Lysander, Calgary, Canada

eilidhlive eilidh-dougan@hotmail.com Posted Jul 17, 2009, 4:10 pm	Hello all! I am Lysander, the lobster. I can not wait to start my travels around the world, but for now I am on holiday/vacation with my mum in the United States. Normally I live in the United Kingdom - or Scotland to be exact. On the east coast, by the seaside. I'm currently looking for someone to host me in August, so if you would like to, could you pm my mum? Thank you! Lysander xxx
eilidhlive eilidh-dougan@hotmail.com Posted Jul 25, 2009, 11:21 pm	Today was officially the most exciting day in my short life - I started my globe spanning adventure. Off I go to Canada. I sure am excited. Will I have many adventures? Who knows? I can't wait to find out! So until I get to Canada, adios! Lysander xxx
Rennire ren.the.great@hotmail.com Posted Aug 4, 2009, 11:59 pm	Hello again! Guess what! I arrived in Canada today! I was feeling very cramped in my envelope so the second it opened I reached out to stretch my claws and... OOPS! I felt something squishy! My eyes were not adjusted to the light yet so I couldn't see what it was! What a weird welcoming! My new host Ren told me not to worry about it. She seems to be pretty normal at least! She took me to her house where I met a wild TV named Rosalva. She's staying with Ren right now. I told her and Ren all about the part of Scotland that I am from. They both thought that it was very interesting! While I was showing off my puffin poster the phone rang! Ren said that it was a couple that wanted to come and see the house (It's for sale right now) and she would have to take her mother's dogs away so they wouldn't bother anybody. She told me I could come too so I said good bye to Rosalva and hopped back into the car. I wonder where we are going! How exciting! -Lysander
Rennire ren.the.great@hotmail.com Posted Aug 5, 2009, 12:42 am	We drove to Bedford which is the nearest town to where my host lives. (It was about a 15 minute drive.) This is where Ren will be moving at the end of August. I smelled something familiar that I hadn't smelled in a while Salt water! This is called the Bedford Basin.  The Atlantic ocean is out that way. In the distance you can see one of the bridges that connects Halifax and Dartmouth, the biggest cities around here. (Darmouth is on the side with the smoke stacks) Ren says she'll definitely take me to Halifax one day. There was a nice path along the water to follow There was a great big anchor statue. And some reading! I spent the afternoon stretched out on a post enjoying myself. This is so much better than being squished in an envelope! Bye for now! -Lysander
Rennire ren.the.great@hotmail.com Posted Aug 12, 2009, 4:48 am	Hello again! This past week has been a bit slow for me, my host was feeling quite sick and then the weather didn't want to cooperate with my travel plans. It didn't look like the sun was coming back any time soon so Ren and I made a trip out today anyway. We decided to go to the big Titanic grave site in Halifax. It was pouring rain when we arrived! It's a good thing that I am a lobster and don't mind getting wet! Here's the sign! Almost there! Here's some info about it: There are the gravestones! We went up and down the rows and took pictures of all the larger ones. This one was the biggest: A lot of the stones have no names on them because the bodies could not be identified. This man was a steward and a personal secretary of J Bruce Ismay. Ismay is the man that owned the Titanic and the guy that supposedly pressured the captain to go faster. (At least in the movies) Speaking of the movies... There are always flowers at this grave. I wonder why... The "J" is believed to stand for James or Joseph and not Jack, but you never know right? Some other graves were decorated too: This one is particularly sad. Children have left their toys here for this woman's children. This is the stone for her youngest child. He was only identified in 2002. The crew of the recovery ship that found him payed for a fancy burial. The stones were placed in a curved shape that resembles the front of a boat. It's kind of hard to tell from my pictures though. Well, time to go dry off! Bye for now! -Lysander
