24/11/2015 by photosbyhank

Meeting a foreigner in Beijing

October the first dawned as a bright and sunny day. It was also the start of the Golden Week Holiday in China. Lucille had told me that Beijing would empty out as a lot of people went home for that week. We were going to test this theory with our first stop of the day.

We headed to the subway to go to The Forbidden City.

We barely got out of the subway station and we were immediately in a throng of people shuffling along like penguins towards a security checkpoint. Being Canadian I soon had a few people between Lucille, Curtis and myself. Since I could see them I wasn’t too concerned. Soon I noticed them talking to another foreigner. They were far enough ahead that I couldn’t hear what was being said so I just kept shuffling along with the masses.

They cleared security first and waited for me. The line branched off with the left side heading to Tiananmen Square so the crowds seemed manageable all of a sudden.

We had to clear security again when we entered The Forbidden City and there was a sign saying they were limiting entrance to 80 000 people that day. Oh, eighty thousand, is that all?

Turns out the fellow they were talking too had just arrived from Belgium, dropped his luggage at his hostel and headed out to see Beijing. He wondered if he could tag along with us for a while. We had no objections so the 4 of us started to wander inside the gates.

Construction started in 1406 and took 14 years to build the Forbidden City with over 1 million workers used in it’s construction. It is approximately 3/5ths of a mile by 1/2 mile inside a 28.3 foot tall wall and is surrounded by a moat that is 20 feet deep and 171 feet wide.

To say there is a crap ton of stuff to see there is an understatement and I don’t mean all the people either.

The blue sky was so nice to see but it made for some nasty contrast for photo taking, but you do what you have to do.

As you can see, there were a few people in the place.

Forbidden City Panorama2

It was an area that made for panoramas.

Forbidden City_Panorama

We walked towards the east gate and found an area that was almost empty of people. It was an area with buildings full of pottery.

Tranquility break over we headed back to the main area to work our way north.

Count the tour groups

The building were quite crowded as were the narrow passageways between building so we headed for a large open area.

Rosie taking in the sights

Forbidden City_Panorama3

We were all getting hungry so we started making our way out.

We wandered around looking for food and finally decided to try Niuge Jiaozi Dumplings. We each picked a flavour and shared 4 fabulous dumplings. It must of looked funny to see 4 left handed foreigners using chop stick. Curtis looks like a pro with them, Lucille looked like she knew what she was doing, our yet unnamed Belgium looked proficient with them and I just sucked using them. It was only my 2nd day mind you. I am liking dumplings a lot though. Our new friend was so happy to get to see stuff that he probably wouldn’t of gotten to that he bought us all lunch.

As we wandered over to Wangfujing Street on our way down to Bug Street we saw a few interesting things.

Just a small load

A rather large Nikon 1

Not far from Bug Street is an interesting church.

Lucille, Curtis and I still have no idea what his name is.

We arrived at Bug Street and waded into the chaos.

Does he look familiar? Anyone?

Looking west

Looking east

We escaped the crush of “Snack Street” without any of us trying any bugs or other disgusting items. Our Belgium friend was starting to slow down but agreed to come with us to check out the Silk Market.

A bookstore full of books I can’t read

I took this for my niece Lisa. I’m sure they are all real

Lots of me carry the beads around

It was my first shopping market and I found something that I thought Lynda would like. I negotiated a price that I was happy with for the family ball that I found for her. Afterwards, Lucille told me I probably could of gotten it for less. I figured you can’t put a price on love, but I’ll know next time.

The Belgium was looking pretty tired at this point so we said our goodbyes (without ever learning his name) and he headed back to his hostel to get some sleep.

We started down the road for Ritan Park.

They spelt Lynda’s name wrong

Small, even by Chinese standards

Free hopscotch?

It is a decent sized park with a nice water feature.

I even found a panda

As we headed towards an exit gate we saw people dancing in the park. Lucille tells me it is a pretty common thing to see and they aren’t always in a park.

On the way to Parkview Green Mall I saw what I thought would be a perfect business opportunity for my brother Kevin.

Parkview Green Mall is a fairly new , modern building with an interesting mix of stores and architecture.

That’s a big flower

Unusual cows

Interesting use of string

The world’s largest 3D printed structure was on display in the mall.

Punch buggy yellow! No return!

There were other interesting displays in the mall.

Since we weren’t shopping we headed back outside.

It was time to start thinking about supper so we ended up at Luga’s Mexican Restaurant. I would rate both their food and margaritas as average. I know my sister doesn’t like Chinese food much but so far that has been the best food here. Ex-pat food places have been pretty mediocre all in all.

No trumpets allowed?

That put an end to a busy day. We only walked 21,690 steps. Seems like it should of been more with all the things we saw today.

There is always tomorrow.

