Kite boarding at Grand Beach

No, that's not me.

Wet and wild - a vacation tale

We arrived back in Edmonton yesterday from two weeks at our cabin north of Winnipeg that were very wet and very cold, with the average daytime high being about 18, and the average daily rainfall being Noah's Ark. (Irony - Headline in Edmonton Journal today: "Worst drought in 30 years.") We got exactly one nice day at the lake, which was the day before we left. We spent almost 6 hours at the beach that day. Nonetheless, it wasn't an entirely miserable time, just a different vacation than what we're used to.

Here's one of my favorite pix from our time away - our friend, the tree squirrel, who would greet us almost every morning looking for peanuts. We also discovered that the ground squirrels would eat all sorts of fruits and vegetables in addition to peanuts - everything from pineapple chunks to broccoli.

From 2009-08-06 Summer Vacation 2009

The advantage of all the cold weather was that it was very windy, which lent itself to kite boarding, which we did not do, but was fun to watch.

From 2009-08-03.1 Summer Vacation 2009

From 2009-08-03.1 Summer Vacation 2009

Near the end of our time at the cabin, a dragonfly showed up on our porch and just hung around for two days. Then he disappeared.

From 2009-08-06 Summer Vacation 2009

Here's a shot down Grand Beach with way fewer people on it than usual.



Finally ... WHO'S AWESOME? YOU'RE AWESOME! (This was just me goofing around while my mom tried to take our picture. The hot babe in the photo is my wife.)

Vacation update

Winnipeg is cold and wet.

On vacation!

Headed out on vacation for a couple of weeks. Posting will be pretty light to non-existent.

Ol' MacDonald had a campground

We took our first camping trip to Ol' MacDonalds Resort out in Erskine this weekend, and it was lots of fun. Normally, we camp in Drumheller, but we've been looking for a place that's closer to Edmonton, and had heard good things about it, so we booked ourselves a spot. It did not disappoint.

We left as soon as the kids were done school Friday afternoon. When we arrived, we were a bit overwhelmed, as it's a much bigger campground than the one we're used to in Drumheller (I've never needed an actual road map to get around a campground before). Our camping spot was nice - shaded, and spacious enough for two tents with lots of room left over.

Friday night was basically setting up and building a fire. We quickly learned that the kids will eat anything as long as it's cooked in a pie iron over the fire.

We woke up Saturday to a very cool and cloudy morning. I wasn't planning to build another fire in the a.m., but it was so freaking cold out that it didn't take much convincing. That, of course, gave the kids another chance to make grilled cheese sandwiches in the pie iron, to go along with the eggs and bacon (cooked in a pan over the camping stove).

When it was still cool and blustery, we walked over to Buffalo Lake, and the kids played mini-golf in the little museum that's onsite.



Most of the much warmer afternoon was spent split between hanging around our campsite and going to the petting zoo. Nicole, being the big animal lover and zoo volunteer, was in her glory- particularly when she got Dusty, the old retired horse, to come across the field to her and get petted. Michelle, Char and I were amused by the zany antics of the piglets (I named them Chop, Bacon and Ribs) who chased each other around the pen, as well as the goats and sheep, which we fed a steady diet of leaves and grass we picked off the ground.



We capped of Saturday with a fireworks display on the beach that ended close to midnight (and resulted in me sleeping until 7:30 this morning, which is literally the latest I've slept in since I moved to the Premier's office in October).

Today was spent mainly hanging around camp - enjoying the campfire, making stuff in the pie iron - before cleaning up and heading home. Oh, and we visited the coffee shop to buy lattes. (Yes, we're addicted.)

It was a really good time. In fact, we've already booked the exact same camping site for next year.

I'm alive

I'm still here. Just had a busy week and nothing struck my fancy enough to blog about it. Going camping this weekend, so I might have some photos to share next week.

Back from mini-vacation

Here's some brief clips from the weekend - Waterton National Park, Cameron Lake and Red Rock Canyon. Plus one of my semi-patented self-portraits.

On (mini) vacation

I booked a vacation day along with the May long weekend to get away for a few days. So my lack of posting will likely continue for a while.

Back home

So we're back from our week-long excursion to Manitoba for Christmas with my wife's family and then my family. Good times were had by all, although we're all coming back a little under the weather. Good thing I have most of the rest of the week off.

I got to see the UFC show on Saturday at my brother and sister-in-law's condo (complete with 42-inch widescreen TV). Very good show with both title matches having surprise endings with new champions. However, it sets up Brock vs. Mir II later this year, so it's all good.

On vacation

Leaving on Christmas vacation today. But don't despair. Due to the miracle of scheduled posts, The Newsroom will remain (a little) active for the next two weeks.

Tolls taken off Coquihalla

Tolls taken off Coquihalla

Posted using ShareThis

My trips to Tacoma just became $20 cheaper.

Gud leminayd!

Wheat

Inspired in its own little way by this picture from Colby Cosh.

Grand Beach vacation video

Sunset at Grand Beach II

Sunset at Grand Beach

On vacation!

By the time this gets posted, we'll be on our way to Manitoba for two weeks of R&R at the lake.

In other words, I'm going to be largely without Internet for a while and even if I have it somewhere, posting here is not going to be a priority.

One year ago ...

It was a year ago this past Saturday that we left for Hawaii. What a great vacation!

Bunnies! Camping! Vacation!

Two of the hundreds of "wild" rabbits that roam the Dinosaur RV Campground in Drumheller, where we spent the long weekend.



And some photos from the camping trip:

Gone camping

Have a happy Canada Day!

I'll be back next week.

And we're back!

