Canmore & Fondue - Oh My!

Canmore Grande Rockies Resort

Usually once or twice a year, Tom and I pack ourselves up for a couple of nights to get out of the city. We never go far, usually Banff or Lake Louise will suffice. This year we heard about a new hotel opening in Canmore, called the Grande Rockies Resort. http://www.granderockies.com/ The hotel restaurant isn't open, and the pool didn't look like it was finished-- but because of this, the hotel is operating with reduced room prices. So we decided to check it out.

The rooms themselves are really nice. They look just like the photos on the website. The hotel room looked like a full condo apartment. Granite countertops in the kitchen, full fridge and microwave, laundry, two flat screen TV's, etc. Everything smelled new. The king sized bed didn't have divots in it from previous sleepers. The towels were still fluffy, and the bathroom had the most high-tech shower I'd ever see. We unfortunately forgot our camera, so I've googled a photo of a shower that looks something like it (but not quite). You could choose a steam or rain shower, foot or back massage, music, fans and lighting all from a touchpad inside the shower!

High-tech shower!

I only have two complaints about the hotel. First of all, the bathrooms were equipped with low flow toilets. I know Banff and Canmore strive to limit their environmental footprint--and I applaud them. But low flow toilets barely flush. So you have to flush them two or three times to get the same results as a normal toilet. And... I'm pretty sure that defeats the purpose of the low flow toilets in the first place! My second complaint was that the thermostat in the room didn't work! At 23 degrees, it felt like a bloody sauna in there! So we ended up leaving the balcony door and windows open. But we were facing the TransCanada, so there was a lot of noise at night. And it was still stifling and hot!

But don't get me wrong. The hotel was nice. Plus, it was really quiet. There were about 6 cars in the parkade which surely could have held over a hundred vehicles. We didn't ever see another person in the hallways either!

During the day on Friday we took a drive up to the community of Silvertip to take a look around. We also did a short hike to Grassi Lakes. There had been some fresh snow overnight, so parts of the trail were covered in snow, some were channeling runoff, and some areas were bone dry. The water in the lakes is a lovely turquoise. The weather stayed warm for us, and we spent about an hour and a half enjoying the scenery. Then Tom decided to climb up higher to get a look at some fossils in the limestone. He slipped a bit on his way down and grabbed onto a prickly plant. He still has some thorns in his hand to prove his adventures!

After out afternoon out, we were hungry! Last year when we went to Banff we made a reservation at the Grizzly House for dinner. We ended up cancelling at the last minute because I developed a terrible stomach ache about two hours before dinner. So we decided we'd try the Grizzly House one more time!

The Grizzly House is a fondue restaurant. A very busy restaurant! They offer vegetable, cheese and hot oil fondue, or you can also opt for a hot rock to cook your food. We decided to try the complete fondue dinner. It started with French Onion soup and was followed by cheese fondue (with dipping bread). We then selected two of the specials for the main course, a seafood trio of lobster, scallops and prawns, and a game trio of venison, elk, beef and buffalo. We cooked our main course on a hot rock, which the server told us was granite slate. Although I was tempted to argue with him (it has to be granite OR slate... It can't be both! Come on!), I let it slide. And that was followed up with a chocolate fondue with strawberries, banana, pineapple, blackberries and apples for dipping. Yum!

The meal was delicious. The only downside was that our clothes smelled like uncooked seafood, cooking smoke and grease after we left. And when we woke up the next morning, it was still stuck in our clothes!

The next day we went to a busy little cafe called Communitea. I had a blueberry and lemon iced green tea, and Tom had some white cherry tea with our lunch. Then we headed back home for the kind of delightful spring weather that only Calgary can offer (i.e. blizzarding snow).

Now I'm ready for another week of work.

Profiles of a Wedding Party: Part 2

I know you've all been dying to meet Tom's wedding party. Unfortuantely, if you've already seen our wedding website, you'll find that the profiles here are only slightly more in depth.

But anyway...

Here.. We... GO!

THE WEDDING PARTY

Andrew and Thomas circa 1991.