23/11/2015 by photosbyhank

Birthday duck

September 30th dawned a bit brighter than the day before and I dawned a bit older than the day before. I don’t feel any older, maybe that comes later.

The plan today is to go meet Curtis for lunch and get some dumplings then do a walk around Tsinghau University as that is where his office is located and go for some Beijing Duck for supper.

It’s my first look a the subway system in Beijing. Doesn’t seem as bad as I’ve been told. It is a bit of a ride to get there with the transfers, but not so bad all in all.

We trust Curtis to order the dumplings and he made good choices. They are tasty and I especially like the hot sauce on them.

Lunch is done and it’s time to go for our walk around the University.

Tsinghua University was established in 1911 and is now one of the top 2 universities in China along with Peking University. Apparently it has been called the MIT of China. I don’t know what the grounds of MIT look like, but I doubt they are as peaceful.

Long common area

Interesting theatre building

As we strolled along it became evident that the university grounds were huge. We went in search of a gate that is historical.

It didn’t look like much to me but it seems popular.

Interesting signs they have there

The more we walked around the more places we found that Lucille will have to go back to in the spring when the flowers are out.

This will be awesome when the water lilies bloom in the spring

He was doing a great job

I love it here. It was so quiet

Typical Chinese bridge

The building was a bit ho-hum but I liked the fountain.

We found a few old building as we wandered.

Found this old guy just standing around. He didn’t have much to say though.

As we continued our walk we found a cool tower.

I liked the stairway

We started making our way back towards Curtis’s work and I found my book shelf. Well, the books anyway, I think the shelf was broken.

We had to pass the famous gate on the way out and it had even more people hanging around it.

It was time for Curtis to head back into work so Lucille and I went back to the apartment to wait till supper time.

It was raining when we left to go to Duck de Chine at 1949 The Hidden City. I had cooked duck once back in my hunting days and it was disgusting. Granted I really didn’t have the right pan to cook it in. I figured while in Beijing I should keep an open mind and try ~~Peking Duck~~ Beijing Duck. I had asked that we could find a place where the duck wasn’t too greasy and Curtis chose wisely.

Not only was the duck not greasy it was tasty and the kung pao chicken we ordered was fabulous. I loved the ambiance of the restaurant as well. A gong is rung and the duck is carved right at your table. It was too bad that it was dark and pouring rain when we got there as I would of liked to explore that area more. Happy birthday to me.

The rain was pretty much done as we headed home. We stopped for a piece of chocolate cake near their apartment. It looked like chocolate cake, but the lack of sugar that seems prevalent in China made for a cake like I’ve never had. It was ok, not really good and not really bad, it was interesting.

We did 19443 steps today. The plan is to go to the Forbidden City tomorrow so I see more walking in my future.

22/11/2015 by photosbyhank

Rainy day in Beijing

I’m awake and it’s still dark. Hmmm, wonder what time it is? 1:00 am. Great! Back to bed, and I actually fall back to sleep. Four am and I’m awake for the day now. Probably a bit early to actually get up so I read for a while before I decide to get my camera out.

Looking out the living room window at 6:00 am at a rainy day.

Other than having to go to the police station to check in, I have no idea what we are going to see today.

After breakfast it’s still raining as Lucille and I head out to catch the bus to the police station. Luckily Lucille has all the paperwork with her and Curtis’s information and address as there doesn’t seem to be much English understood there.

It was still raining when we left the police station and headed to the Lady Street Market. Luckily it is an indoor market. Most of the market is downstairs and we wandered around places Lucille had never seen.

More umbrellas than people. Maybe China isn’t so crowded after all.

Nothing jumped out at me to buy for Lynda so we headed to the German Bakery for lunch. Good tomato soup and a basket of fabulous bread for 35 RMB (about $7.00 Canadian).

Just down the street from the bakery is Solana Mall. It looks fairly new and has a lot of upscale shops and a bunch of restaurants in an indoor/outdoor mix.

After our little excursion it was time to go meet Curtis for supper. We went to a place called Element Fresh in the mall near their place. They go there quite often and it has a pretty big menu. I thought it was still pretty average but I was starting to get pretty tired by this time.

By the time we made it back to the apartment we had done 12699 steps according to Lucille’s fitness band.

I tried to make it to 10 o’clock before I went to bed so I could try to sleep till a regular wake up time but I didn’t make it.

21/11/2015 by photosbyhank

Up, up and away

Damn, 2:30 am comes awfully early when you’ve had less than 4 hours sleep. But that was the price to be paid to be at the Red Deer Airport for a 5:40 am flight. I might of slept more if I wasn’t excited about my flight. It’s Sunday, September 27th and it’s the start of my Beijing, China odyssey .

