Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, Canada

Glacier National Park borders Alberta,  Canada, and the Canadians have a national park which shares Glacier's border.  In 1932, the two parks combined to create the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.  One of the days we spent on the east side of the park took us to Canada for a look-see.  

We drove all the roads in the park and took walks at the good stopping points (between raindrops).  Here is the Red Rock Canyon which offers an easy stroll with many vantage points for photos.  (It's not very big.)

 Here is Blackiston Falls - a short, flat walk about 1.2 miles roundtrip (2 K).

This one is Cameron Lake, at the end of another road.  We did not walk far enough to see the advertised grizzly hangout which is at the far end of the lake.

 The Prince of Wales Hotel.  Tomorrow I will blog about the high tea at this beautiful spot.

Excellent Dinner

We now interrupt our regularly scheduled vacation series blog posts to bring you photos from the most delicious dinner that H prepared this weekend.  Salmon spinach salad (inspired by the one from the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn restaurant in Glacier). H made sure I took a photo since he wanted to appear in this blog.

 Not only the food, but the pear cider was delicious.  We became fans of blackberry pear cider in Eugene, but the selection of hard ciders is more limited in So Cal.

Flora and Fauna

Here are some additional photos not on my Picasa site of the variety of flora and fauna found in Glacier National Park.  The park has an extremely short visitor season, especially this year when the Going-to-the-Sun Road did not open until mid-July.  Animals are busy foraging and flowers are in bloom EVERYwhere.  We took a ranger-led walk to identify wildflowers, and we ended up remembering the names of about 3 species...

Mountain Goats on the way to Hidden Lake

One of many deer throughout the park

Bighorn Sheep near Logan Pass

One of many species of white flowers that I kept thinking were Queen Anne's Lace (no QAL in Glacier)

Columbine

Wildflowers galore on the hillside by Lake Josephine

Black Bear - we did not see any Grizzlies

Bald Eagle - we saw two at Two Medicine

Glacier National Park

Logan Pass view

Glacier National Park has been on our list of places we must visit, and knowing the the glaciers there will be gone by 2030 (if not sooner) put it near the top of our list.

The scenery is stunning, and as I went through my 500+/- photos, I was hard-pressed to choose just one to symbolize the grandeur of the park.

So, I recommend that people visit the park, but if you want to see glaciers, you must work very hard to do so.  One glacier, Jackson, is visible from the road (at a distance), and another, Gem, has been downgraded from glacier to non glacier (think poor Pluto) because it's too small.  Otherwise, one must hike quite a ways, usually with some strenuous uphill at altitude to see the other 20-some glaciers.  This year is particularly difficult to appreciate the glaciers because the snow pack was 180% of normal and the ice packs are covered in snow and look like the surrounding snow fields.  So, we didn't really see much in the way of glaciers, but we did admire and appreciate what the glaciers have created in the valleys and lakes.

We entered the park on the west side, having flown into Kalispell (which is a big enough city to have a Costco), and the first lovely lake one sees is Lake McDonald.  I photographed the lovely water with the rugged peaks in the background and oohed and ahhhed, and as we went through the park for 7 days, I had to promise myself I would organize my photos immediately upon returning home since we were to see and photograph many more beautiful lake and mountain scenes.  And waterfall upon waterfall.

The first three nights we spent in West Glacier, an outpost just outside the park with a motel, restaurant, gift shop, two gas stations, a grocery store, an adventure company and a few other necessities.  No internet, no phone service.

At the end of seven days we asked ourselves if we had missed email, Facebook, etc., and really, we hardly noticed the technological absence.  Perhaps it is because we grew up without the tether that we could easily revert back to (near) solitary existence simply by being in such a magnificent place and spending our time hiking, photographing, reading and searching for huckleberry pie.....

I have chosen some of my favorite photos from Oregon and Glacier and put them on my Picasa site (link on the left).

Eugene

After all the fun in Portland, we headed south to Eugene to spend some time with Liesl and Chris.  I think I may have a distorted view of Oregon, because every time I go, it is sunny and warm....

We spent three days here and managed to do a variety of things.  We got to meet Chris' mom, which was particularly good since next year at the wedding, I imagine that things will be hectic.  We all went out to Mt. Pisgah Arboretum to check out the wedding venue, and if the weather is anything like it was that day, we will be wearing light, summery clothes.

