I drove to Kelowna, BC for the weekend to meet up with my Grandpa. I was excited while driving there Friday to see some snow in the mountains (and even more excited that it was dumping snow the whole way home last night, although it made driving a bit treacherous)

I actually stopped just north of Kelowna to cross country ski at Sovereign Lakes (same area as Silver Star). There are races every year there that I always missed going to when I was still racing, so it was great to get the opportunity to just go for a ski there. It was early season skiing, so not perfectly groomed trails, but it was nice to dink around on my skis for an hour before heading into Kelowna.

The whole reason for the weekend was the 80th birthday party of one of my grandpa's friends from Sakinaw Lake. I was there last summer at his cabin, and had heard lots of stories but hadn't met any of the people. There was much eating and socializing, with a big party at the golf club Saturday night. My thought the whole weekend was that if I am worthy of such a gathering at the age of 80 I will have led a pretty darn good life! the best part though was seeing my grandpa and meeting people from the lake, who I will hopefully see out there in the future! (Anyone up for joining me next August???)

Hiking

Tuesday was Remembrance Day in Canada, which meant no work and a visit to the mountains in Kananaskis! I was excited a few weeks ago to meet Genevieve at work who also enjoys hiking, skiing, climbing, and such things, and we finally got together for a little adventure (no pics of the two of us unfortunately). Of course I don't remember the name of this hike, but it started from the Nakiska ski area and was gradual uphill for 6km to this lookout.

Banff Film Festival

I just spend this weekend in Banff at the Banff Mountain Film Festival, which is always a great weekend of films about basically anything to do with the mountains. I used to love going to the "best of" tour that they take around the world, but now that I live close by I have enjoyed going to the entire 2 days of films in Banff for the past few years. As usual, all the films were at least pretty good, but this year there seemed to be several good "mountain culture" films. The one that really struck home for me was an hour long documentary on the Pebble Mine project in Alaska. I had heard of the mine, but didn't really know that much about it, but watching the film really made it hit home what they are trying to do. If you don't know, they are basically trying to open the biggest copper mine in North America at the headwaters of two rivers flowing into Bristol Bay. The filmmakers interviewed people from both sides of the argument, the mining company, and fisherman and native people who live in the area. It was shocking to see that the mining company takes the standpoint that the mine will not have any impact on the ecosystem or the fishing industry up there. I don't feel that I can do the issue justice by trying to explain both sides of it here, however the film made me realize how incredibly dear Alaska is to me and how passionate I feel about protecting its "wildness" and leaving it they way it is. I have never seen an audience so passionate about a film at the film festival before, and have also never seen a film get a standing ovation at the festival. More info on the film can be found here (under "the craft"). An environmental point of view on the issue can be found here, and an interesting article on Palin and the mine debate from the New York Times can be found here. (Of note, the grist.org article mentions that jewelers are being asked to oppose the mine. The film noted that jewelers at Tiffany's have committed to not making jewelry from any materials from the Pebble Mine, if it were to open)

I would urge everyone to go check out the Banff Film Festival tour if it is coming to your city! Its got a bit of something for everyone (not just films on controversial mines) and is lots of fun. Check out the website to see when it will be near you!

Mosaic Fun!

1. A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart, and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words., 2. Rhubarb Splendor, 3. Steller's Jay, 4. I stand on the beach alone,and gaze at the misty blue... I wish I could pause this moment forever..., 5. The ancient pleasure of a cuppa, 6. frosty, 7. Moturakau, Aitutaki, Cook Islands, 8. Long Slice of Pie Ala Mode 4 of 4, 9. Steamboat Ski Resort blue-bird day, 10. incurable laughter, 11. Lovely Lola, 12. Yarborough Arch.

I saw this photo mosaic as self-portrait today on a friend of mine's blog and I thought it was really neat! You answer 12 questions and type your answer to each of the above questions into Flickr’s search. Select only the images that appear on the first page, choose your favorite and copy and paste each of the URL’s into the Mosaic Maker (3 columns, 4 rows).

Here are the questions and my answers that generated the mosaic above.

1. What is your first name? (cait)
2. What is your favorite food? (rhubarb)
3. What high school did you attend? (steller)
4. What is your favorite color? (blue)
5. Who is your celebrity crush? (daniel craig)
6. Favorite drink? (eggnog)
7. Dream vacation? (cook islands)
8. Favorite dessert? (pie)
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? (ski bum)
10. What do you love most in life? (laughter)
11. One word to describe you? (lovely)
12. Your Flickr name? (Yarborough - it didn't pull anything up under my real Flickr name)

It's fun!