When I pondered where to go for my yearly getaway, I asked for suggestions on FaceBook and got a bunch of answers but nothing wowed me. My sister, Lucille Moffat, suggested visiting her in Beijing. I knew I could not afford to do that so I dismissed it out of hand. Fast forward a couple of months and she messaged me to say that her husband, Curtis, would use his Airmiles if I wanted to go see them. The idea excited me but I also felt guilty about going that far with out Lynda and I didn’t want Curtis to waste his miles on me. She pointed out the “use em or lose em” argument and I changed my tune soon enough.

I never in a million years thought I’d be spending my 50th birthday so far away from home. I mean, I go away every year for my birthday but it’s usually just a road trip somewhere. It would be about 13 hours of flying time to get there but the stops along the way were going to make it a long day. The 14 hour time difference would make it a very loooooooooooong day.

Lynda and I arrived at the airport around 4:30 am and began the “hurry up and wait” portion of the trip. We sat around for about 1/2 an hour before I had to check in and clear security.

I felt very safe with a stalker just outside the glass.

It was time to board the Beechcraft 1900D, an 18 seat twin prop beauty for the 40 minute flight to Calgary. Everybody gets a window seat on this flight. Soon the engines were fired up and after quite a long time and deicing it was time to taxi out to the runway. We sat on the apron for a while, turned around, sat longer and taxied back to the terminal. Apparently one of the back up systems for night flying was malfunctioning. After we deplaned, we were told that we could either wait for a new system to come, or just take off once it got lighter out. Since I had some time before my connecting flight it made no difference to me, but quite a few of the other passengers were a bit antsy about waiting too long.

It’s approaching 7:00 am when we get to re-board the aircraft. It was a lot quicker starting up and leaving this time. Sunrise was very nice, even thorough the crappy airplane window.

Sunrise was the nicest part of that flight as it was the roughest ride I’ve ever had on an airplane and I’ve been up in a 2 seat Cessna 150. Once we landed in Calgary I stayed out of the way as people ran to make their connection to parts beyond.

Because I wouldn’t have to clear customs until Beijing, I had no reason to wait for my suitcase like the lady in Red Deer told me. A nice fellow in Calgary pointed that out to me and another guy flying overseas. Makes sense when you think about it, but not being an international traveler, I hadn’t thought about that.

After only about an hour’s wait it was time to board the Embraer E190. I had a window seat again and was soon watching the ground get farther and farther away. There was mixed clouds over the mountains and I was suddenly sleepy. I couldn’t sleep and never took my camera out so I stared glassy eyed out the window. Just 8 minutes after we left Calgary we landed in Vancouver according to the clock. Ah, Pacific time.

I had a long enough layover to have some lunch, walk around the airport and read my book before the 11 hour flight. I was pretty excited about having another window seat on the Boeing 777. That soon changed when I boarded and realized I had the bulkhead instead of a window. The seats ahead of me had 2 windows that they pulled the blinds down on as soon as we were airborne. The only good thing about my location was I had the only occupied seat in my row so as least I could stretch. I watched movies, read my book and listened to music and tried to get some sleep along the way. I napped on and off for about 2 hours and felt a bit groggy by the time we landed in Beijing at about 2:30 pm on Tuesday, September 28th. It was a day and a half since I got up. This might be harder than I thought.

After we deplaned we walked quite a ways to the immigration line. The line moved pretty fast and I was through in less than 1/2 an hour. I don’t want to say that the Beijing airport is big, but it was the first time I had to take a train to go get to my luggage and customs.

Having nothing to declare, customs was done in about 5 minutes. I went out into the masses of people and found my sister found me quickly enough.

We walked out to wait for the car they hired to come and get me. Soon I was introduced to Beijing traffic. It was interesting to say the least.

We got to Lucille and Curtis’s apartment and waited for Curtis to get home from work. I was so tired but realized if I could stay up till night time I should get used to the time change a lot sooner.

Thankfully, it wasn’t long till we could go out for supper. We walked over to Tiago Italian Restaurant and I honestly don’t remember which way we had to go to get there. All I really recall is I had spaghetti and meat sauce and the sauce was really greasy and not all that flavourful. This was my introduction to the very average food I would have over the next 2 weeks.

I can’t remember the walk back to the apartment, all I know is I went to bed at 8:00 o’clock to get ready for what tomorrow will bring.

11/09/2015 by photosbyhank

BC 2015

August is our traditional time to take a family summer vacation. This year we elected to go camping on Vancouver Island and in Fort Langley. Lynda booked 4 nights in the OTENTniks in Fort Rodd Hill National Historic Site and I booked 2 nights in the same things in Fort Langley, and 2 nights in hotels going and 1 hotel room coming home.

We pulled into Kamloops late in the afternoon of day one. 2 things were obvious when we got out of the vehicle. 1; that wasn’t just haze hanging in the air as the taste of smoke was pretty harsh. 2; the heat was oppressive as it was 38 degrees Celsius.