The pavilion where the reception will be

The other family member we met was Peanut M 'n M (or just Peanut - and maybe some other strange nicknames that Chris comes up with), Liesl's new kitten.  This little guy is trying to make friends with the alpha kitty, Jellybean, but it will be a little while before peace is made between the felines.  Peanut cannot jump up to the top of this cabinet, so Jellybean can get some peace and eat her food in relative solitude.

One evening's entertainment was watching Liesl play some slow pitch softball.  She plays on Chris' company team and Chris cheers her on.  I like the expression on her face as she prepares to hit this ball.  I believe that she batted 1.000.  She also made a great catch in right field.

Oregon is certainly known for good food, and we had quite a variety of deliciousness.  Not only did Liesl cook up stuffed pork chops and Greek pizza for us, but we also ate out at Papa's Soul Food Kitchen, Dickie Joe's, and Off the Waffle.

"Blue Goat" waffle - with goat cheese and blueberries

Other things which kept us entertained:

Playing Beatles Rock Band (way fun)

Playing Carsaconne (I want to play this more)

Going to the matinee of Cowboys and Aliens
Hal fixing Liesl's and Chris' bikes

Me going to Costco and having the tires rotated on the Prism (not so entertaining, but not too bad)

Oregon, Montana and a little bit of Alberta, Canada

Home again, home again, jiggity jig!

We arrived home last night around 11:30 which was 12:30 MST after 12 great days up north.  The first stage of our adventure began in Oregon where we saw two of my cousins and their families in Portland.  On Sunday Liesl came up from Eugene and we packed up the cousin bikes and rented some for us and took off along the bike path along the Willamette  River for several hours.  The weather was perfect and it seemed as though everyone in Portland was out enjoying the sunshine.

After bike riding, some of us were feeling peckish, so we treated ourselves to Burgerville.  The raspberry lemonade was particularly delicious, and the onion rings were massive!  This local chain claims that it is "inconveniently located for most of America."

My cousins' sons are basketball nuts and we watched some of their videos they put up on youtube.  It seems as though they spend their time outside making trick shots and filming them, and then inside putting them together in iMovie.  I think I just used to ride bikes and hang out at the pool in the summers when I was their age....

Flickr Vs Picasa

When I got my digital slr with 15 megapixels, I knew that I needed more storage for my photos, online as well as my own computer.  I thought that I might overrun my Picasa site, so I opened a flickr account (you need a yahoo account to do so).  I was thrilled to find out that with flickr you get new storage space every month. I happily uploaded photos and then I noticed a little sign that said I had put up 180 photos, and only 200 photos are visible.

I have decided that I will post my travel photos on Picasa and my "artsy" photos on flickr.  Flickr will be my exercise in figuring out which my favorite 200 photos are.  I have already deleted some, especially redundant photos, so my site should be continuously evolving.

Scanning Old Photos

I returned home from Kansas in June with a pile of photos to scan to share with family, and I finally got around to doing it.  Most of them I had never seen before, so it was like a gold mine for me.  This is a photo of my grandfather's grandparents' homestead in Herbert, Saskatchewan.  The notation on the back of the photo said that the house and the barn were attached.  It sure looks like wind-swept prairie to me.  I wonder where the wood came from?

29

Twenty-nine years ago, I married my best friend.

Summer Tomatoes

The tomatoes have been plentiful this summer.

Below is a great recipe for Pan-Roasted Corn and Tomato Salad from my daughter.

Pan-roasted corn and tomato salad 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 small red onion, chopped 4 to 6 ears corn, stripped of their kernels (2 to 3 cups) Juice of 1 lime, or more to taste 2 cups cored and chopped tomatoes 1 medium avocado, chopped 2 fresh small chilies, like Thai, seeded and minced Salt and black pepper 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro 1. Heat oil in skillet; add onion and cook until just softened, about 5 minutes, then add corn. Continue cooking, stirring or shaking pan occasionally, until corn begins to brown a bit, about 5 more minutes; remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes. 2. Put lime juice in a large bowl and add corn-onion mixture; then toss with remaining ingredients. Taste, adjust the seasoning and serve warm or at room temperature.