Good Times in Canada

Our time in Canada was not all contemplation and reflection. We enjoyed wonderful times with family and friends. Below are some of our memories, and I regret that I could not include pictures of you all.

Near the beginning and the end there were birthdays to celebrate.

My mother, at 80, is an awesome example of someone

who lives each day to the full.

In mid-August, Wendy and I got to hang out on our birthdays with some very special guys.

I did say special, didn't I, ... in many ways.

Hiking is always part of any trip back to Canada. This year was no different.

This little hike looked easy, but was more than I expected ...

... and, I think, more than my hiking buddy expected.

I couldn't forgo taking this shot of him. It made this old fellow feel pretty good to be still standing while this youngster was on the ground. (But in fairness, I should add that he had just completed a rotation of night shifts at his work.)

There was no outdoing these two, however, on our hike into

the Myra tunnels and trestles on the old Kettle Valley Railroad.

With Wendy's sister and family he were able to get up into the ice and snow. A three hour drive, followed by an hour on their quads, left an easy two hour hike to the top.

Taking every precaution to cut the morning chill we would

encounter riding the quads.

Our destination.

On top.

Our travels also took us by sites of past hikes and rekindled old memories. We drove the Icefields Parkway south of Jasper, and stopped at the Athabasca Glacier. It was an interesting moment for me. Whatever the cause, the glaciers of the Rockies are retreating, and the majestic glacier I once explored is considerably shrunken, and in retreat; more than 100 metres back from when I had last visited in the 1980s.

But looking up at a familiar peak (below), I still felt the sense of awe and accomplishment I experienced when I reached the top some 25 odd years ago.

Mount Athabasca

Below are a few more of the many memorable moments and folks that were part of our travels.

Two delightful sweethearts we had last seen when they

left Lesotho with their adoptive parents.

The littlest merman???

Driftwood denizen.

Don't mess with those prairie gals!!

A forest friendly.

Trying hard to appear "not so friendly"?!?

Cowboys.

Fishing derby fun.

Extreme bocce action.

Red Deer's very own, Masotho Man!!

Prairie belle.

And one more, our sons - from sea to shining sea. We were so grateful to be able to be together with them though it was brief. Jared only returned from a field expedition in the high Arctic with the Geological Survey of Canada on August 7, and we managed one weekend all together. Now, they are scattered again, from sea to sea - Dylan back to Nova Scotia on the Atlantic; Jared in the Vancouver area on the Pacific; and Byron somewhere in between, currently Quebec City for a training course before returning to Wainwright.

Them's my boys.

~ Benno ~