Last time we stayed in Kamloops we stumbled upon Hoja Mongolian Grill and it was so good that we decided that was where we would go on this visit. It was just as good this visit as the first time. Fresh and fast and under $20 per person for all you can eat.

I never got the chef’s name but he was fast and friendly.

The outside doesn’t tell the story of what is behind the doors.

We wanted to explore the downtown core but the wind was so hot it felt like we were beside a fire, even though the temperature had dropped a whole degree.

Night 2’s destination was to be Vancouver so I decided we would take highway 99 for the first time ever. The drive was nice and would of been scenic if it wasn’t for the smoke and clouds. Whistler looked pretty busy so we never stopped to check it out. The White Spot in Squamish was our lunch stop and as we were leaving I spotted Tim Van Horn driving his Canadian Mosaic van.

The haze and clouds didn’t make it conducive to taking pictures so we didn’t stop much on the way into Vancouver.

We went for a walk and found this great Greek place a few blocks from our hotel.

On the way back I noticed a community garden right along Marine Drive.

The sunflowers were the healthiest looking things in the garden. It had started with great intentions by the look of it but the lack of rain didn’t do anything any good.

The smoke in Vancouver was replaced by rain clouds when we got up Saturday morning but they thinned out some by the time we made our way to the ferry to head to Victoria.

I love spending as much time outside on the ferry as possible. If I had to ride it everyday that might change but I doubt it.

We drove straight over to Fort Rodd Hill National Historic Site to check in for our camp site. The park was still open when we got there but it seemed pretty quiet. It would get quieter still.

Bed time came early for us campers – much to Adam’s dismay.

I found myself up in time for sunrise Sunday morning. Since there was a total fire ban in effect I had no wood to chop so I grabbed the camera and headed off while Lynda and Adam were still sleeping.

We headed into Victoria to kill some time before the whale watching tour Lynda had booked. Adam was hungry so we stopped at Quesada Burritos & Tacos for lunch. I’ve never been motion sick but I decided that I would eat after our trip just in case.

We checked in at SpringTide Whale Watching & Eco Tours and waited to hit the water. The dragon boat races were going on as we left so the harbour was pretty busy.

Captain Dave did a great job of getting us as close as he was allowed to. 200 yards it the threshold they are allowed and a bigger lens would of been good to see the whales better but it was rough enough that it would of been really hard to get them in focus. One boat got caught closer when the whales changed direction slightly and the whale cops were over to see him right away. Another boat roared in close later on and the police were “talking” to him for at least half an hour after that. It was really cool to see the Orcas that close.

Monday morning dawned into another beautiful day.

After breakfast we headed up to Nanaimo to meet my friend Joan Skwarczyński for lunch. I hadn’t seen Joan in 5 years and this was just the 2nd time we’d gotten together since we graduated from SAIT together in 1992. Joan looked fabulous. (Why I never took a picture of her is beyond me.) She seemed healthy and happy, unlike the last time I saw her. Sadly lunch went by too quickly and it was time to move on.

We took the scenic route back to Victoria via Lake Cowichan. I had heard it was nice spot. It was nice but apparently not nice enough for me to take any photos.

It was almost 5 o’clock as we were passing by GBS Glass Blowing so I decided we’d go visit them on Tuesday. (Turns out they are closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays). That was the only real disappointment on the whole trip. Nice folks and he does such nice work.

Adam wanted to go check out the waterfront in Victoria because his wallet was burning a hole in his pocket. After we got there he remembered it was the Nanaimo waterfront that had all the shops and restaurants.

We enjoyed our stroll around downtown but it was time to head back to our campsite.

I was up early again on Tuesday morning and I hauled my tripod down to the waters edge to shoot some sunrise stuff.

It was another peaceful morning. Once the raccoons had moved on the only sound was the birds.

Since it was our last full day at the fort we decided we should explore it some while we could.

It was pretty interesting seeing the history of the place and how they used to live.

We headed into town for lunch and some more exploring. Bin 4 Burger Lounge was our stop and it was fabulous. From there we headed over to Craigdarroch Castle. Once we got there we decided that between the line up and the probable lack of air conditioning we’d just admire it from outside.

After supper we went over to Lynda’s cousin Trevor’s place for a visit. We went for ice cream and then headed up to the top of Mount Douglas. In all our trips to Victoria we’d never been up there. It was stunning. It was still warm out and there was a slight breeze as the sun set. Sunrise is my favorite time of day, but that was such a fabulous setting to view the sunset.

Even though the moon was just a crescent it looked huge on our drive back to the campground. Unfortunately it was behind the mountains by the time we got back so we never got to get a photo of it.

Ah, it’s Wednesday morning and not only is it another nice dawn but it gives me an another opportunity to find a different angle to shoot the lighthouse from. It is the oldest lighthouse on the Canadian west coast and I loved seeing it in the morning.