Andrew/Andy - Best Man

When I first met Tom's younger brother, he was introduced to me as Andrew. So I call him Andrew. To me, he'll always be Andrew. Little did I know that he has an alter-ego, "Andy." In fact, it seems like everyone outside of the immediate family calls him Andy. Sometimes it causes confusion among mutual friends. I'll say something like, "Yeah, I saw Andrew this weekend." And the mutual friend will be like, "Who's Andrew?" And I'm like, "... Andrew... Greig?" And the friend realizes, "Oh! Andy Greig!" It's Andrew, damnit!

Andrew is the kind of person who can easily make light of any situation. I'm not sure if I would describe him as an optimist, but I've never seen him in a bad mood before. He takes things as they come, and makes the best of them. Andrew drives a scooter, plays soccer, and works as a facilities engineer. Once, Andrew fought a bear. That's not at all true, but I told him he should tell people that after he messed up his face during an icy cross-country skiing accident.

I can't imagine anyone else be Tom's best man. And Andrew-- since the Hale's are hopeless (they told me they were going to brown-bag their liquor in the parking lot during the wedding), it's all up to you! No pressure.

"JH" Jeremy (right) and "BH" Ben (left)- Groomsmen

When I first started to write about Ben and Jeremy, I tried to write separate profiles for them. However, I'm not sure if it is possible to capture the essence of their characters without writing about them together. Don't get me wrong-- these two brothers are nothing alike. They are definitely individuals. But because they spend so much time together, describing one involves describing the other.

As far as I know, Tom met Ben and Jeremy in Junior High School. They've played soccer together for a number of years, and get together almost every Sunday with the rest of their friends to play a variety of sports. They talk (and by talk, I mean gossip) daily on their gmail "chain," and do normal things that guys do. Drink. Eat. Watch more sports. Trash talk each other about sports. Goad each other. Talk about electronics. Goad each other more.

When Tom and I started dating over four years ago, Jeremy and Ben were the first two of Tom's friends that I met. It was their birthday (Jeremy and Ben are twins), and we went to Outlaws. I remember they were really drunk, but very welcoming. They asked me a lot of questions, and by the end of the night, I didn't feel so nervous about being the new girlfriend and meeting the rest of Tom's friends.

Over the years, I've learned a few things about Ben and Jeremy. For example, they are slobs. When they bought their house, it was always a mess. And if we ever went over there, I made a conscious effort not to use their bathroom. Ben and Jeremy are also absolutely and completely tone deaf. If you want your ears to bleed, just listen to them sing "Roxanne" on Rock Band. And no Jeremy, the microphone is NOT broken.

I see Jeremy fairly often because we work at the same company. Allegedly Jeremy works in "Procurement," but no one really knows what that means. I am his back-up coffee buddy (i.e. he calls me when his regular coffee buddy is MIA). He is supremely jealous of me because I work in a superior business unit to him. Once when he took a bad hit in a soccer game, I offered to take him to the hospital. His shoulder was separated, and there was some bone poking out at an odd angle under his skin. It was really gross. I also played on a volleyball team with Jeremy for about a year. Every once in a while he'd get stuffed by a girl-- but most of the time he owned the space above the net. Personally, I think Jeremy is pretty great-- and I'm glad Tom asked him to be a groomsman.

I don't generally see Ben all that often. This could have something to do with all the time Ben spends in the field with his job. Or it could be because Ben has a girlfriend, and spends a lot of his spare time with her. Ben used to be a biochemist, but now he's an environmental scientist. He currently lives with his mommy. One of my fondest memories of Ben was at Colin and Erin's wedding in 2009. Ben foolishly bet that if Erin could answer an obscure question about Colin, Ben would kiss a dude-- Vishal. I'm not exactly sure what Ben was thinking, because Erin answered the question. So Ben kissed Vishal. I'm sure this story will follow Ben to his grave.

Jeremy (left) and Ben (middle) circa 2009.

These guys round out our wedding party nicely. We don't have an evenly balanced wedding party (which really seems to bother some people), but we are represented by the people that are most important to us.

Only five and a half months to go!

More updates to come.