Emerald Lake, Snowshoes and Fever

2012 is quickly coming to a close, so Tom, Andrew, Ashley and I made an end-of-the-year excursion to Emerald Lake Lodge near Field, B.C.. Tom proposed to me at this very lake in July of 2009, and Andrew proposed to Ashley there earlier this year, so we all attach some sentimental meaning to this particular lodge. Or at least...  I do!

This was the first time we have been to the lake in the winter, all of our previous experiences have been in the warmth of the summer. Our first matter of business was to go snowshoeing!

Tom modelling his snowshoes.

The four of us always seem to have good luck with weather, whether it be winter sports or summer hiking. It was about -5 at the lake, perfect weather for a walk in the snow.

Tom and Andrew trudging along lakeside.

Tom was the first person to fall into the snow, and he did so multiple times during our two hour outing. We saw a few other individuals out on cross-country skis. But for the most part, we were on our own in the quiet.

A view of Emerald Peak.

Ashley and Andrew taking a break on a snow covered bench.

When we finished snowshoeing, we took a dip in the hot tub. Of course, Tom and Andrew decided to run from our cabin to the hot tub barefoot in the snow. It's no short distance from the cabin to the hot tub-- probably 150m at least. As Ashley and I trailed behind them (shoed and clothed), one of the Emerald Lake employees called after us, "At least you're wearing shooooes!"

Within hours of returning from our outing, I started to feel not-so-hot. I was struck down with a second cold in a mere two weeks! SO UNFAIR! I spent our last night at the lodge huddled in bed with a mild fever, while everyone else watched a movie in our adjoining rooms.

Tom and I.

Now that I'm home, I'm stilling dealing with a runny noise and a pesky cough. Hopefully I'll be able to beat it quickly.

2013 is almost upon us. Stay safe, and have fun! 

Happy New Year!

Penguin Plunge

Nothing saying Christmas Eve day like penguins, right? Right?

The Penguin Plunge exhibit has been open since February at the Calgary Zoo, and I have wanted to check it out for months. However, rumours of hour and a half waits kept my enthusiasm at bay. It was a high of -22 degrees  today, and people had better things to do than go to the zoo-- so Tom and I decided we wanted to spend out afternoon there.

At the entrance of the park, we were greeted by a group of penguins huddled together in the snow. You can see from the photos that the penguins are very close-- basically within touching distance. Although a sign warned us, "We hang by the glass but it does NOT mean we want you to pet us or give us weird things to eat! Help our keepers care for us by giving us space and keeping your belongings to yourself. P.S. We bite too!"

King penguins hanging out by the exhibit glass.

King penguins.

When we entered inside the exhibit, the only other soul's were the volunteer and trainer. The volunteer told us that the exhibit stays at 5 degrees year-round. She also told us that all of the penguins have been raised in captivity. The King penguins had never seen snow before their arrival at the zoo, so the zookeepers leave a door open so they have the option to go outside if they want. Clearly the King penguins love the snow-- they were ALL outside.

Gentoo penguin in a slow belly slide.

The exhibit is constructed so that you can get up close and personal with the penguins. This also means that it is relatively easy for the penguins to escape from the exhibit. The trainer told us that the penguins often make escapes when there are few people inside. Once the penguins are out, they immediately want back in! The trainers or volunteers will then have to corner the panicky penguin (squawking, pooping, and generally freaking out), and the zookeeper will walk the penguin to a back door to let it back inside.

Two Rockhopper penguins warming up after a meal.

We could see penguins playing with squid (i.e. lunch) in the exhibit. And we spotted to Rockhoppers who had apparently just gorged themselves. The volunteer told us that when the penguins eat a lot, their body temperatures drop, so they will shiver to warm themselves up. The Rockhopper on the left in the photo above will often do a little jig to warm up.

It was actually quite nice with the zoo being so empty. Many of the animals were sleeping out of sight-- presumably keeping warm on such a chilly day. But the animals who were out were very active with only a few people out and about to watch them.

Two Bactrian camels smile at us while munching away.

This camel was busy scratching his butt on the hitching post. He (or she?) seemed quite content in the snow.

Bactrian camel hanging out in the snow.

The only elephant in the viewing area was the male elephant, Spike. He pushed his ball around, and entertained us by feeling around inside a locked box for food.

Spike, the only male resident elephant at the zoo.

