Blogs from Canada, North America - page 12

About twenty minutes from Calgary, the Sheep River curls through the town of Okotoks. With the spring thaw-freeze cycle aggressively underway, we strapped on our icers, essential even on paved paths. Since the temperature was slightly below zero, the run-off melt was slippery from ice accumulated overnight. In the lowest areas, what might have been temporary ponds in the afternoon were veritable skating rinks in the morning. We strolled through the dappled sun of scattered aspens, poplars and evergreens, where snow still covered the undergrowth. A few birds looked at us, and a single Canada Goose stood proud in the centre of the ice-covered river. Several mallards swam in tight circles or snuggled on the stone edge of a tumbling creek, protected by tangled branches put there by human hand. Mounted to delight passers-by, a numbe ... read more

Welcome back to Marilyn’s Journey, the blog I started in 2013 when I was travelling during a leave of absence from work. I’ve since retired (in December 2021) and the Yukon photography trip was a retirement / birthday present to myself after other travel plans were derailed because of Covid earlier this year. It was a busy few days in mid-September, roaming in the southern Yukon with Neil Zeller, a Calgary-based photographer (Neil Zeller Photography (zenfolio.com)). I initially met Neil a few years ago when he offered a class on how to shoot fireworks at Globalfest and have followed his work and taken a couple of classes and local tours with him since. Six fellow photo enthusiasts and I met at the Calgary airport for the flight to Whitehorse on the evening of September 10 to ... read more

“It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression, 'As pretty as an airport.’” - Douglas Adams And we’ve spend quite a bit of time in airports the last two days! If you read my last blog, you know we were concerned about making our standby flight from Rome to Vancouver. Spoiler alert, we missed it 😢. But, first things first, back to our last morning in Rome. The morning started with an email from WestJet saying our flight to Rome was delayed (an hour or so). We weren’t concerned about that, since there were several flights from Calgary to Vancouver we could take (we had to connect in Calgary). As long as we made the flight from Rome to Calgary, we’d be fine. We were up, showered, breakfasted, ... read more

So when you look at all of our bags, it really looks like we're either travelling for years or moving houses. So much for being able to pack efficiently! While two of them are for Hannah, we've probably still packed way too much! We'll also see if our packing trend holds up - whatever the last minute article of clothing we throw in the end is usually turns out to be the thing we wear the most. We leave for the airport in a few hours as we're on the red eye to London. I always struggle with flights that are late in the day. It feels like the whole day is just anticipation of the trip. Of course, there are all the little things that need to be done - cleaning out the fridge, petting ... read more

Road trip 2022 kicked off with us driving to the United States border, crossing at Coburn Gore. This would be the first time I would be entering the USA since the pandemic began. From there we found a way to Nataris Campground for our first night. The sky was overcast with clouds, but no rain was falling yet. We set up camp and boiled some water to eat a few packets of ramen noodles. Not the healthiest of dinners but it would have to do for the time being. As our camp was enveloped in darkness, the sounds of loons could be heard across the lake. The next day we departed early and continued down route 27, stopping at a small diner for a greasy breakfast. A few hours later we reached the city of Bangor. ... read more