Rennire ren.the.great@hotmail.com Posted Aug 13, 2009, 9:49 pm	The weather was finally decent here today! Unfortunately though Ren had to stay home and do some writing so I decided to go exploring outside on my own! In behind Ren's house there is a dark forest. It looked a little spooky, but I decided to go explore anyway! Once I got inside it looked less dark and more... green! So much of the ground was covered in moss! It made me feel a little like I was in a fairy tale! There was also lots of interesting mushrooms! I decided that I would go in even deeper. Suddenly the ground in front of me disappeared! I was on the edge of a giant rock wall! I leaned forward to get a better look and... OH OH! HELP! I'M FALLING!!!! Just in time I was able to grab on to some twigs! But they were starting to break! I screamed out for help but who was around to hear me? Then I heard some scuffling noises and a masked face peeked out at me from up above. "Please help me!" He turned around and disappeared. My Toy Voyage had only started! It couldn't end like this! But then the creature came back! He was making it's way to the big tree trunk. Yes! He made it! Oh No! ACK! I'm slipping! "Hurry, climb on this!" The creature finally said something as he held out a stronger stick for me. I made it! But now what? Then the creature jumped really high in the air! What was he doing? He landed on the other side of the stick hard and... I went flying up! Whoa! I landed back up on top of the rock wall! Phew! I wanted to thank the creature, but when I asked for his name he just muttered something about a monster and ran away! How strange! I was sure glad to be back up at the top! I decided that that was enough exploring for one day! Maybe going into the forest by myself was a bad idea! (Especially if there really is a monster!) Bye for now! -Lysander
Rennire ren.the.great@hotmail.com Posted Aug 20, 2009, 11:49 pm	Hello Again! My host's car had been out of commission lately so I haven't been able to go very far from her house. She had it working today though so we drove into Halifax and visited a place downtown called the Public Gardens. The gardens were established in 1867, the same year that Canada became an independent country. There are surrounded by a big iron fence. Here I am at the entrance: This band stand is the main focal point of the gardens. Musicians play here on Sunday afternoons. (And other times too) There are three lady statues surrounding it. There are lots of workers around taking care of the gardens. You can just see someone watering the grass in the background here. I found a swan! She was too busy eating to come over and say hello but I understand. I like eating too! Here's a better look at her. There were also lots and lots of pigeons wandering around! A bridge! Here's the view from the bridge: There are two big fountains in the gardens as well. This one was my favourite: A massive duck pond takes up a big part of the gardens, but there were hardly any ducks here today! It still enjoyed it and it was very peaceful. I hardly felt like I was downtown at all! You can hardly see the big buildings in the background! Here's the other fountain: I think I may want to try my claw at gardening sometime! I wonder where I will go next? Take care! -Lysander
Rennire ren.the.great@hotmail.com Posted Aug 21, 2009, 9:27 pm	I've gone to visit another graveyard here (There sure are a lot of them around!) This one is the oldest in the city, it's called the Old Burial grounds and it's located in downtown Halifax. The entrance is marked by a giant lion monument. The trees block out some of the sun and it gives the place a very eerie feel. Lots of the writing on the stones is really hard to make out. It leaves some of this people's stories to be up to your imagination. What's this? Someone was murdered? Here is one of the older stones. The skull with wings on top was a popular image back then. In later years the skull changed to an angel head like this on this one: (The light was really working against me trying to take pictures, sorry!) Here is one of the later stones: And some more information about it: I wonder if this place is haunted... Hmmm Bye for now! -Lysander
Rennire ren.the.great@hotmail.com Posted Aug 22, 2009, 11:07 pm	Here are some of the buildings I saw while visiting Halifax: Saint Mary's Cathedral Basilica: It was too big to get it all in one shot! Here's the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia: And a random picture of the street. There is such a variety of different buildings in this area! The harbour is visible from many of the streets. Here is City Hall: And right across from it is St. Paul's Church, the oldest building in the city. (It was built in 1750) From here you can also see the Old Town Clock. It began keeping time in 1803.   It sure has gotten windy around here! My host tells me that what's left of Hurricane Bill will be blowing through tonight! Just when the weather had gotten nice and sunny too! Bye for now! -Lysander
