This Blog: Scary-picture free since....this post.

Just as I was sitting down to write a new post, I noticed a new comment on an old post calling me out for not posting. Here i am! I have not fallen off a mountain, plummeted over a waterfall, or any other kind of gruesome death involving rapid motion towards the ground from some high point.

And while I'm on the topic, I agree. The feet-dangling pictures do have to go. So we one-upped them. That's for the next post though.

For this post, I'm going to clear out some photos that have been sitting around for a while (and a couple recent ones I think as well). All the way back to Canada Day (which was a brilliant day, btw. This town goes all out). Oh, and as much as I hate talking about the weather...wow! has it ever been nice out here.
Canada Day was no exception.

They set up all these tents and what not in "Central Park" (lol imo...idk my bff Jill...roflmao....acronyms!!!) and had stuff going on all day. I worked 9-5 so I could only pass through in the morning for the setup and on my way home. I grabbed some photos though. What better place to spend Canada Day? (except probably Sauble).

Oh, and speaking of Sauble, there fireworks show here was awesome!! I'm sure it was helped by the fact that from my home on the side of the mountain they were bursting at about eye level for Bonnie and I. Very spectacular and fancy and incredibly loud - i don't think they fireworks were very far from us at all (my house is the same side of town as where they launched them from, AND we were at "explosion height")



I've never seen people get so festive for Canada Day - it was like July 4 in the states. People had painted faces, dyed hair, fancy clothing and the whole town was like a big fair with stilts people and marching bands and whatever else. I felt like Joshny on his first trip to the circus (if you don't know, don't ask. It's for your own safety



The river is actually turning away from this brown color now and into a nice shade of blue-green.

I also took some pictures that day of my walk to work so that everybody could see it. It takes me about 10 minutes and is mostly forest (which is amazing in the morning with the birds and the sunlight and everything else), but I also walk through Canada Place (administration building and park). I read in the newspaper today that they plant 50,000 flowers in their garden and I definitely believe it - so pictures of that too here.

Kinda makes getting up in the morning not so bad, and definitely beats rush hour traffic.













Doesn't the last one look like UWO? Heh.


The last good sight before hitting the traffic and construction and dust is this one, which is probably the one photo that every tourist goes home with and is on the cover of countless books and magazines. That's Cascade in the background there, dwarfing the town. HIked it 2 days ago, but will make a separate post about that some other time.



In other news, Tracey is finally leaving town to meet up with Anthony in Holland for a few months. She's been cramming in an incredible amount of stuff over the last week, and yesterday we finally got to do our take on the ever-popular Banff "going away party". Usually this involves going to your favorite bar with all your friends and getting plastered, which is odd to me because nobody remembers it then. But i digress...

There were 4 of us most of the time last night, and when we finally did get to the bar we were joined by a 5th. Nothing too big but tons of fun. We started off by going to the local watering hole, Johnson Lake, for a swim. Nice lake. Nice grassy knoll. Not too cold for swimming. And as always, good scenery.






Then we had a very long series of mis-adventures eventually culminating in the 4 of us going up to a little park by my place and having a BBQ. Hey! If you haven't heard I finally got myself a little camping-style BBQ. It's great!!! I use it all the time and it's so nice to have around. Anyway, here's the only picture on Bonnie's camera of that event that is any good. I'll go through my friends' cameras later and see if i can't find a better one - or one with everybody. BUt this was our spot at least



Then once all our meat and salad was eaten, we moved to the bar (naturally!) and probably drank too much (Banff style!). I won't bore you with the thousand pictures of people trying to make their arms look like but-cracks and blinding other people with the flash and all that nonsense. But here's one that's all right. I'm.....not drunk




That about clears out the photos for now. C'ya Trace!! Thanks for all the skis, climbs, hikes and generally good (usually dangerous) fun. Best of luck in Holland

Tomorrow or the next day I'll post on the Cascade Hike and what not - more great mountaintop pics!