Sadly it’s time to go have breakfast and start packing up to leave. After I got the vehicle packed up I took a last look around.

After a nice long shower we were on our way to the ferry to make the return trip to Tsawwassen.

Another fairly nice day meant I could be outside as usual. The most exciting thing was watching the little boat get out of our way when the captain blew the horn long and loud. He’d been getting pretty close to us and we were approaching a narrow spot between islands.

We went looking for lunch when we got off the ferry and between me not remembering where Steveston was and the GPS not being able to find it so we went to White Rock. I had been wanting to try some fresh fish and chips and I remembered the stuff I’d had at Steveston’s Landing had been great on previous visits. We tried Boathouse Restaurant and it was only ok. Joey’s Only at home is just as good so it was a bit disappointing.

Between our lunch destination and traffic we got to Fort Langley National Historic Site just before the 5 o’clock closing time. Even though everything was all prepaid, Ann at the desk was obviously not happy to see us. She was the only pissy person we encountered on the whole trip. We went and met our campground host and he was great. Unfortunately his name escapes me.

We went out looking for food and on the way back we walked along the river and saw a bunch of ladies launching a really big canoe.

Thursday morning was cloudy and cold. Of course that was the day we had picked to go to Stanley Park and Adam wanted to go to the beach. We still went to the park but Adam was happy to just look at the beach. Once we got there Lynda was hoping to find a portrait artist she liked to do a photo of Adam. We got one 5 years ago and the lady did an awesome job. There weren’t many artists around and none of them caught Lynda’s eye. We looked at the price to get into the Vancouver Aquarium and the line up and decided that the gift shop was the way to go. I couldn’t decide on what t-shirt I liked so I got a shark instead. My new catchphrase was, “I have a shark so I don’t care.” He is really good a calming my nerves.

She was pretty good

Was strange to see all the fountains dry

We headed to Granville Island for lunch and to do some shopping.

The OTENTnik’s are the same but here we had a mini fridge in our tent and a fan and 4 plug ins. All the comforts of home.

We went out to visit Lynda’s cousin Janice and her husband Clay and son Marcus. Marcus has ALS so they got a place where he can live comfortably and they are close by. We got pizza from Jim’s Pizza in Fort Langley – really good stuff.

Marcus’s pad

Friday morning dawned brighter than yesterday but it’s start to head home day so it really doesn’t matter. We went for breakfast at the Blacksmith Bakery for some fabulous croissants. Adam doesn’t think he’ll be able to eat regular croissants ever again after having their ham and cheese ones.

I thought of Carl Ethier when I saw this.

We drove the Coquihalla Highway back to Kamloops to speed up our trip back. I had noticed that Tim Van Horn would be in Kamloops around the time we were passing through but even stopping for lunch there we didn’t see him again. The intermittent rain we got along the drive wasn’t too encouraging for photography.

We checked into the Power Springs Inn in Revelstoke and went looking for some supper. Since we hadn’t had any Chinese cuisine on our trip we decided to try the New Manning Restaurant and it was delicious.

Our room was pretty tight and it is an old building. We could hear the neighbours talking and every door that opened seemed to slam shut but for $85 it was hard to complain.

The sign talks about saving water but the tap doesn’t shut off.

Our included breakfast was a bit disappointing. Adam wondered if my orange juice tasted like water like his – it did. The toast was ok.

We stopped at the Giant Cedars Boardwalk and the sun was shining so the contrast was brutal. I took some photos but nothing that will win any awards.

Strike a pose.

Lunch time found us on Canmore and could see there was fresh snow high up in the mountains. It looked nice up there.

Doesn’t look much like a Sara.

We had smooth driving all holiday until we got near the Kananaskis overpass and traffic was at a halt for construction. We did a quick up and over and headed back west so we could get on 1A. It wasn’t all that fast, but it was at least moving. Once we got to Cochrane we headed north and being so close I just had to stop at Big Hill Springs Provincial Park.

I find it very calming there even when there is a lot of people around. It was just what I needed to make the final drive home. From here it was time to head home and unpack. Laundry would wait till tomorrow.

15/03/2015 by photosbyhank

Heading home the long way

Our room in Columbia Falls included complimentary breakfast. When we checked in we were told the dining room was closed for the season and we were given paper bags with the morning’s meal in them.

After our ~~tasty~~ and ~~nutritious~~ breakfast we headed to Glacier National Park as our stop(s) for the day as we made our way home.

We had heard the Going to the Sun road had been closed due to snow earlier in the week but with the warm weather that wasn’t to be a problem.

The problem we ran into when we pulled up to the park gate was the road was closed due to construction. We could drive up to the summit at Logan Pass and come back and drive all the way around the park. It’s 30 miles up to the pass but only 10 miles down the other, closed, side. Since Dave had never been there and I’d only been one time before we decided to go ahead up.