Rennire ren.the.great@hotmail.com Posted Aug 23, 2009, 9:41 pm	Today I accomplished one of my life missions! I met a real lobster! Unfortunately my new friend was on death row. =( He broke into a lobster trap and got caught. (All us lobsters know that this is a capital offence) I comforted him a little bit but he was being very brave. Then it was time for him to go back into his bag so we said our good byes. Perhaps we will meet again in another lifetime. Rest in Peace! -Lysander
Rennire ren.the.great@hotmail.com Posted Aug 24, 2009, 9:12 pm	Hello! Today another TV came to visit! It's TobiHH who is visiting from Germany. I'm really happy because we get along great! It's too stormy out right now to go out on any adventures, but I'm happy to swap travel stories with TobiHH until the rain lets up! Bye for now! -Lysander
Rennire ren.the.great@hotmail.com Posted Aug 31, 2009, 3:19 pm	Hello! Things have been very busy around here! My host's cousin came to visit and we all spent a lot of time driving around with her. The first place we visited was a tiny fishing town called Peggy's Cove.  It's most famous for its lighthouse. The rocks here are very smooth from being hit by the waves so many times. They are also very slippery! The wind was blowing so hard it kept blowing my claws back! We arrived very early in the morning but there was already a lot of tourists there. Here you can see some of the town. It's so foggy here! These lighthouse things sure come in handy! Bye for now! -Lysander
Rennire ren.the.great@hotmail.com Posted Sep 4, 2009, 1:41 am	After we went to Peggy's Cove we went to visit Lawrencetown Beach. This beach is famous around here for surfing and as a hangout for young people. But the wind was blowing SO hard and no one was in the water! I don't blame them! It was still very pretty and worth the trip! Hopefully the next beach that we visit will be nicer! -Lysander
Rennire ren.the.great@hotmail.com Posted Sep 4, 2009, 4:36 am	Hi again! Next my host took us all on a little road trip to the neighbouring province of New Brunswick. We stopped in a city called Saint John because it has a nature park that Ren and her cousin had been to before and loved. Here I am at the entrance: All of that grass behind the flags is part of a big marsh in the park. There are pathways all through it but we didn't go on those today. We were much more drawn to the beach! It was much better beach weather than the last time! Once we were done at the beach we hopped back into the car and drove up that hill into the forest. Look what I saw on the way! A wild fox! So cool! Then we started walking on a trail that weaved in and out of the forest to show off different lookout points. Here is a forest part of the trail. It was still so pretty! I used these binoculars to look at the big ship. Here are some of the other lookout spots: The sun was setting so we didn't get to see all of the park but I sure loved the parts that I did see! I'm so glad we stopped there! Bye for now! -Lysander
Rennire ren.the.great@hotmail.com Posted Sep 11, 2009, 7:08 pm	Hello! TobiHH and I went with Ren and her cousin to visit the cottage where they spent some of their summer vacations growing up. Unfortunately the weather was terrible so we mostly hid out inside. Here I am on the porch. And here you can see the lake. We ran down to the water really quick to take a picture. This is where a little stream joins the lake. After that is was time to drive back to Nova Scotia and say good bye to Ren's cousin =( Until later, -Lysander
Rennire ren.the.great@hotmail.com Posted Sep 11, 2009, 7:39 pm	Hi! The weather was finally nice again to Ren took us to visit a Park near downtown Halifax. We started out down by the water and then we hiked way up a hill to where an old tower still stands. Here's the ocean! And here's  the tower! Some information about it: Interesting! -Lysander
Rennire ren.the.great@hotmail.com Posted Sep 18, 2009, 12:52 am	Hello! I had to say good bye to Ren and TobiHH because I am moving on to my next host now. Maybe we will meet again someday somewhere else in the world! I'll write again when I arrive! -Lysander
smaug Posted Sep 19, 2009, 7:45 pm	Hi Mum! I arrived in western Canada  ! When I came out of my envelope I met all the local and visiting TVs: Sully Monster is visiting from Australia, Snuttig comes from Austria, Ronnie is originally from Spain and sammino is a stay at home TV. They are very nice and immediately made me feel at home  . I can’t wait to explore this part of Canada  .
