30 Apr 2008
Posted by Dave under Dave's Thoughts,Family,Geekstuff
After nearly 6 years, we decided to replace our digital camera. Our old digital was a Sony DSC-P9, which was a very good camera when we bought it in 2002, just before Alyssa was born. However, much has changed in the world of digital photography in these few years and the old camera was having some light metering problems. Many outdoor shots were turning out badly overexposed. Continue Reading »
26 Apr 2008
Posted by Dave under Dave's Thoughts,Family
The kids had the day off yesterday because of some kind of professional day for the teachers. It was also my compressed Friday, so the whole family was off on a weekday – not something that happens very often. Even though the weather this past week has been miserable for April (ten or twenty centimeters of snow and temperatures around -10°C most days), Friday morning was sunny and the forecast was for temperatures above zero. We decided that it would be an OK day for a family road trip to Banff.
As we got into the National Park, the sun was bright and the skies mostly clear. We drove up the 1A to Johnston’s Canyon – I hadn’t been to the falls since I was a kid. There was a fair bit of snow on the path and the catwalks and it was a little slippery, but not too bad. There were quite a few people on the trail but not so many that we couldn’t stop and toss snowballs into the open pools of water in the creek. The lower falls were covered in ice and the water was rushing down behind the ice – it was quite neat to see at this time of year.
After the hike we headed into Banff, ready for some lunch. We went to the Old Spaghetti Factory and then afterwards walked down Banff Avenue. At one of the candy shops, a fellow was making a giant batch of maple fudge on a big marble table in the shop window, so we stopped and watched. It was really interesting and, of course, we had to go in and get sample to taste when the cook was done. And, of course, we had to buy some too!
Once we had bought our fudge and did a little more window shopping, we headed up Sulfur Mountain to the Upper Hot Springs and spent an hour soaking in the hot water. We were in the pool just before sun set and the fading light on the snow covered peaks was quite nice.
It was 10:00pm before we got back home and poured our tired kids into their beds after a great day in the mountains.
13 Apr 2008
Posted by Dave under Dave's Thoughts
Saturday was a fantastic clear day in southern Alberta, a perfect day for a hike. My brother Scott is a fairly avid hiker/scrambler and wanted to hike the Windy Peak ridge in the southern Kananaskis. Our brother Brian joined us and we headed out late in the morning south through Okotoks and Black Diamond. We made a quick stop at the Okotoks Big Rock on the way through.
We got to “The Hump” on highway 532 about 12:30 and headed up the ridge. It’s a fairly easy walk and there was only a little snow left to deal with. The day was absolutely perfect – sunny, clear, about 18 °C and as calm as I’ve ever experienced in the mountains. The stillness was impressive, usually those ridges are just blasted by wind.
We walked about 2 km or so to the 2nd peak along the ridge (just before Timber Creek Pass on the map) where we stopped and had a late lunch. The view across the foothills and out onto the prairie was spectacular. We could even see the buildings in downtown Calgary on the horizon – almost exactly 100 km away as the crow flies. We started too late in the day to go much further and we could see that there was more snow along the next section of the trail so we headed to the truck and back to the city.
Hopefully this is a good start to doing a little more hiking this year, I can’t remember when I last went on a hike this early in the season.
10 Apr 2008
Posted by Dave under Dave's Thoughts,Family
Crazy weather today in the Calgary area! The forecast this morning was for snow flurries turning to rain then clearing in the afternoon. But that’s not what happened at all. Out our way it was light flurries at 8:00 am when I left the house to take the boys to school. By the time we hit the city limits (10 km), we were driving 5 km/hr in heavy wet snowfall with maybe 1/2 km visibility. We took a few backroads and nearly got smacked from behind as we waited for a break in traffic while stopped at a stop sign. I looked in my mirror and was a little surprised to see a blue station wagon sliding sideways towards the back of the truck. Fortunately the car slid into the ditch rather than into me! The driver was OK but that car wasn’t going anywhere for a while.
We eventually got to school about 9:00 am – it’s usually a 20 minute drive. We trudged through about 15 cm of snow and I signed the kids in. By the time I got to work it was about 9:15 and most of the office was similarly late. Some just abandoned the attempt and stayed home. By the time it stopped we’d had more than 25 cm of snow at my work. By the end of the work day the snow was melting fast, the main streets were mostly bare and many were dry! Crazy day. Continue Reading »