We stopped to shoot some water along the way.

Another photographer stopped to shoot as well but I cropped him out of my shots. He gave us a lot of suggested places to go to shoot different things but we just didn’t have the time to go check them out.

On the way to the summit there is a scenic lookout that has plenty of burnt trees there so we had to stop for that.

Above is the valley taken with a lens set to 28 mm and below is the mountain top from the same place taken with a 400 mm.

Of course I needed to shoot the dead trees.

There was a bit of snow along the tops of the mountains but the sun was trying to melt it all away.

There was a cold wind blowing at the summit so we took a few shots during out brief pit stop.

The down side to parking away from the crowd is the long walk to the washroom.

I tried to do a panorama of the valley of the way back but the sun’s position wasn’t so good for that so I had to settle for a single image.

I felt like a tourists shooting this without even getting out of the vehicle.

It would of been nice to be able to continue on our way to shave a couple hours off the trip if nothing else but on the way back I did see the image that I would use for my “Parallel lines that never meet” shot.

Took me awhile to get the shot as I’d get interrupted by cars or I’d have been holding the camera a little crooked. I tried this with a higher angle but this was my favorite view. Since it didn’t win I obviously should of tried something else, but this is what caught my eye the most at the time.

These were to be the last photos I took on my trip. We drove back out the way we came and skirted the southern edge of the park and ended up stopping in Babb for a late lunch. It wasn’t far from there to the border and once again Dave and I sailed through a border crossing with no hassle. We had each bought a small bottle of vodka at the distillery and that was it so customs wasn’t a problem. We went through Cardston an up highway 2 all the way home. As we unloaded Dave’s stuff he noticed his tarp that we’d had under the tent and he said we’d wash it at his work soon (it’s still in my truck). 5 minutes later I was home. It had been a long week but it was fun.

Would I go back to Yellowstone? I think so, but now that I’ve seen it (some of it at least) I’d like to see other things first. I think it would be nice to see the park in all the different seasons but I have no desire to share it with thousands of people so summer is probably out for me. Winter would be nice to go back but since access is so limited I don’t know how exciting it really would be. Spring, with all the animal babies out and about would be nice to see as well.

I really enjoyed my time in Yellowstone, even when I was freezing my ass off camping (campground was at 6800 feet). But I would do it again. Old Faithful is at 7349 feet so the mountains don’t feel so tall as compared to say; Jasper. Scenery wise, Jasper (Elevation 3484 feet) leaves me more in awe looking all the way up the mountains where in Yellowstone you are 2/3 rd’s or more of the way up the mountains. You look down more than up to see things. The thermal activity is unbelievable and sometimes surreal in Yellowstone so it isn’t really a fair comparison for me. Mountains have always been awe inspiring to me and both bring out the feeling of amazement when I look at them.

Well, that was my trip. Thanks for reading along. If Lynda lets me go out again this year I’ll have another road trip adventure this fall. I’ll endeavour to update my blog more often than that but I vowed to do that as a New Year’s resolution one year and that hasn’t gone so well.

13/03/2015 by photosbyhank

Missoula to Columbia Falls

Woke up to a sunny day. Not sure what to make of that.

It felt down right balmy in Missoula. No breakfast included with our room so we headed out to go find a local place to eat. This time we decided to go left and cross over the river to see what was there. There were a few cool building between us and there.

The duct tape seat caught my eye on this bike.

A very calm morning.

I even took a self portrait.

I was a bit worried that it made me look fat though.

We found a little place called The Hob. Looked good so we decided to check it out. Was one one girl running here ass off taking orders and serving. Again we noticed a variety of people in the place and the only cell phone we saw was one 3 young guys were looking at a map on.

Apparently Dave doesn’t understand the concept of a wide angle lens.

Breakfast was excellent and when I went across the street to get a photo of the place I “found” the Italian place we had been looking for the night before. Found it right next door to where we were. We had a pretty good laugh about that.

We walked back on the other side of the bridge and notice a Farmer’s Market setting up so we stopped to check it out.

Found a few more buildings to shoot before we left town.

I really liked the look of the sunlight hitting this building.

I could have probably spend a couple of days exploring downtown Missoula but we had to move on.

Our next stop was the Miracle of America Museum in Polson, Montana.

We saw this from the highway and just had to stop.

If you ever thought of yourself as a packrat, this is the place for you to feel pretty good about yourself. There are more items stuffed in to 10 square feet than an entire Costco it seemed.

It is hard to warp your head around how much stuff is packed into this building.

I took these for all those with Harley’s who make fun of scooters. Looks like a scooter to me and it says Harley Davidson right on it.

Then we headed outside.

With those wings it could probably fly.

This station wagon I took for my friend Steve Parkin because he so likes them.