smaug Posted Sep 23, 2009, 4:36 am	Hi Mum! How cool, today a new guest arrived: her name is Nathalie and she is a German duckling  . smaug didn’t really warn us that someone else was coming so we got extremely curious when we saw a typical TV envelope, and what a great surprise was seeing her coming out  ...guess we’ll spend the whole night chatting
smaug Posted Sep 24, 2009, 5:23 am	Hi Mum! Wow, it was so hot here today, it went up to 34C  . It is strange to have the hottest day of the year when we are officially already in autumn, but smaug told us not to get use to it: the forecast for next week said that morning temperature could go as low as -5C or less,  . So, when he came back from work he told us that we should make the most of the nice weather and we went out for a walk along the river  . Here we took a picture from a bridge on the Bow River looking at downtown Calgary. Then we went walking a bit in the river channel and took another couple of pictures. The water looked so nice  that I fancied dipping in it, but the water was flowing rather fast and smaug was afraid I could end up far downstream so he advised against it. As you can see it was getting a bit too dark to take more photos but we kept walking a bit longer before coming home. It was nice, pity it soon will be so cold  .
smaug Posted Sep 29, 2009, 4:21 am	Hi Mum! today was a lovely sunny day so smaug decided to have a final (for the season) high mountain hike.  Our destination was Mount Allan in the Kananaskis Provincial Park. We spent the first part of the day climbing up a thick forest (where we tried to take some photos without getting anything presentable in an update  ). When we eventually came out of the trees we were on a steep ridge overlooking Kananaskis Valley. From the ridge you could see the valley heading north… …and south… …this big mountain called Mt Kidd... ….and the top of the ridge, called Olympic Summit. Just next to it is the Nakiska ski area (that you can't see in the picture) where all the alpine ski races where held during the 1988 Winter Olympics, hence the name…or at least I guess so  . Once we reached Olympic Summit we were not even half way to our destination  . We had to follow a long and very, very windy ridge (so windy, that rucksack was shaking  as if someone outside was really shaking it  ).  From the ridge we got some lovely views over Kananaskis Valley and the surrounding mountains  . ….and we could also see our destination, Mount Allan. Here you can see Mount Allan on the right and the much higher Mount Lougheed on the left. Halfway through the ridge we came across these funny pinnacles formed by rock that has resisted erosion . Eventually we reached the top at 2819m  and the view, of course, was great  : we could see the Bow River Valley in the north-west… …Kananaskis Valley in the south-east… …endless mountains in the north… …and Mount Lougheed just in front of us On the way back smaug decided to enjoy a bit the sun by laying in the grass. So we took the chance to come out of the rucksack, have a bit of fun by ourselves and so we went climbing  . First we organized the team: smaug (before falling asleep) suggested to have the two best climbers leading and closing the team. Snuttig  went first ( black bears are natural born climbers) followed by Ronnie, myself and Sully Monster, while Nathalie and sammino, being flying TVs, were going to support us by indicating us the best routes and holds from the air. Phew! Climbing is hard work  !! I didn’t really feel that comfortable, but with the others supporting me it wasn’t that bad  . Here I was following Ronnie up an angled fissure…with sammino and Nathalie keeping a watchful eye on us all the way. How tiring!! But how great to reach the top and sit all together watching the landscape  ! I must be the first lobster ever climbing a mountain  .
smaug Posted Oct 4, 2009, 7:42 pm	Hi Mum! Today it was Sully Monster’s birthday, so this morning we all gathered around to sing Happy Birthday for him  . Since smaug was at work and didn’t leave anything special for us, sammino decided that we should raid the kitchen and find some proper party food. We started with the fridge without too much luck  (I kind of noticed that the man didn’t come back home with any shopping bag for quite a few days). The first cupboard we checked wasn’t much better than the fridge, all canned food  Now this is better, not healthy maybe, but tasty  So we stuffed ourselves with nutella, cookies and crisps. After that we checked out the latest updates on toyvoyagers Then, since it was a fairly cold day, we spent the afternoon wrapped in a fleece blanket chatting and watching TV on the sofa...keeping a few extra cookies nearby, just in case
smaug Posted Oct 4, 2009, 10:58 pm	Hi Mum! Today we said goodbye to Snuttig. He is going to California...so lucky  ! He is actually moving with a very good timing as here, in the night, it started snowing  .