In the African Savannah exhibit, we viewed the hippos frolicking in their enclosure, and the giraffes nibbling at some branches. We also viewed the Rock Hyraxes taking an afternoon nap, and the warthogs family snuffling about.

Two Rock Hyraxes snuggled in their home.

Male warthog.

All in all, we spent about two and a half hours at the zoo before we joined the rest of our family for Christmas dinner. Not too shabby of a day, if you ask me!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Nuts for Christmas

A few years ago I was browsing through a Cosmo or Glamour magazine when a photo caught my eye. It wasn't a photo of shoes or clothing, it was a photo of a yellow bowl overflowing with pecans and pumpkin seeds. On closer inspection, I saw it was a recipe for homemade bar nuts. 

Spiced Pepitas and Pecans recipe.

I was intrigued by the unique combination of spices-- cinnamon, allspice, cumin and cayenne pepper, and decided to give it a try. This will be my third year making this nut mixture for Christmas. I love making it! It fills our house with the most delicious smell, and the taste is even better. The recipe is very simple. Although it only calls for pumpkin seeds and pecans, I have modified the recipe to include almonds. I mean, really, you can't go wrong with almonds!

You may recall that I posted about this nut mix last year. But I love it so much, I decided to document my "making of" this year.

1) Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

2) In a small bowl, combine sugar, salt and spices. Set aside.

Sugar, salt and spices.

Almonds, pumpkin seed and pecans.

3) In a large bowl, beat egg whites and water until frothy.

Nuts in the frothy egg and water mixture.

4) Stir in pepitas and nuts, then add sugar mixture. Toss until all are completely coated.

Nuts completely coated.

5) Evenly spread pepitas and nuts onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until crispy.

Nuts ready for baking.

The prep work for these nuts take less than 10 minutes, and you can clean up while they are baking. Afterwards, I like to portion them out into individual treat bags and give them as holiday gifts. So... Co-workers, if any of you are reading this, expect a bag coming your way in the near future.

Of course, there are always a few people out there who are allergic to nuts. So I will be making Mint Blizzard Chocolate Chip Cookies as a substitute.

Nut mix in our Christmas tree!

Only five days of work until the holidays begin! Hooray for Christmas!

Metric-- Live!

 A few years ago Tom (and X92.9FM) introduced me to Metric. Metric is a Canadian indie rock band from Toronto. I have listened to hours worth of their music, and I was happy to hear that they would be touring through Calgary again. Jeff, Steve, Billy and I picked up tickets right away.

Jeff and Steve had seen Metric in concert before, and they promised me crazy dancing from the lead singer-- but I guess she's changed up her act. There was no crazy-dancing to be seen.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed myself! Here are some shots from the night.

Emily Haines.

Emily Haines and James Shaw.

Emily Haines and James Shaw.

Exiting from the encore.

One of my favourite Metric songs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEz8N8AT-yo

Moving in at the Bow

Photo by Gavin Young, Calgary Herald

My company has been in the process of building a new building for the last three years. It is now the tallest structure in the city, and while it is not fully complete (some of the upper floors are still being constructed), many of us made the much anticipated move into the Bow this week.

My office.

Office moves are always a bit of a headache, but this one went pretty smoothly. Unpacking always creates chaos, and reminds me what a pack-rat I am.

Unpacking -- chaos reigns.

But once I found a home for everything in the furniture, it became functional very quickly.

Settled in.

Although I had this misfortune of getting an office with a support pillar and cross beam, creating a little weeny triangle window, I can't complain about the view. Up on the 40th floor, I have a great vantage point of James Short Park.

James Short Park.

But I can also see over and out towards the river.

Bow River.

And during our first week in residence, we learned that the 40th floor has it's own weather systems. Sometimes my view isn't so great.

Fog whiteout.

But I also know that there are greater offices for me to aspire to. One of the senior geophysicists was lucky enough to score this new office!

Fancy big office!

The biggest bonus is once again being connected to the rest of downtown by +15's. It's so nice to go for lunch without having to take a coat with you.

Overall, it's not too shabby of a place to spend 9+ hours a day!

Pranked

Tom and I landed in Calgary on a Sunday evening. Happy to be home, we forgot to set an alarm and slept for a glorious 13 hours. This meant that we were only awake for ten hours the following day where we sorted through a mountain of laundry and got groceries to fill our sadly empty fridge. However, it turned out to be not-so-glorious when I couldn't fall asleep and only got four hours of sleep before I headed back to the office. On my first day back to work, I was jet-lagged and groggy.