I used to really hate moose when I was living in Alaska. They scared me, and it was inevitable that I would run into them almost every day when I was out on the trails, both summer and winter. I think I saw more than 10 one day at Kincaid. Now I live in Calgary. We have rabbits. Thats about it. They have elk in Banff but its not quite the same. I found this picture on a friends blog today, and realized that I miss moose walking around in the city. I think both Edmonton and Calgary might be a bit too civilized for me.

brief update

Since returning from Australia, I seem to have fallen behind in my blog posting here. Life has been a little crazy, with moving to Calgary and getting settled in. So I've been in Calgary for about 3 weeks now, and this weekend is the first that I've actually been in town the whole weekend! I've been enjoying exploring the city, finding the dog parks and running trails, yoga studios and coffee shops, the farmers market, and other fun things around town! The area that I am living in is great, only 2 blocks from the river, where there are great trails, a few blocks from an off-leash area for Riley, and I'm just west of a funky little shopping area. Its pretty centrally located with easy access to other points in the city, which is really nice. I've finished my two and a half weeks of training for my job, and now I am just hoping that they call me in for shifts! I have also applied for a bunch of part time jobs that I am hoping will keep me going for income in between waiting for work from the Health Region. There are 4 full time positions with the Health Region opening up in the next few months, so I have my fingers crossed that as a casual employee I'll have a good chance of getting one of them! I haven't been up to the mountains yet, except for a conference in Banff two weekends ago. I can see the mountains from the city though and they are calling my name! Hopefully I'll be up in Canmore skiing in the next month or so =) I'll try to get some pictures up here at some point of what I am up to. As I settle in and life becomes a little lexx hectic hopefully I'll have time to post a little more often again.

A final parting shot of Cairns from the Skyway gondola. You can see all the sugar cane fields in the foreground. The view of the reef from this high was great as well, you can actually see it under the water!

Last Australian Moments

After Cairns I had a day and a half with Celeste back in Sydney before heading back to Edmonton. We had a pretty relaxing day on Sunday, just doing a bit more exploring in the city. Celeste took me and showed me the bay where she rows. It looks like it could be a bit dodgy with all the boat traffic, but cool views of the ANZAC bridge! You can see the Harbour bridge in the background of this picture as well. Monday morning I had one last coffee and breakfast outing with Celeste and Ella before heading to the airport. Ella was trying to convince me to miss my flight home, which was tempting, but I knew I had to get back to real life (for now at least).

Here is my final parting shot of my airplane with Sydney in the background =(

Cairns, continued

Warning: This post may contain fabulous pictures that will make you want to run away to Australia!

After my day out on the reef, I still had 2 more days to enjoy Cairns. I was pretty happy just hanging out at Redbird and Cameron's house, but there was lots to see and do. This is a picture out of their kitchen window. Basically if I wanted a banana on my cereal in the morning all I had to do was pluck it off the bunch. They also had starfruit and papaya trees in their yard!


Friday morning Cameron gave me what he called his "$5 tour" of a lot of the beaches stretching north from Cairns. I couldn't believe how beautiful it was!


This is how happy I was to be in such a great place:


After the tour Cameron dropped me off at the Cairns Tropical Zoo. I mainly wanted to see kangaroos and koalas, and was able to get up close and personal with both!
















That kangaroo is asleep, not dead, I promise! And as cuddly as koalas look, they have really sharp claws! That little one had quite the grip on my shoulder.

Friday evening I went out on the town with Redbird and Cameron. Redbird belly dances, and was performing at a Greek restaurant Saturday, but since I was leaving Saturday evening and would miss it we went for dinner at the restaurant Friday and saw one of her troupe members perform. Cameron is a drummer in a band, which had a concert that evening, so after dinner we went and caught the second half of the concert. Fun!

Saturday morning was absolutely beautiful and after the driving tour of the beaches the day before I knew I needed to actually go sit on the beach for a few hours. I met up with Karen, who I had met on my diving trip and we spent the morning at the Palm Cove beach.


This is a crocodile warning sign on the beach. Apparently there are crocodiles everywhere around Cairns, although the only ones I saw were at the zoo!