smaug Posted Oct 14, 2009, 3:51 am	Hi Mum! tonight sammino went out with smaug saying that he had a mission and he was going to come back with a surprise for us. Very, very much later he reappeared with two new TVs  : Hedgie and Mortimer. They all looked very cheerful, maybe a bit too cheerful...I dare say that they were totally drunk  . They decided that we should have a few beers with them... ... and then they fell asleep  . I guess we will have to wait until tomorrow to find out something more about them  .
smaug Posted Oct 18, 2009, 8:33 pm	Hi Mum! Today we were all still feeling a bit lightheaded after all the drinking last night  . smaug actually noticed that Mortimer was even too lightheaded and needed urgent surgery before the head came off completely  . Of course, we TVs all gathered around the surgery theatre  to help. I’ll spare you the details of the operation; luckily it was successful and when he woke up he was feeling fine  . Later in the afternoon we thought that we might go out for a walk, but it was still cold and snowy so we decided to spend the day nice and warm at home just looking out of the window  .
smaug Posted Oct 26, 2009, 3:15 am	Hi Mum! It’s been a bit boring around here over the last fortnight as smaug was too busy to take us anywhere  . The only event worth mentioning is the arrival of a new guest last weekend. His name’s Henry-Bo and he is visiting from Germany. As always we all gave him a warm welcome  . Yesterday we were hoping to do something, but it was snowing again in the morning  , ...so we just spent the day planning future trips. Eventually today the weather was good, so we went for a quick drive in the morning towards Kananaskis Country  . First we took a picture of Kananaskis Valley... ...then we stopped at this falls... ...and well. The well was really nice, but fully filled with soil so there was really no risk of falling inside  . On the way back we stopped to take a picture at Barrier Lake. The lake is apparently famous because it served as Alkali Lake in the X-man movies  . Later in the afternoon smaug had to do some work so we stopped at his office where, to keep us quiet, he damped us at the window with some food  . Nothing ever likely to feature on the Michelin Guide, but it was edible. When we went home we found out that Monsters, Inc. was on TV. So Sully Monster told us something about his previous life (before becoming a TV) as a movie star  . Wow, until now I didn’t really realized that I was sharing adventures with such a celebrity  .
smaug Posted Nov 2, 2009, 3:48 am	Hi Mum! Today the weather was wonderful here in Calgary  , so smaug decided to take us out for a trip to the mountains, but as we left the prairies and approached Banff National Park we were greeted by a mix of rain, snow and heavy clouds  . Still, as we could see some blue gaps in the sky  we headed North hoping that the situation improved. To our supreme disappointment we just entered a thick snowfall with no real sign of improvements on the way. The road conditions were getting actually a bit tricky  . Eventually we just headed back trying to take some wintry picture here and there when the gaps in the clouds allowed it. Here I was at Bow Lake with Crowfoot Mountain in the background... ...and here at Hector Lake. This is a famous bend just south of Lake Louise were road, railway and river are very close to each other and it is a typical location for a picture. Ideally there would be a train  passing by and a sunny view of the mountains...neither of which was really available today  . Later we just run from the storm and headed back home where we were greeted again by a sunny blue sky and spring-like temperatures  .
smaug Posted Nov 4, 2009, 3:34 am	Hi Mum! Today we said goodbye to Sully Monster who is moving to his new host. Last night we all gathered around to wish him a safe trip  ... ...and, of course, we ended up spending the whole night chatting  .
smaug Posted Nov 11, 2009, 6:59 pm	Hi Mum! today the weather here in Calgary was gorgeous so we thought we were going for some nice trip, but apparently it was snowing on the mountains  , so, to avoid ending up in another blizzard, smaug decided to just have a walk here in town along the Bow River  . At one point we found a platform over the river bank where we could take a couple of pictures...looking upstream... ...and downstream. Later on we found out that the footpath that we were supposed to follow was closed, so we went up an another small road that climbed the hill on the side of the river. It was mainly walking between the trees, but we could occasionally get a glimpse of the river below us and of downtown in the distance. When we were amost at the top we found another gap from where we could see downtown, But after that we ended up between some houses and, since it was getting very windy, we just decided to head back home.