I walked into my office, and the first thing I saw was that every single one of my shoes, normally lined up in a neat row under my desk, were gone.

My geologist, cackling evilly, told me, "Did you look up? That's the only clue you're going to get."

Yes indeed. My team had taken every single one of my shoes, and wedged them into a ceiling tiles in the offices around our floor. There are about 40 empty offices, as our company is in the process of moving us over to the new Bow building.

I spent the next 25 minutes climbing up on desks to pull them out, while my petrophysicist followed me around the floor (watching me struggle) sipping his morning coffee. In fact, he came in early that morning, just to see how I reacted. I threw a pink runner at him.

I can't even say I was angry. I love that my team has a sense of humor. It was kind of nice to come back to a prank. They were even thoughtful enough (and I use the term "thoughtful" loosely) to count my shoes ahead of time so I could be sure I'd gotten them all back. And our female geologist showed them how to wedge them into the ceiling tile without damaging them. 

I had a bit of trouble finding the last runner. It was hiding in the staff kitchen freezer. But now all of them are accounted for.

I love my shoes!

Observations and Insights

As I sorted through our photos, I found a few favourites that didn't make it into my previous blog posts. I thought I would share those photos here, along with a few observations and insights that surprised me during our two weeks in China. Photos and text will not be related.

Detailed carving in a window frame, Beijing.

My first surprise was the copious amount of fruit in China. This probably shouldn't have been a surprise. There are 1.34 billion people in China-- clearly they have a supply of fruit. But when I think of China, the only fruit that comes to mind are mandarin oranges and lychee. What I didn't realize is that watermelon, persimmon, pomegranate, strawberries and passionfruit are grown in abundance. I love watermelon, and I ate it every day we were there.

Brightly painted buildings in the Summer Palace, Beijing.

Mandarin is a different language to speak. The tones and sounds are significantly different than English, and we really only learned, "Hello," "Thank you," and "No," while we were there. The tour guides always gave us Westernized names to call them by (Rebecca, Chris, Cassidy and Erik), but Tom and I always asked what their Chinese names were. We were never able to pronounce them or remember them after we asked!

A guardhouse on the Great Wall of China.

The Chinese love KFC. And when I say love, I mean, LOVE. Kentucky Fried Chicken was EVERYWHERE in China, and the restaurant fronts were huge! Unexpectedly, Pizza Hut was another Western restaurant that was very popular. Tom and I never did try a McDonald's, although we heard they have a delicious spicy chicken sandwich.

A camel hanging out by the Great Wall.

Intricate paintings on a rooftop.

Many of our guides were surprised when we were able to use chopsticks. It seemed like it was difficult for them to understand that Canada is multi-cultural, and we'd already had quite a bit of exposure to Chinese cuisine at home.

Elaborate carvings on a rooftop.

A bucket of crabs.

Most of the hotels we stayed at had small or medium sized gyms in them. If there was a gym, you could almost guarantee that there would be a ping pong table. And if there was a ping pong table, there was someone playing a game on it.

Deep fried seafood at a street cart.

We noticed that the hotels we stayed in lacked a fourth and fourteenth floor. Later in our trip we remembered to ask one of the tour guides about this, and he said that "four" and "death" are pronounced the same way in Mandarin. This lead Tom and I to wonder why thirteen is consider an unlucky number in our culture. We could not think of a reasonable explanation, so I turned to Wikipedia. There are several theories as to where the superstition originated from, but none seem particularly convincing.

A dragonfly on the Li River.

Chinese men do a lot of spitting and horking. I've heard it's a cultural thing, but I have no idea why. It's a little disconcerting to hear someone walking behind you, horking up a wad of saliva in your direction.

Mosaic tiles in the Yuyuan Gardens. Shanghai.

In Canada, if you are waiting in a line, there is a sense of order. It is rude if you cut someone off or budge in front of them. In China, it is everyone for themselves. There were many times when people pushed in front of us or forced us out of the way at tourist attractions and on the metro. Tom and I were aware of it, but never really got used to it. 

Lanterns in the Yuyuan Gardens, Shanghai.