This is me about to go test out the water...it was great! Nice and warm. The only downside to this whole morning was that I missed a few random spots with my sunscreen (like my belly button) and kept finding small burnt spots that afternoon. Luckily Cameron and Redbird had aloe plants in their yard!


A view of the beach from my beach towel =) In Australia you have to swim between the flags if you want the lifeguards to rescue you!


There really are wild kangaroos everywhere. After I left the zoo the day before I spotted a whole herd of them out in a horse pasture.


If I had had to go straight to the airport from the beach Saturday I might have purposefully missed my flight. However I had the afternoon still, and Redbird and I went and took the Skyrail Rainforest gondola, which goes up and over the rainforest canopy for 7.5 km to the town of Kuranda. There are two stops along the way, where you can go for a little walk in the rainforest. It was a great relaxing way to spend the afternooon.
Cameron picked us up in Kuranda and we had to rush back to the house so I could head to the airport. They sent me off with some take-away fish and chips, a bucket of their homegrown bananas, and lots of great memories! If I go back to Australia again I think I would go for a lot longer and use Cairns as my home base!

Cairns (the Great Barrier Reef)

I arrived in Cairns Wednesday around noon, but didn't really do much that day except hang out with Redbird and Cameron, who I was staying with. How I came to stay with them is kind of a random story, I have a friend Liz who lives in San Francisco, but we met when we were 15 and our families were on vacation in Boston. We've kept in touch over the years, and when I told her that I was going to Australia she put me in touch with Redbird who is her husband's sister. They were gracious enough to invite me to stay at their house and I attribute my amazing experience in Cairns mostly to the fact that I got to stay with them!

The only thing that I actually had planned for my four days in Cairns was a boat trip out to the great barrier reef. I booked the tour at the same time as I got my plane ticket, and when I got to Cairns was happy to have Cameron tell me that I had booked with the best company to go out with.


We stopped at two different spots for the day. The first place was Michalmas Cay, where there was an actual island coming up out of the reef. The second spot was just a random mooring in the middle of the reef, but actually had far better diving because the reef went down much deeper there.


Initially when I booked the tour I said that I only wanted to snorkel. The idea of scuba diving has always kind of freaked me out and I wasn't really interested in trying it. However when I got on the boat they told us that if we wanted we could try diving for 10 minutes, and then if we were ok with it we could do an introductory dive. As they were giving the intro talk on the way out to the reef I knew I had to at least try it. How could I be at the number one destination for diving and not try it? I will admit that I was a little anxious for both of the dives (we did two 30 min dives) but looking back I think it was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had!


Note the little clown fish hiding in the anemone above
And below: a close up of clown fish


This is on my first dive, with my trusty dive instructor Mel. She held my hand when I was freaking out, which somehow made everything ok =)


The fish were amazing...tons of them everywhere and so colorful!



I think the giant clams were actually one of my favorite things to see. They had the most amazing colors inside of them!

All in all it was a fantastic day! Even though I was a bit scared about diving I think I might look into getting my certification so that if I go somewhere warm again I can do some more diving.

Australia Part 2 (Sydney)

I'm now back in Edmonton, but realized I need to finish blogging about my trip! I'll do it in a few posts here, to break things up a bit. After Celeste and I got back from Katoomba and the Blue Mountains I had a day and a half in Sydney before I headed up to Cairns for most of the rest of my trip. I spent Monday afternoon booking said trip, and then in the evening went to the Sydney Observatory for a tour and hopefully a viewing of the sky. Unfortunately the weather still wasn't very nice, so no clear sky, but we did get to look at things around the city using the telescopes. This picture is for you Mom!

Before my evening at the observatory I went to dinner with Ella, Celeste's lone female roommate (they live with 3 other boys). We had kangaroo pizza! Celeste was going to be at the university for all of the next day so Ella wrote out a plan for me that she said was her favorite way to spend a day in the city. We started off the next morning with a great breakfast at a cafe, and then Celeste gave me a quick tour of her university before I headed off on my adventure.
My first stop on Ella's plan was the Art Gallery of New South Wales. I enjoyed wandering around there for a few hours seeing everything from impressionist era paintings, to contemporary art, to aboriginal art. My favorite area were the impressionist paintings. Having not seen much of his work before I decided that I really like Pissaro. Below is my favorite wall at the museum. On the bottom, from left to right is a Van Gogh, a Monet, and a Pissaro.
The art gallery is nestled into the southern end of the Sydney botanical gardens which run from there up to the harbor and the Opera House. I enjoyed wandering through the gardens for a few hours and then got a late lunch at the garden cafe, and had a little picnic with the following view!
Continuing to walk around the park gave me some great views of the Opera House. Its an amazing structure and even though I had seen it before it was always impressive to look at!