The colours in the metal on this were impressive.

I loved the “Prison Made” license plate.

The paint is either faded or this is from San Fransicso.

All the modern communication gear in this radio truck

Dave checks out a Vietnam vintage Huey while a Korean era Bell 47 sits in the background.

These little Sikorsky S-55’s are so ugly they are cute.

Then we found a modern Hair salon. I’ll bet Lynda would love to have all this stuff when she was hairdressing.

Found a cute little drug store as well.

The coolest thing I found was a merry go round. Since you can’t find these “dangerous” things anymore I had to ride it.

And this is the panorama I took while on it.

I know it’s not very exciting but it’s all I had to work with at the time.

And with that we left Polson and headed up to Columbia Falls for the night. Our hotel was on the east side of town and we decided to walk into town for super. A mile is a long way to walk when it’s along a highway.

Tomorrow we’ll head home through Glacier National Park.

Leaving Yellowstone

Feels colder than yesterday.

And that would be because it is. Time to start packing up the campsite and head home via the scenic route. Dave and I finally had a use for the small propane heater we brought along – melting the ice off the tent so we could pack it up.

We saw so much in our time there it’s hard to believe that there was also so much we didn’t see. I guess it’ll be something to look forward to when I get back there.

Till we meet again. Every time we came back through the west gate the same lady was working and she was a pretty funny old gal. She said she worked the night shift because no one else could stay awake long enough. But she wouldn’t tell us how long the gate was manned.

We stopped at our usual eatery on the way west.

I’m pretty sure this was the first I’ve ever gained weight while camping. It was so worth it though.

We stopped at Earthquake Lake for a few minutes and that was a neat place.

On the plus side, we finally got to see the sun.

We were a ways out of the park when we saw the most antelope we’d seen on the entire trip. In Yellowstone we’d see a single antelope here and there. I was convinced it was the same one and he just moved around a lot.

There were a bunch of Antelope, really. It turns out this was my best shot of the bunch.

Now that is a long driveway to have to shovel out. It was still a bit chilly here but by the time we stopped again it had warmed up a whole lot.

I tried to keep on the secondary highways as much a possible and it made for a pleasant and quiet drive. It’s nice when you can do 70 mph on “back” roads. We saw a lot of neat stuff but not much tempted me to stop. I often get in that mode while I’m driving. What did catch my eye was some railroad track along a river. I had been looking for “Parallel lines that never meet” for my photo club assignment.

I really liked the look of it at the time but I just couldn’t make it look the way I thought is should.

But once I tried one in black and white I really liked it. I didn’t end up using it for the competition though. Since I didn’t win, maybe I should have.

It was so nice to be out in the warm sun that we spent almost an hour here. Sadly, not a single train came along.

This was our last photo stop for the day. We ended up in Missoula, Montana for the night. I am going to have to go back there one day too as it was a pretty nice city. We pulled in on a Friday night, which was “First Friday”. The streets were full of people and all the galleries and restaurants were open.

We asked the owner at the hotel where a good place to eat was and he suggested an Italian place. Since we chatted with him for a while before we left we didn’t exactly have the directions down pat and instead of turning left to to over the bridge we turned right. We couldn’t find any damn Italian place so we settled for Taco Del Mar. It was a lot like Mucho Burrito but with a much bigger menu. The things we noticed about Missoula was the diversity of people out on the street and the fact they were either talking amongst themselves or were listening to the street performers and not a one was on a cell phone. Pretty shocking for a town with such a huge college population.

10/03/2015 by photosbyhank

Oct. 2, 2014

Woke up to another frosty morning. The sun was trying to shine but it was fighting a losing battle with the clouds. I walked down to the river to see if that would help me warm up.

Saw this little beauty on my way and just had to get a photo. Can’t see the young guy in the funky hat driving it though.

It was a nice calm morning. Cold, but calm.

Since it felt colder than it had the previous two mornings I wandered over to the office to see if there was a thermometer.

-5C!?! No wonder I was so damn cold. Dave thought we should buy some ice to bring home to Lynda but we couldn’t decide what size to buy. The truck had another heavier ice on it too.

We decided we’d go out the NE side of the park and check out Cody, Wyoming and come back in the East entrance.

The sun came out for a bit and we happened across the little fellow just taking it easy.

I like the enviromental portrait better than the close up, but I thought I’d share both.

The sun didn’t stay out for long so we hit the road again and didn’t find anything that inspired us till we got to Cooke City and I found this little fixer upper investment property.

I was thinking it was a good idea until something scrambled out from under the pile of rubble when I went to look in the window. I decided I’d pass on it.

The road we were on is the Beartooth Highway and it is twisty and has some elevation gain. It gets really twisty and do you ever climb going over the Beartooth Pass.

