Natural Beauty

Since arriving in Lake Louise it has been safe to say Jess has worked more than I have. I started off with an entire week off and since the snow has not been falling in abundance we have only been running one of the lifts, and as of yesterday the Gondola also opened. It was a lesson learnt working at Ski Rider back home, don't coup yourself up inside otherwise you will go crazy, so I had to entertain myself some how.

Simple solution, I am in one of the most beautiful places on Earth, The Canadian Rockies! You could walk around for hours and still be amazed by the simplest of things. When we first arrived there wasn't any snow, not good for somebody who is here to ski or snowboard right? Wrong! The beauty of the Rockies isn't the snow covering it, more what the snow covers.








If you remember reading about Jess's birthday which we blogged about, we built a snowman. The snow fell the night before so what would we have done had there been no snow to make a snow man? We would have enjoyed the sunshine, sat by the river and embraced Spring in the Rockies! Oh and we definitely would have made one of these guys, an Inuksuk.

An Inuksuk is a stone monument, traditionally constructed by the Inuits. Most commonly depicting human form in Western interpretation they were rock forms used for marking out the terrain either for navigation or food caches. The one pictured to the left I found on the bank of the Bow River while walking around, something I would have completely missed had it been covered by snow.







Since the first snowfall we awoke to on November 2nd, we have had smaller amounts of snowfall almost daily but still not enough to open the entire mountain for us keen skiers and boarders! So rather than fight the crowds trying to pack it onto the few runs we have open, I have continued to wander around and take in mother nature and her beauty.








In the summer the village is surrounded by walking trails, not very fun though come winter when you have to walk through knee deep snow... This is where I get excited because I am keen to strap on a pair of cross-country skis and enjoy these now 'cross-country ski trails'.





The second reason I am keen to learn how to cross-country ski is because part of the Lake Louise Ski Area's property includes the Skoki Lodge. Skoki lodge is the premium back country lodge of the Rockies, so well known that when Prince William and Kate were honey-mooning they spent a couple of nights there. So if its fit for a Prince and the Future King of England I think it will do for Jess and I.

So as I conclude my post for today, I noticed it was just a load of ramble from me but I hope it was insightful and opened your eyes that we aren't just here to snowboard. We are here to experience Canada, its culture and to embrace our surroundings.
Colin out.

The Road to Seattle

Los Angeles to Las Vegas, desert. Los Angeles to San Francisco, as boring as the desert. 10 hours from San Francisco to Portland, breathtaking!

Jess signed off staring down the barrel of a 10 hour drive to Portland, and neither of us were excited to spend an entire day driving. For those that haven't seen the Californian country side, once you leave the Cities and the Townships it is boring. Our trip was spent on the Interstate 5, so that is what my opinion is based off.

It wasn't until we passed the town of Redding that things started to change. We entered the mountains of Shasta Lake and what was originally barren plains of farmland became lush forests. Americans refer to this time of year as Fall, for us Aussies it is Autumn. It was hard to find the right words to describe how the forest lit up as the sunlight hit it. The reds, oranges and yellows set the forest ablaze with colour in amongst the green pines. It was just beautiful, and this scenery carried on all the way to the border. This was how we met Oregon, a brightly coloured beautiful State.




Before we reached Portland for the night we stopped in a town called Salem for Applebee's. No this wasn't the same Salem as the Witch Trials, however it was the first time we ate at an Applebee's! Our general opinion of the experience was great! Cheap tasty food, friendly service and a fun atmosphere mainly because the Colts beat the Broncos. At this point it is 9:30pm and we still have another hour to drive before we reach our pit stop in Portland.


Portland unfortunately wasn't a big stop on our trip, it was an overnight break at Hostelling International's Portland Guesthouse before heading to Seattle so in total we spent maybe 14 hours there, including sleep. Definitely our biggest mistake of this trip. Portland is the kind of city you want to live in, its a Big City with the Small town feel. So let me wrap up our experience there...














10:30pm we check into the HI Northwest Portland Guesthouse. It is one of three stunning Heritage listed buildings on the block that have been converted into hostel style accommodation. Sleep!

7:30a.m Alarm goes off... Sleep..
8:17a.m Wake up realizing we have no time. Showers are had, teeth are brushed, car is packed, we check out and buy a coffee from World Cup Tea and Coffee across the road. Relax... Walk in Couch Park across the other side of the road.

10:30a.m We arrive at Voodoo Donuts. Now these guys have revolutionized the idea of a donut! It's funky, it's original and best of all inexpensive! As with anything worth having in the States there is a line. Thankfully it wasn't an hour and a half like Mama's (not complaining) but within 20minutes we had a box full of donuts and we were ready to go for a walk in Forest Park.























11a.m Jess and I both love nature, Jess being a photographer likes taking photos, I like making stupid jokes about everything. We went for a lovely walk through Portland's Forest Park. It is huge, we only saw like a shard of ice after the titanic hit the tip of the iceberg kind of huge. Words do no justive so look at the pretty pictures below.

 12:30p.m. Goodbye Portland! We will be back! And we drove.

3:30p.m Three hours later, 43 punch buggies and an empty tank of Gas we reached Seattle. And yes we counted punch buggies, anybody that knows Jess and I knows that we have intense games but neither of us could believe how many we saw.

Stay tuned for Jess's post on what goes on in Seattle.