Sydney!

I made it to Sydney!
So far its been a great visit! I arrived Thursday morning at 6am, and Celeste's challenge was to keep me awake for the day to help me get over my jet lag. We spent Thursday and Friday mostly seeing the sights around Sydney.
Friday evening we went to the Sydney Symphony at the Opera House. We were able to get very cheap tickets sitting in the first row of the choir seats. This is what the view was like, we were basically sitting in the percussion section!Saturday morning we took the train 2 hours west of Sydney to the Blue Mountains, to the small town of Katoomba. The main attraction there is the vista of the "three sisters" and we did some bushwalking (hiking) down in the valley below the three sisters.

The picture below is almost at the end point of our hike. The world's steepest funicular railway went from this point back up to the top of the cliffs. I was too scared from the bottom to take it up, but once we had hiked up to the top decided that we needed to ride on it, so we took it back down, and then up again. I believe the angle on it was 52 degrees!

The weather Friday and Saturday both in Sydney and Katoomba was pretty cold and rainy, so Celeste and I have spent a bit of time in coffee shops. The coffee here is fantastic!


We are now back in Sydney, and I am looking into going up to Cairns for a few days to see the Great Barrier Reef. More adventures to come!

Painting

When I moved into my house the two smaller bedrooms had been painted as children's room, one with dark blue paint and stenciled planes and trains, and the other was light blue with a giant tree in one corner. I painted the planes and trains room immediately, but kind of liked the tree so for a few years used that room as my office. The below picture is from when I was in the middle of writing my thesis, and consequently the room was a mess =)

When my roommate Melanie moved in last year I moved my bedroom into the "tree room" but still didn't paint the room, but now that I'm going to be moving, decided that it was time for the tree to go. So that's what I spent the past two days doing. I chose the color kind of on a whim, but now that it is done I really like it. Its a somewhat dark beige/grey, darker than the rest of the house for those of you that have been here. I think it adds a bit of depth to the room and goes well with all the blue stuff that I have in there. And the tree wasn't even that hard to cover!

Update

Life has been a little crazy around here lately. As you may or may not know, my current job is on contract, which is up this Friday and will not be renewed, so I have been doing a lot of job searching for the past few months. I had a lot of interviews and got declined quite a few times, but just this past Friday I accepted a job as an Exercise Specialist working with the Living Well with a Chronic Condition program. This program is part of the Calgary Health Region, and I will be doing exercise prescription for individuals with cardiac problems, diabetes, lung disease, arthritis, or who are obese. It should be very interesting. The bad news about the job is that it is a casual position, meaning that I will be covering shifts for people on vacation or taking sick leave (no guarantee of hours, although on average casual workers might work 15-20 hours a week). The good news is that there should be some more permanent positions opening up this fall with the same program, and with the experience that the casual position will give me I will be in a better standing to actually get one of those jobs. If you were reading carefully, yes that does mean that I will be moving to Calgary. Providing that all goes well with switching my work permit, I am scheduled to start work there on September 29.
I will have a lot to do in the next month before moving down there, but I have been saving money all year to go visit a friend who is on a university exchange in Sydney...so I'm going! I will be there for two weeks. I haven't done a ton of planning yet, but will mostly be in and around the Sydney area. Ideally it would be great to be able to go for much longer, but that would involve more time and money, so I'm happy to just be taking what I can get.
I don't know how much internet access I will have down there, but I'll definitely post pictures as soon as I can, and keep everyone informed about the move when I get back!

Biking Pictures

I've been doing quite a bit of mountain biking with Riley lately, both around town and in Jasper. These pictures are from two different weekends in Jasper.Riley with her "adventure dog" backpack on


The group post ride: my friend Lindsay is in the middle, her boyfriend Dan on the left, with Riley at his feet, and Dan's friend Rob
And seconds after taking the previous picture Riley was asleep in the bushes

Riley and I biking. This picture is a bit misleading. Shes really fast and generally runs in front of me, not behind!