smaug Posted Nov 19, 2009, 4:43 am	Hi Mum! This week a new guest arrived! Her name is Lucy K and she’s from Germany...and she brought some sweets for us, how kind of her  ! The rest of the week nothing really happened, but today it was Hedgie’s birthday so we all gathered around to sing Happy Birthday for him  . Later in the day, instead of getting a big cake for the celebrations  , smaug decided to take us for a walk in the forest in the ElbowValley, not far from Calgary. The trail was wide and not really steep, but it was mostly within the trees. I crossed a few frozen streams like this one... ...and occasionally had the chance to see the surrounding mountains  . Later, we found ourselves on a bank of the Elbow River...that gives the name to the valley. And this is the river again from the shore. As you can see it was getting dark and we reached the car just before nightfall. I was so tired when we eventually arrived back home  . Bye Lysander
smaug Posted Nov 23, 2009, 4:36 am	Hi Mum! Today smaug took us out for a walk. We went to Lake Minnewanka, not far from Banff. The lakeshore trail is one of smaug’s favourites in winter as even with the snow it is usually passable and safe. smaug was wondering if the lake had already started freezing...not the case as you can see. After a bit we crossed this small canyon called Stewart Canyon. And it was frozen up  . And in the distance you can see the lake. Here we are back close to the shoreline looking east... ...and west. The trail follows the lake shore up the easternmost point for more than 20km, but we just followed it for a couple of hours and turned back. We passed again close to the mouth of Stewart Canyon. This is where the canyon’s ice meets the lake’s water  . And here is another shot of the lake. On the way back to the car we noticed that someone built a big inukshuk on a beach, so we took a picture with it and the lake behind us. Well, it desn't look so big in this picture  , but it is just behind Henry-Bo's head  . And finally, while already nice and warm in the car, we got a final shot of the lake from its westernmost point. Smaug told us that in few weeks the lake will probably be frozen, but it will take a bit longer before the ice is thick enough to walk on it. Can’t wait to see that  !
smaug Posted Dec 6, 2009, 5:07 am	Hi Mum! It’s been a quite boring around here recently  as smaug was a bit busy. We had hope to go somewhere this weekend, but on Friday the weather played funny and during the evening commuting hour Calgary roads turned into a giant ice-rink with cars almost unable to turn or stop even at the slowest speed and pedestrians struggling to stay on their feet on the sidewalks (should have been funny to be out there  ). Of course the whole city got stuck in massive gridlock and smaug took more than 2 hours to get home (compared with the usual 15min). So, when he eventually arrived home, he told us that he had already enjoyed enough driving for the whole weekend  . But today he decided that, with the real winter approaching, there were far too many useless clothes still around the wardrobe and it was time to put them away and tidy up a bit around. sammino told us that this meant that the house was going to be a total mess (even worse than the usual one  ) in a matter of minutes, so we got really excited  . First we helped getting out some boxes. Then we opened them...hmmm, they looked a bit too full to get other clothes in there. But, as sammino foretold, soon clothes started coming out of the boxes (instead of going in  ) and they got scattered everywhere. We decided that the most interesting items were the cycling and football jerseys, so we started playing with them. But after a while smaug must have decided that we were not being helpful  , so he suggested that we might had more fun surfing a bit internet and to encourage us out of the way he even offered us some ice-cream  . It sounded a bit as a polite way to get rid of us, but the ice-cream was very good .
smaug Posted Dec 11, 2009, 4:20 am	Hi Mum! Today there was a big snowfall here in Calgary  . It started in the morning and became heavier during the day, with strong winds too, wow  . So, since smaug was busy first at work and then trying to make his way back from work  , we TVs spent most of the day chatting and looking at the snow from the comfort of the living room  . Even the balcony that is quite well sheltered was soon white with snow. Later we decided to rummage in the storage room and found some Christmas lights. We particularly liked the ice-cubes lights... ...and the snowball ones (very appropriate to the current weather  ) Hopefully smaug will allow us to help him in putting them up  !
