sheena deserves. They make a very sweet couple and it was great to see an old friend and a selection of nice new faces.
Well done you two, keep up the good work :)

Manitoba Mammals

We found ourselves with a few hours to spare in Manitoba this fall and took a quick day trip out to my parents place in Pinawa. While we were there we had a quick 'game drive' of local wildlife as it had been quite awhile since we'd been in that neck of the woods in fall.

Starting off with something easy, white-tailed deer are everywhere in town and remarkably fearless so I was able to walk up to this one in a neighbors yard and get some nice pictures. They are not quite in their summer coats anymore but not in their fully shaggy donkey look that they adopt in the winter.
We did a small search in a few likely places and were able to turn up a pair of black bears. The first was very far in the bush and too obscured to photograph, but this little yearling was grazing on fallen acorns at Seven Sisters Falls and was willing to pose briefly for this picture.
These guys are a bit of a cheat as they are not remotely native to Canada, but there is an alpaca farm near Whitemouth and we stopped for a look on our way by. They are presumably being raised for their wool and there were several dozen of them in the enclosure.

For Sarah

Never thought that writing my first blog post would be this. This is for Sarah: my cousin and my friend. I thought others would enjoy seeing these photos which are my favorites of her.

Like me, Sarah loved The Lion King when she was smaller. See it is on her shirt when she is little and in the water. Though she liked Pocohontas too when that came out her stuffed Simba was usually along for the ride. This is at White Rock, BC. We are looking for clams and other weird sea creatures.
We were belting out on each song in Rock Band. This is in my Aunts basement Xmas 2008. I can't remember what we are playing here. It might have been Soundgarden but could have equally been any track. We played most of the early evening. I remember I gave Sarah my Green Day Insomniac tour shirt the year before. I think she wore it out. She was more artistic than musical but you can't tell from the riot we are having here. She looks really intense on the guitar.
At the last minute at Geordie and I's wedding we decided we wanted flower girls. Sarah and her sister Carolyn stepped in the day of no rehearsal or anything! Great thing was the blue on her dress matched our blue colour scheme. No intention or anything. I love her hair in this photo. She is so pretty. I also have a picture of her barefoot and tearing it up on the dance floor at the same event. So cute!
What else to say.....? I will miss you and love you forever Sarah. You have the entire universe to decorate and I can't wait to see your work.

Winnipeg Friendlies

Since I was in passing through Winnipeg anyways, I made sure to make it a long weekend for an extra day to visit some friends in my old stomping grounds. Ian and Victoria have been good buddies of mine since my olden days at Digital Chameleon some 8 years ago. We met up for some drinks at a pub and then wandered down to a game shop to chat and visit with Ian's assitant.
My good friend Colin was next on the list and we had some Indian food and then hit a few pubs for a beer or two in an endless quest to find a place that wasn't just setting up for loud and obnoxious music. I met Colin back in my gamer days maybe a decade ago and it was nice to check in with him and all his latest endeavors.
Rounding out the end of the night I was able to meet up with Wil who was flying out to Portugal the following morning. We grabbed a quick drink and a snack before calling it a night as he was busy most of the day and we didn't meet up until around midnight. Like Colin I've known Wil for ages since my gamer days and it was good to hear where he's at too.
Fine human beings one and all, if you are one of the above you have every right to be proud of yourselves :)

Louis Riel

Louis Riel was a metis Canadian and a key player in the creation of the province of Manitoba. He was gutsy enough to stand up to the federal government on several occassions, two of which ended in bloodshed, the last of which ended in his execution. Winnipeg features 2 memorials to this renegade/freedom fighter with very different feelings. This first one by the legislature shows him as a proud statesman.
Less discussed than his vision for Manitoba is his later mental imbalance and time spent in an insane asylum. Riel claimed to have spoken with angels and been given orders by God which are typically warning signs for most of us.
The second statue of him in Saint Boniface reflects more of this aspect with a man tormented and at odds with himself. I greatly enjoy both statues, finding his story to be a fascinating bit of Canadian history and I am glad to see him recognized as an important part of Manitoba culture.
Rebel of visionary, genius or madman, I think we can all agree that Riel was 20 feet tall and made of brass.