Would I go back to China again? Yes, definitely. China is a huge country, and we barely scratched the surface. I think if we were to go again, we'd be prepared enough to do it without a guide, and explore completely on our own.

I'm a bit disappointed that this is the last post on my China experiences. But hopefully there will be more adventures to report in the future.

Xièxiè (thank you) for following, everyone!

谢谢

Hong Kong Delights

It is amazing how quickly humans adapt to new situations. As I've already mentioned, when we landed in China, we were inundated by a barrage of vehicles honking at each other. Part way through the trip, I stopped noticing the noise. But when we landed in Hong Kong, I noticed something different-- the silence. Really... I shouldn't call it "silence," it's not like it was quiet. But the people of Hong Kong are used to a British road system, and traffic is orderly like any other Western country. Honking was unusual, and suddenly it became jarring to hear a horn honk again.

Our three days in Hong Kong did not include a guided tour, so Tom and I decided to go uber-tourist, and bought Big Bus passes. The Big Bus routes went to all the places we wanted to see, and we could hop on and off when we liked.

Big Bus Tours of Hong Kong.

Tom and I on the Big Bus.

For our first day in the big city, we decided we'd like a change of pace, and headed to Repulse Bay for a beach day. Over 150 year ago, the bay had major problems with pirates raiding foreign merchant trips on their way to China. Eventually the British fleet repulsed the pirated from the area, thus earning the name, Repulse Bay. On the way to the Bay, we stopped in the town of Stanley for lunch and visited the bustling Stanley Market.

Repulse Bay beach.

Although the photo of the beach looks empty, it was crawling with tourists in the opposite direction. That is, crawling with fully dressed tourists. I had packed my bikini with me, but I would have been the only female in beach attire, so I stayed in my shorts and tank top while Tom went for a swim.

Tom swimming in Repulse Bay.

Me hanging out on the beach.

As we rode the Big Bus back into the city, we listened to commentary on the surrounding countryside and buildings through an audio system. We learned that the Lippo building is sometimes referred to as the "Koala Tree" because the building resembles a bunch of koalas hugging a tree.

Lippo Building, aka Koala Tree. 

Tom  informed me that in the movie, The Dark Knight, Batman jumped off the International Financial Center (IFC) building in Hong Kong-- we passed the IFC several times during our stay.

International Finance Centre.

We started our second day by enjoying the roof top pool in our hotel. The pool offered amazing views, but it was also freezing cold. The "hot tub" was also very cold, probably only a couple degrees warmer than the pool. We took a quick dip (less than 15 minutes) before heading back to our room to get ready.

Roof top pool at the Harbour Grand Kowloon.

Tom swimming in the hotel pool.

Next, Tom and I went to the Mid-Levels Escalators. Literally, an outdoor set of escalators that take you up a steep hill through trendy restaurants and shops. We wandered down Antique Road, and through the Central Market where locals can buy produce, seafood and meat. We saw some pigs heads in a butcher stall, but unfortunately, our photos came out blurry.

Seafood stall in Central Market.

In the later afternoon we joined the line for the Victoria Peak tram where we had to use a more aggressive tact.  The tram "line" was a bit of a free-for-all. Instead of an orderly line that you would see in Canada, people were pushing through the crowd and cutting off others in order to get on the tram. Once we finally got through and up to the top (about a 30 minute wait), we were treated to unobstructed views of the Hong Kong skyline.

Hong Kong skyline from Victoria Peak.

Tom and I timed our trip so that we arrived just before the sun started to set. We wanted to be able to go on the observation deck in the dark so we could take in the city lights.

In the morning we packed our bags and checked them at the hotel. We wandered through a garden full of photographers and turtles, before we settled on a restaurant to have a dim sum lunch.

Turtles in a park.

In the late afternoon we were relaxing in the airport lounge, ready for our flight home. Because Tom has travelled so much in the last year, he has reached "Elite" status with Air Canada, which gives us access to airport lounges in major airports. The lounges have comfortable chairs and a spread of food and beverages. I had an individual sized portion of chocolate ice cream, a can of mango juice with coconut jelly, and a Chinese pastry that is essentially a sesame ball filled with red bean paste. It was awesome.

I think I can speak for both of us when I saw, we were happy with our trip, but even happier to be heading home.

Our flights were uneventful, and we spent the next week battling jet lag. Now we're back to normal, and unfortunately... Back to reality.