smaug Posted Dec 14, 2009, 2:14 am	Hi Mum! Today we told smaug that we were bored of staying at home and wanted to go out somewhere. He suggested that maybe we should have a look out of the window first...hmmm, al covered in ice...can’t see anything  . We wondered if that was supposed to be a subtle message to discourage us, but it takes more than a frozen window to scare off some bored TVs, so out of we went  . Oh my, it was bone-rattling cold, almost -30C  , it felt like being Dr Zhivago! But we have a pride, so we went on and walked along the Bow River. In this section of the river the surface has not completely frozen yet, so the sludgy mix of ice and water is still more than 20C warmer than the surrounding air and causes this strange steamy fog  . As you can see the footpath wasn’t really crowded... smaug pointed out that few people (unless they needed to) were insane enough to be out and about in this weather  . A bit further downstream we reached a section of the river that was almost completely frozen. We also decided to play a bit in the snow  . It was so powdery that even us TVs were almost sinking in it. Eventually smaug said that his right hand was flirting with frostbite  (due to the fact that operating the camera with a glove on was kind of impossible), so he decided to head back home. About time, my nippers were totally frozen and about to fall off  !
smaug Posted Dec 21, 2009, 11:40 pm	Hi Mum, This evening smaug had to be in Banff, so we TVs accompanied him. On the way we stopped to meet this herd of Elks  . As taking a picture focusing on both us and the elks didn’t work, smaug decided to take a zoomed version of the above photo showing only a part of the herd. We suggested that we could get closer and meet them  , but smaug explained us that elks get a bit annoyed when people approach them and he didn’t fancy spending a few lively moments being chased down by a deer taller and massively heavier than him  . Since we were a bit early for supper, we went to have a look at Lake Minnewanka. You might rememeber that last time we have been there (about a month ago) it was still a…lake. Well, today, thanks to the cold weather, it was a massive slab of ice  . Smaug said that the ice would probably support the weight of the TVs, but their host might not be so lucky, so it will be a few more weeks before we can walk on the ice. On the way down to Banff we stopped taking a picture with another frozen lake and Mt. Rundle in the background. Unfortunately, once we made it to Banff, we were not allowed to attend the supper, but we found a nice window from where we could look at the mountains while chatting all the evening  .
smaug Posted Jan 2, 2010, 7:29 pm	Hi Mum, today a new guest arrived . His name’s Michel and he is a white bear from Germany. sammino went to pick him up at the airport and then introduced him to us all. Later, since his trip apparently had been far from smooth, we helped Michel to recover with some Timbits, and, of course, we provided help in eating them .
smaug Posted Jan 2, 2010, 8:48 pm	Hi Mum! Today we took Michel out for his first trip in the Mountains. As it was a bit cold we convinced smaug to take pictures from inside the car . Here we were entering the Bow Valley. While here we were reaching the gate of Banff National Park. Once in the Park we had a lovely view over Cascade Mountain. Then we took the road to Lake Minnewanka, but we didn’t meet any elk. And eventually we reached the Lake. Later this evening we were allowed to taste a typical Christmas cake from northern Italy, a pandoro. Not sure how smaug managed to find one here in Canada, but it was delicious  .
smaug Posted Jan 2, 2010, 9:31 pm	Hi Mum, Today smaug took us out to visit a place not too far from Calgary called Elbow Falls, where the Elbow River forms some nice (guess what!?) falls  . Here I was just downstream of the falls. (No, there are not ice falls: although it is very well hidden, there is also some “liquid” water coming down ). And this is the river flowing away in a nice little canyon  . Later we played a bit in the snow, but it was freezing cold and we soon make our way for the heat of the car  .
smaug Posted Jan 3, 2010, 10:24 pm	Hi Mum! Happy New Year  ! Today the weather was fine and it wasn’t even too cold (-15C  ), hence smaug decided that it was a good idea to have a walk in the forest to try burning some of the excessive food eaten over the last couple of weeks. So we TVs went too, working as ballast in the rucksack  . We spent most of the day under tree cover and it was a bit too dark to take photos, but we still found a couple of points where we could take a few decent shots  .
smaug Posted Jan 3, 2010, 11:16 pm	Hi Mum! Today is my last day here in Calgary as tomorrow I’ll jump in the post and come home. It is actually a group-departure day as Ronnie is also going home to Spain and Henry-Bo is moving to his next host in Hong Kong. So all the other TVs gathered around to wish us a safe journey … ...and sammino gave me a big goodbye hug .

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