The 2,400-km roundtrip from Edmonton to Stonewall (MB), via Saskatoon, Regina and Brandon is now complete. Dean and Nicole's wedding was a blast (my wife uploaded some pictures on Facebook). It was supposed to be an outdoor wedding, but it rained and rained and rained and rained and rained ... we're talking Noah's Ark here, folks ... and so the wedding was moved inside a big tent, which was still fine. The custom-made M&Ms with their names and wedding date was a nice touch.

Ewww ...

Next On The Airline Chopping Block: Lavatory Sinks?

It's funny (OK, it's not but you know what I mean) ... we don't do a lot of flying, but already my wife and I have been rethinking some major future travel plans because of the disintegration of the airline industry in North America. Stories like this only confirm why we drive pretty much everywhere we can.

Mini vacation

By the time this is posted (using the very handy "scheduled posts" feature), we'll be on our way to Winnipeg for a family wedding. Very exciting.

I've got post or two already scheduled in the queue for the next few days, so the blog won't be going completely dark.

I'll try to post some road stories and pictures after we've returned.

Two years ago this weekend ...

... we were in Disneyland.



It was way more fun that I thought it would be. I wrote a couple of columns for the Edmonton Sun on it when I got back because I went to Anaheim expecting a cheesy theme park and instead found myself immersed in a wonderfully fun vacation in two clean and well run theme parks that - expensive food notwithstanding - were utterly exceeded my expectations in every way.

Hawaii panorama

P1010153-P1010156
Originally uploaded by mjenkinson

If you go to the "Shared Items" list down the side of my blog, you'll notice an entry for stitching photos together in a panorama.

I went back to that one tonight and tried it, and it works exactly as advertised! I put this panorama of the skyline from the roof of our condo in Waikiki together in no time flat. I LOVE this photo.

EDIT:

Here's another one. I love this one more!

Weekend diary

A recap of our weekend ...

• We left as soon as I was done work Thursday for Hinton, where we were staying overnight. The trip got off to an auspicous start as our hotel had lost our reservation. Now, this wasn't one of those things where we made our reservations online or something. My wife had called the hotel and spoke to a, you know, hotel employee and made our reservations that way. Despite that, there was nothing in the system. Good thing they had lots of empty rooms that night.


• Friday's drive through the mountains was largely uneventful, except for some blizzard-like conditions near Blue River, and some dodgy weather on the Coquihalla Highway. I love driving through the mountains - so beautiful and majestic.


• The border. ARGH! THE BORDER! We had a two hour and twenty minute wait at the border in Sumas, which is by far the longest I've ever had to wait for any kind of border crossing. My younger daughter passed the time by watching an entire movie on our little DVD player. When we finally did make it to the checkpoint, the border guard told us we were a part of history: Sumas had the longest waits of any land crossing between Canada and the U.S. on Good Friday. Lucky us. I expect the certificate in the mail.


• Sadly, our border experience was just the beginning of the delays, as I5 was brutally backed up by traffic. It took us more than four hours to get to Tacoma from the border because of the congestion. We used some of that time to play with the radio and found every Christian music station we could.


• As expected, Washington state is green and lush and spring is already in full bloom. My lungs were quickly spoiled by the humidity and freshness.


• One of the weekend highlights was seeing some deer run through the yards near my grandfather's house.





• There was a heron out drying its wings on the dock next to his place.
  
  
  
  And we saw a bald eagle dive-bombing the lake to get fish. Or, perhaps, ducks. He didn't seem to discriminate in what he was wanting to eat.


• In short, our time in Tacoma was great. Good food, lots of family, no complaints. As a bonus, I stocked up on Diet Mountain Dew and the Caramel Pepsi Jazz, neither of which are available in Canada.
  


• The return trip was plagued by the same kind of delays as the trip down. We left Tacoma Sunday night and drove to Hope, which went fine. (And the wait at the border to get back into Canada was a far more reasonable 20 minutes.) But our planned return on the Coquihalla Highway was kiboshed by a Mountie at a Hope gas station at 6 a.m., who warned us against it and told us to take Highway 1 instead. That was not the most fun drive I've ever done, particularly because it was snowing a lot for the first 30 minutes or so of the windy drive on a narrow highway, but we made it home in one piece.


• The video below is my wife playing with my aunt's snake - or, should I say, one of her snakes. The video stars Redrica, her boa. The mere fact this video exists is a testament to my wife's willingness to make a good movie despite her great unease around snakes (Actually, she wanted a kick-butt Facebook profile photo of her with the snake. The video was a bonus). The final clip guest stars my younger daughter, Michelle.
  

We're back!

We're back from our whirlwind trip to Tacoma. Longer report to follow in the next couple of days as I get the pictures off our camera and can find some time to write something up.

On vacation

We're spending Easter weekend travelling to the American west coast to visit family, so it's unlikely anything will be posted until early next week.

In the meantime, here's a Chris Tomlin song appropriate for Easter.

Polynesian Cultural Centre - Oahu, Hawaii

As readers of my old blog are aware, I took the family to Hawaii last year for what I called my "Sun-sponsored" vacation. (Translation: I spent some of my buyout money from the Edmonton Sun on the holiday. I actually wanted to take a picture of myself on the beach holding a sign saying, "YOU PAID FOR THIS" and sending it to then-publisher Gord Norrie, but I'm pretty sure he would not have found it amusing.)

Since then, I've put all of our Hawaii videos on YouTube. Over the next few weeks, I'll be reposting them here, because in this weather, we need all the reminder of warmth and sunshine we can possibly get.

Today's video is the canoe pageant at the Polynesian Cultural Center.