Jason & Veronica's Reception

I went back to Winnipeg for a long weekend near the end of August for the wedding reception of my good friends Jason and Veronica. They had gotten married on holiday in Italy earlier in the summer and then had a reception for family and friends after the fact.
Jason was my best man at our wedding and I couldn't pass on the chance to be there for his special day as he was there for ours. It was also very nice to meet his parents and get caught up with some old Winnipeg friends at the same time.
The whole evening was very enjoyable and the food was outstanding; plus, having a heavy Polish influence it was also unending with a full dinner, dessert and then a second full dinner around 10pm just to make sure nobody left in a state of being other than totally stuffed.
It was a great time through and through and I wish the new happy couple all the best in their years together :)

Sweetwaters

This is our last video post from Africa so for those of you reliving your trip from home, thanks for being there and making the tour everything it was. The DVDs will hopefully be done by early to mid September and mailed out shortly thereafter. If you have already sent me your address then kick back and relax, if you have not gotten around to sending me a mailing address, please do so in the next week or so.

Sweetwaters was the last stop in our tour for many of our group, so I figured it was a good choice to end our recapped journey with as well. It was a very nice mellow place where there were almost as many animals coming to the waterhole infront of our tents as there were to be seen on game drives.

Music: "Now We Are Free" by Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard

Speaking of tents, the picture below shows the safari version of 'roughing it' with Kathryn tucked infront of our tent. The waterhole is directly infront of our tent and was almost constantly packed with giraffes, waterhogs, impala and lots of storks and ibises as well as night visits from buffalo and rhinos.
This is the interior of our tent, complete with separate bathroom with toilet and shower to further illustrate that a 'tent' can mean very different things in different places. We slept very peacefully here except on a few points in one or two nights when the shrieks of tree hyraxes jolted us awake, they have a very weird call that we were totally unprepared for.

Chimpanzees

Sweetwaters was not only a game park where we could see Kenyan wildlife in the open, it was also an animal sanctuary. We mentioned earlier their blind rhino but they were also host to a troop of chimpanzees whose homes in west africa were so unstable that they have been rescued and are attempting to rehabilitate them.
Kathryn and I have very different feelings about most primates. I have read very little about them or early peoples and therefore find them fascinating because they are so like us, while Kathryn has read extensively about them and finds them enough like people to be a little off-putting. But there was something about this confused, tired, bald old ape that I could relate too ;)
The troop consisted of perhaps a dozen individuals and while birth control is being added to their food (which has to be provided since their natural diet is not found in the indigenous plants of Kenya) they had managed to have a baby as well, which while an additional strain on the park has apparently been very good for the chimps morale and behavior.
While it is noble that they are being conserved in Kenya it is sad that their natural habitat is so broken and anyone looking to lose a little more hope in mankind should read about the Democratic Republic of Congo and the hell that people and apes alike are going through in that particular corner of the world.

Lake Manyara

Note: I have a busy weekend coming up so I'm posting sooner than later as last time I was a few hours late I came under intense fire for being lazy ;)

Lake Manyara was a very peaceful place in general. Our lodge was at the top of a ridge overlooking the park and we could see the jungle and a nearby town from the pool. The park itself was a nice assortment of grazers and the absence of large predators made it all the more serene.

Music: "Under the Stars" by Hans Zimmer

Our lodge had a very pleasing design with the rooms being arranged in little clusters of double deckers with two sets of rooms on each floor. Like many of the lodges they used concrete in a very pleasing way to avoid many hard angles and kept everything very smooth and organic looking.
The pool was a delight and after a long drive in the hot sun we were always keen to have a flop by it and a swim. It was quite cold so while it was incredibly refreshing it was also tricky to stay in too long without going numb; such are the hardships of roughing it in Tanzania ;)

Ndutu

Ndutu was our first major stop on the trip and made a huge impression on Kathryn in particular. The wildebeest migration was in full swing and the first few babies were just starting to be born. Top that off with huge herds of zebras and gazelles with hyenas and lions chasing everything and you have a pretty potent situation. Music: "Death is the Road to Awe" by Clint Mansell

This is our little cabin at the lodge which was quite different from other lodges in that there was no perimeter fence or ditch or anything keeping other animals out. Earlier in the year this cabin and several others before it were out of use while a pride of lions took a fancy to using our porch for shade for several days. Our tour operator Bob said that he's seen elephants sticking their heads into the dining area and there were zebras, cape buffalo and giraffes wandering around nearby.
At the end of every day we'd relax by the fire, watch the passing animals and feed popcorn to fiscals and weavers. There are several slow-motion shots of this in the video above but I thought this picture also nicely captures the feeling of the campfire area and also shows the longer row of cabins in the background helping give a better idea how the whole spot fits together.