I couldn’t tell how windy it was until we stopped and I could barely get my truck door open. Trying to stand steady to take photos proved nearly impossible.

We got to Cody and looked for a lunch spot. We decided to try Zapata’s. Mexican food. Really, really good. I could go there more than once a week for sure.

Not far out of Cody is the Buffalo Bill Dam. We missed being able to do a dam tour by 2 days. So, we took a few snaps of the outside.

It was pretty windy here too but nothing like up at the pass and at least the sun was shining.

This was the most exciting thing we saw on the way back.

I thought it was exciting. I liked the contrast.

There is an abundance of burnt timber in Yellowstone and the stark contrast always catches my eye.

As we approached the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone we came across a herd of buffalo just sauntering down the road.

Didn’t even have to take off my seat belt to get these. I really liked the shadows in the first one and the dead trees in the background.

We decided to stop at the Upper Falls of the Yellowstone again. The sun was shining intermittently this time so the light and colour were totally different from our first visit.

While I prefer the colours I got on the rainy day, I really liked the contrast of the dark clouds in the frame this visit. The sun was nice and warm and the wind was so cold that I found myself slowly turning around to keep warm.

Our last stop of the day was the Artists Paintpots. The walk in was in the shelter of the trees but it was fairly open and windy when we got there. I felt another cold night coming on.

I would not be wrong.

09/03/2015 by photosbyhank

Dawning of a new month

October seemed to dawn dryer than the way September ended. Seemed that way because I realized the rain had turned to ice on the tent. Brrrr.

So what to do in this kind of weather? Why go to the campground office and book 2 more nights of course.

The tree at the office still had ice on it too.

We weren’t really hungry yet so we decided to head down to the penultimate tourist attraction – Old Faithful and then decide about food from there.

As we headed down the road towards Old Faithful we saw a bunch of cars pulled over but since we were driving right into the sun I couldn’t see anything. Suddenly Dave says ‘bear’. I pulled over and we grabbed our cameras and jumped out. I got to see a sow grizzly and her cub saunter into the woods as I was crossing the road to get a better view. Those were the first grizzlies I’d ever seen in the wild and that was pretty cool, but sadly I never got a picture.

As we headed south we came across this fellow hunting. I took quite a few shots of him as he parallelled the road for while. This one is my best shot of him I believe.

He caught 2 mice or voles or whatever. I don’t really know as he kept his head down while he ate them. I tried a bunch of shots while he was hunting and thought this one was pretty cool even though it wasn’t quite what I was going for. Being too lazy to set up the tripod will do that sometimes.

I dragged the shutter as much as I could.

While we were watching the coyote I realized that there were quite a few pairs of cranes in the distance on this plain. Unfortunately they were a long way away and even though I know they were there it’s hard to tell in the photos and I had a 400 mm lens on at the time.

As we drove along the same plain we noticed some bison grazing with a bunch of thermal activity in the back ground.

As we got closer I noticed the snow on the hills in the background. No wonder our rain had turned to ice.

I tired a panorama of the area to show how vast that plain is.

Started out for Old Faithful again but hadn’t gotten very far when we came to Fountain Paint Pot Nature Trail. Here there was snow on the ground and the contrast looked pretty neat so we stopped to check it out. The couple walking off the boardwalk were part of a tour and I don’t know what language the tour guide was yelling at them in, but I recognized it as yelling at them.

After spending about half an hour here we again started out for Old Faithful and lo and behold, we made it there. We pulled into the parking lot and wandered along for a couple of minutes before we came to a boardwalk with a bunch of people on it. Dave and I picked a spot and waited to see the famous geyser do it’s thing.

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We stood around for about 10 minutes when it suddenly started to do it’s thing.

It’s a pretty impressive combination of sight and sound for a couple of minutes while Old Faithful erupts. But then it’s done and the crowds wander off. Dave and I went into the information center to look around. We stayed almost long enough for it to erupt again but we left before that happened.

We headed north again to go look for lunch and as we got near our campground it was snowing like crazy so we turned around and took a drive along Firehole Canyon Road. Was a nice twisty little road.

Firehole Falls was the nicest place to shoot along the road. There were a few other spots that held promise but in the light we had that day they just didn’t pan out.

We decided to go back to check out Firehole Lake Drive before we’d go find some food so was headed south again. It’s only about a 3 mile loop road but it is a one way road. Being cold there was a lot of steam in the air, especially when we got to the big lake.

Since it was 1 o’clockish we decided we’d better go get something to eat. Along the way I thought this was a nice quiet scene and we made a quick stop.

We headed into Gardiner for a late lunch/early supper since the road was finally re-opened. Lunch, like all the meals we’d had, was pretty good.

It was getting late in the day when we got to the ~~Artists Paintpots~~. Oops, this is the Norris Geyser Basin. It’s a short walk in and it’s another unique area.