Down and Derby

Roller derby is a big thing in Alberta. Apparently it's a big thing all over, but I had no idea until my cousin introduced me to this hard-hitting, fast-moving, fun-to-photograph sport. You saw a bit of a mens' bout during my last trip to Alberta in March. This time, it was the ladies' turn.

Introducing The Bonnie Situation vs. The DAMNsels of Distress.

 

 

 

 

A pile-on-the-floor team shot:

and some inter-team camera camaraderie for what I believe was the last bout of the season.

Brought To You By The Letter "O"

On November 24, I officially took up residence at the home of my aunt in Okotoks, Alberta. I spent a day and a half unpacking, adjusting to the three-hour time difference, and assuring the world back home that I had made it safe and sound.

I also spent some time with this ridiculous-looking fellow who, while generally not accepting of strangers, took an almost-immediate liking to me. His name is Oscar, and I can't decide if he's odd-looking with his penguin-feet and pot-bellied-pig body, or just absolutely and positively adorable.

 

My next mission was to investigate the walking path that runs behind my aunt's house and, I soon learned, just about everywhere in town that you could possibly want to go. The day was grey, but I vowed to come back to this bench which is practically in my backyard, with a cup of tea and a camera in hand.

In the meantime, ideal photographic light or not...

Along with the groomed walking paths, there were shortcuts that had been created by the trodding of boots over hills and through tall grass. This one kind of confused me a bit...

... but it made for an interesting picture, and I found myself very excited to explore the quiet beauty my new town had to offer.

Calgary, Alberta

In November of 2014, life moved me in another direction: specifically, west.  I had grown tired of sitting at a desk all day surrounded by the same old same-old. I was bored and a bit miserable so I took a leap, sold everything that didn't fit neatly into a paper box, and moved to southern Alberta.

I flew into Calgary, where I was picked up by my cousin and promptly delivered to her apartment in the big city for the night. She had to work the next day before taking me to my more permanent destination, so I thought I would take the opportunity to get myself and my camera lost in a new city which, it turns out, absolutely must have been built to look good when snowed on.

Well, hello there, Calgary!

 

  

The people were also made to be snowed on. Yup, this guy is on a bicycle.

 There was also this:

to remind me, and probably a majority of the population on some level, of why we were here in the first place.

And one of these:

which I don't know was ever used, but I thought was the coolest idea for old payphone housings ever.

I walked for hours that day and, in doing so, discovered what Maritimers meant when they said the cold 'out west' was "a different kind of cold." The air is dry, and gets right into your bones. You can't just pop into a coffee shop and warm up: it hugs you right from the inside out and sticks with you through coffees, showers, and for hours after you're inside. With that lesson learned early, I dug out my layers of mittens and woolies, and braced myself for a winter like nothing I'd seen before.

Pitstop

A big adventure is made up of tiny little adventures squished together into one epic story.  That's how I wound up in southern Ontario for a few days in November 2014.
Ground zero for the time was the itty bitty community of Ingleside, Ontario, home of the lovely and hospitable Cheryl and Corey.

 

Interesting fact about Ingleside:

Also, of note, Ingleside is bordered by the Saint Lawrence River...

 

... which, on this particular day, at least, was home to an absolutely ridiculous number of  birds.  That whole black line of specks you see out there in the water is composed of fat and noisy canada geese... 

and that's only about ten percent of them. There were thousands!

Speaking of the Saint Lawrence, in this particular area, the river serves as the border between Canada and America. Nearby Cornwall, Ontario serves as the closest crossing. This is actually the 'old' bridge, which is being torn down, but is much more exciting to photograph than the 'new' bridge just below it.

 

 I spent a good part of the day driving around southern Ontario with my camera on the passenger seat just in case. I drove the 401, saw a bit of Cornwall, and explored the Long Sault Parkway where I had to slow down for some wild turkeys crossing the road and, as the sun was going down, I found all of this:

That evening we had a modern version of something called 'raclette' for supper, which I had never had. It was aweseome! 

I ate. So. MUCH.

I spent the next day with my gracious hostess. Our first stop was the Upper Canada Migratory Bird Sanctuary (Birds again? I see a pattern here) This was super-cool in that we just walked into a wooded area a few feet from the car, and the black-capped chickadees and blue jays were all, "Yay! Delivery!"

 

 

 

Once we and the birds had had our fill, Cheryl and I piled back into the car for a road trip to Kingston, Ontario. First, we had lunch at Five Guys Burgers and Fries, which I love, but we did not have on the east coast. (Are you listening, Five Guys????)  They make fantastic burgers, and I enjoy that they keep corkboards and doodling paper are available for customers' reviews... or whatever.

We did a bit of shopping, and (get this) ran into someone I used to work with about 15 years before, who happened to also be in the same shop, in the same town, in the same province as I was visiting, thousands of miles from home. 

Insert "Do you know so-and-so from Canada?" stereotype here.

Also in Kingston were a biting wind and these...

...and some gorgeous pewter teaspoons that I fell in love with before finding out they were made in Nova Scotia. :)

On my last full day in Ontario, we left Ontario. In fact, we left Canada altogether and headed across the border to the state of New York, specifically, the home of the 1932 and the 1980 Olympic Games: Lake Placid. The weather was not the most ideal for picture-taking, but the town itself was absolutely adorable, and when we managed to get lost outside of town, it wasn't without merit either.

It was a lot to fit in. Four days, three towns in two countries, one helpful guy at a gas station with an amazing accent, willing to help me with my "cah", board games, hot chocolate, maybe a bottle or two of wine, a couple hundred photos, and two gracious hosts who I definitely do not get to spend enough time with.

A million small adventures all rolled into one.