So, Heinrich and gflower told me to have fun at the SCA event they couldn't attend with me this past weekend, so I set out to have enough fun for three ( Read more... )

During the visit from Anna and Andrew, we traveled an hour north to Starved Rock State Park, which bills itself as "one of the Seven Wonders of Illinois." Our hike was vastly more pleasant than the wonder that is Chicago rush-hour traffic. But seriously, the other six wonders are other lovely parks and historic architecture, described at the site ( Read more... )

Before the last trip to the mountains in Alberta, I anticipated that I would cry at my last chance to see the most beautiful places I've ever visited. When I woke up that morning, it was just like every other trip I'd taken to the mountains -- excitement at going hiking, seeing fantastic scenery, eating outside. This time I was also excited about ( Read more... )

Last week, when we were at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana, a man driving a car with Saskatchewan plates pulled up by our car with the Alberta plates, got out to look at the hill we were looking at and asked, "Fellow Canadians, eh?" We could have hugged him right there just for using "eh?" because we had found out that after ( Read more... )

Based on how many times in a week I take the train downtown and back, half the time late at night, and how many of the vehicle/pedestrian/bicyclist vs. train accidents occur on 7th Ave, I figured it was nearly inevitable that at some time I'd be on a train that was in such an accident. I mean, it's already been two times that the train I'm on ( Read more... )

Nick, who is visiting Calgary from Australia to work on a part-year project with one of the professors in Andrew's dept., was getting a lot of complaints from his boss and friends about his failure to get out to the mountains in the months he's been here. We got him hooked up on his first winter hike through an invitation from our mutual friend ( Read more... )

After last year's disaster of trying to get to Chester Lake on cross-country skis (a disaster because I wasn't skilled enough as a skier and the skis were too long so I couldn't effectively snowplow my way downhill on the narrow trail), I thought maybe it would be best to try the trip to Chester Lake next time with a different form of conveyance. ( Read more... )

This week, Andrew and I have been spending some time in Bloomington and Normal, Illinois, where he was making a campus visit to a school that may or may not offer him a job ( Read more... )

We stayed in Calgary for another Christmas, talking to relatives and friends on the phone or using iChat or Skype. We had a few invitations to visit folks here in town so we "Christmas orphans" wouldn't be lonely. I found a new knitting partner (actually someone I've been acquainted with for months, but I never knew she was a serious knitter), ( Read more... )

A sampling of views from some beautiful hikes we took this fall. Since the school semester started, Andrew and I both have Sundays off and have turned it into a day for hikes, some in town and some further from home.

( Lake Louise/Mirror Lake/Lake Agnes )