Sunday, July 17, 2011

Canada Road Trip 2011

Trip Summary
4 Days / 5 provinces / 4 timezones
4482KM travelled
Toronto to Vancouver

I travelled last week driving (obviously) across Canada from Toronto to Vancouver. The travel was pretty grueling since we were trying to go as fast as possible. Most of our travel days were long 16 hour time frames switching between me and my dad. Even with us 2 switching, it was hard to stay focused. I really wouldn't recommend doing extended travel times unless you have at least 2-3 drivers. We were fortunate enough to have clear skies for most of the time, other than some thunder and lightning on day 2 and 3, but mostly clear; and the pouring rain when we got into the Okanagan.

The drive itself was brutal, but the view was amazing! Canada is such a beautiful country. I got to see a lot of different regions and different types of scenery. There's so much natural wonder in this country (which you can see in the pictures I've attached =D).

The memorable views for me:
Ontario - trees that line the water of the lakes (maybe they're Great ;D)
Manitoba - beautiful yellow fields of mustard (not sure about that) that blanket whole stretches of land
Saskatchewan - flat, wide rolling fields of grass, dotted with quaint old sheds, or giant grain silos; also these odd power line towers that are of alternating (non-consistent) heights, some that are sinking and almost touching the ground.
Alberta - the timeless beauty of Lake Louise and the ice glaciers
British Columbia - trees, trees, trees, mountains, lakes, rivers, it's no wonder it's called Super, Natural British Columbia.

City Names
One oddity I love is that Canada has the most awesome/weirdest city names ever. Sault Ste. Marie (It's not even read how it's written), WaWa, Forget, Dorking, Pancake Bay, Tarbutt, Badger's Corners, Go Home, Portage La Prairie, Salmon Arm, Chilliwack, Swift CurrentMoose Jaw, Medicine Hat... The list is endless! =D

The Unhealthy Road Trip Diet
I think I hit the trifecta of eating poorly and blaming the rush in driving for the dining choices. We visited quite a number of unhealthy fast food vendors including: Tim Hortons, McDonalds, A&W, Arby's, and Burger King. I do not drink caffeine on a normal basis but in order to give myself an energy boost and stay awake I decided to have a daily intake of a few iced coffees.

Down The Road
Moving forwards, I'm hoping to visit more of the eastern seaboard such as PEI, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia. Also, I wouldn't mind going to the north to the Yukon and Northwest Territories or Nunavut to check out the aurora borealis (though I'm not sure if there's actually roads to drive through that area).

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Canada Road Trip 2011, a set on Flickr.

Tuesday, July 05, 2011

Summer 2011 Annual BBQ

Muchos gracias to James for prepping the excellent food and everyone for coming!
Hope you all had a blast and see you next year! (Or sooner hopefully =D)

Food Menus (Kudos to Tina for prettifying the menus that wasn't entirely artistic from my rendition)





No one was really taking photos so I didn't really end up with much to choose from


Mum mixing up some fresh fruit juice

Chef James and Bonnie + Tim

Where the action is!

Cedar Plan Salmon

My awesome fruit bowls! (Well, the bowls are mine, which are actually honeydew shells! Booyah)

Setting up for poker

Melissa and Alex getting their Dance Central groove on

Peter wins the first round of poker...

Mike dancin!

Poker round 2

Showdown between me and Matt for round 2

Henry finishing up the rest of the fruit salad

Awesome BBQ this year. Lots of new ppl and lotssssss of foooooooooood.
Poker round 1 goes to Peter.
And poker round 2 goes to me, Jeff! Yeehaw