Marcus's got a new Blankie

Well.  It's been a long, long, long time since I've written anything in this blog.  You get out of the habit (was I ever in the habit?) and then things just slip.  But sometimes things happen, and you just want to write about them.

Sarah and I had a baby.  That was really nice.  And, because we have nice friends, other nice things happen.  One of the nicest was the new blanket that Rachelle made Marcus.  It's absolutely gorgeous.  We're so grateful.  It's so beautiful I resurrected this blog just so I could post the pictures

Thanks Rachelle!  


(And thanks to Doug for the conversation, the prosecco, and the temporarily overstimulated baby ;-o!)

Golden Triangle Cycling Tour - Day 2

The next day we had breakfast at a bakery in Radium Hot Springs, before heading north on Hwy 93 towards Castle Junction and Lake Louise. The first part of Hwy 93 cuts a steep, narrow, twisting path through a canyon, and I stopped to take a hero shot at the 11% grade ahead sign. Sarah stopped just in front of me while I was composing the shot, which gave me a perfect view of the near disaster which developed.

Approaching, in the oncoming lane, was a convoy of vehicles, including an 18-wheeler. In my mirror, I could see another 18-wheeler coming up from behind. Because of the traffic in the oncoming lane, the truck coming from behind had nowhere to go, and was forced to stay totally within the lane. Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem, but because of the narrow shoulder and very bending road in this section, the trailer of the semi was forced closer, and closer, and closer to us. Finally, as things got worse and worse, Sarah, who was still half clipped in, fell over sideways to avoid being decapitated by a load of California lettuce and landed hard on the pavement. As soon as I could, I rushed forward, and we pulled all the bikes and personnel as far off the road as was possible while I patched up Sarah's wounds. Luckily, her injuries were minor, but it was definitely could have gone way, way, worse. By the time this photo was taken, we'd both managed to calm down, and Sarah was even smiling again.

After a scary start to the day, the 11km climb out of Radium Hot Springs was a relief, with the bonus being the equally long descent down the other side.

After the pass, Highway 93 travels up the Kootenay river and we got our first view of the Rockies. Numa Falls was a great tourist stop along the way, and the descent from Vermillion pass down to Castle Junction was nothing short of epic.

We spent the night at one of the Castle Mountain "chalets", operated by Decore Hotels. It was a reasonably nice-ish cabin, but not in a $260/night kind of way. Really, this hotel kind of epitomized some of the many issues I have with the national mountain parks. For whatever reason, if your hotel is in the National Parks, it's okay to charge $260/night and trust that the guests won't notice that your exclusively teenaged staff replaced the toilet paper with cut-grade sandpaper from Home Depot in the middle of the night. Oh well. At least I was clean.

Back to Day 1

Golden Triangle Cycling Tour Photo Album

Golden Triangle Cycling Tour - Day 1

As part of our honeymoon, Sarah and I decided to ride the Golden Triangle route in BC. This route crosses the continental divide twice as it travels between Golden, Radium Hot Springs and Castle Junction inside of Banff National Park.

Day 1

We started the tour at the Kicking Horse River Lodge in Golden. The lodge itself is a bit of an odd duck - it's a hostel, built using enormous logs (the last supply?) fitted together with dovetail construction. The exterior is stunning. The interior is furnished with a mixture of custom log/dovetail beds and the cheapest Ikea furnishings that money can buy. Private rooms are available, but interior walls are somewhat thin, which means that noise is sometimes an issue. Overall, however, it's a friendly, reasonably priced lodge that also serves a pretty good breakfast. We stashed our car here, and headed out onto the road.

Although the route is usually done in a clockwise direction, we did it in reverse, hoping to save the hardest day until last. Highway 95 from Golden to Radium Hot Springs makes a gradual ascent along the Kootenay River. It was a beautiful ride in gently rolling hills to Radium Hot Springs. The Columbia Wetlands along the route provided views of beaver dams, herons and other waterfowl, and a solitary osprey that flew away as I juggled lenses to photograph its nest.

After arriving at Radium we had dinner at the local pizza joint and stayed the night at the Mountain Springs motel. The room was clean, pleasant, and reasonably priced, which was a combination that we'd be hard pressed to find later on the trip.

Radium Hot Springs itself is a bit of a strange town. The hot springs seem to gather enough tourists that there's a unhealthy population of overpriced restaurants and an oversupply of motels. However, it's isolated enough that the locals haven't been completely overrun. This, combined with the sawmill down the road means that the small interior resource town is never that far away from the surface.

Forward to Day 2

Golden Triangle Cycling Tour Photo Album

Just Married!

Sarah and I tied the knot on Sarah's Birthday, August 25th at the Sequoia Grill in Vancouver. The weather report was threatening, but in the end the rain held off just enough for photos and the ceremony.

Our thanks to everyone who came and made it a great time!

We're back from our honeymoon in the Rockies now, and will post some photos from our trip soon.

Mrrrowww

In the random links department, this photo, from the Globe and Mail, cannot be missed.

If it wasn't taken by a professional photographer who might sic Lee Lau on me, it would be my new profile photo for sure...

Sarah's New Ride?

Ah, the wonders of Craigslist.

Sarah made the mistake of casually, innocently, and unthinkingly, mentioning that it might be nice to own a bike without fancy pedals that you could ride with ordinary shoes. Of course, I immediately thought - bing! I can buy another bike! For Sarah, of course.

So, when this Raleigh appeared on Craigslist, of course it was Sarah's new perfect just ride it casually around town bicycle.

It's a Raleigh Superbe, which, judging from the information on Sheldon Brown's site was made in or around 1974. Everything on the bike still seems to be in great condition, with the exception of the (non-maintainable) flat pedals. As a bonus, both the dynohub and the Sturmey-Archer 3 speed rear hub still work perfectly. An amazing bike, super fun to ride with nice, new, cushy tires.

Sarah briefly test rode her new bike when I intercepted her on her commute yesterday. I was riding the Raleigh, so we swapped bikes for a little while. Her comments? Holy cow is this heavy. It's wobbling all over the place. I don't like this! Stop! Stop! I want my bike back!

The best $100 I ever spent. I think she's in love. 8-)

Trip to Hornby Island

Sarah and I visited Doug and Rachelle on Hornby Island on the long weekend. It was a wonderful trip, and we had a ton of fun. Along the way, I figured out that I had forgotten to pack all my spare clothes and toiletries, and so we got to drive the 19A to the Denman ferry and made lots of stops at the communities along the way. A little slower, but way more fun.

Dinner on Friday night on the beach was followed by a tour of the island on Saturday on our bikes. Rachelle had a stand at the farmer's market
and seemed to be constantly bombarded with customers.

We also saw some lesser known Hornby attractions: this prehistoric beast has been extinct for quite some time, but is still impressive nonetheless!

My thanks to Doug and Rachelle for their amazing hospitality. I put a few extra photos in an album on Picasa.