Trapped

Lake Moraine had been on my list of places to see in Alberta for quite a while, but I just hadn't made it there yet. When my roommate came back from that very place with his friends and some fantastic photos, I knew the time had come.

What possessed me, however, to venture out to the land of Rocky Mountain tourist traps on the Saturday of the Canada Day long weekend, I'll never know.

But I did.

The road to the lake was blocked off. 

Parking lots were full and signs directed visitors to return to the highway and board the free shuttle from one of the roadside pull-offs. I was disappointed after having driven all the way there, but I was trapped. I followed the traffic continuing up the lane to turn around. The road eventually loops at the highly popular Lake Louise, and I made the hundred and eighty degree turn along with everyone else, and headed back down the mountain toward the highway.

What happened next was nothing short of fantastic.

As I approached the turn off to my intended destination, the people left in charge of ensuring the road barriers were respected were in the act of removing them! It seemed enough people had left the parking lot that they were now allowing a few in to take their place, and I was so lucky to be the very first one. What a stroke of luck!

Off I went, winding up the mountainside, and arrived on the shores of Lake Moraine, where I was greeted by a lot of trapped tourists like me, and this...

 I walked the walkways, took pictures for random strangers, and marveled at the ever-changing shade of turquoise that was the glacier waters as the sun dodged in and out of clouds and peeked from behind mountains. At the side of the lake you could rent canoes, and there were quite a few people on the water enjoying the day.

But eventually, traipsing among the tourists with their selfie-sticks and IG accounts, I started to feel trapped myself... and I still had a long way to go.

The long way home through Longview via Kananaskis Country afforded me a photo shoot with these beauties, who I never cease to marvel over no matter how many times our paths cross in my adventures.

Cute as a baby's bottom. :)

And just beyond the bighorn sheep, somewhere in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, on the side of the highway, sits this Stop The Car moment. 

To the immediate left of the well, there were ladies collecting mountain water from a brook and I grabbed every empty bottle I had with me and filled them to the top with the cold, clear goodness too.

As I drove deeper and higher into the mountains (there was snow clinging precariously to life at the highest points - at the end of June!) I started to get tired... and cold. The drive is mesmerizing and mind-blowingly gorgeous, but it is long and I was done for the day.

Well, almost.

 The feeling of solitude as I stood there by the side of the highway, absolutely astounded by the idea that I was standing among the world-famous Rocky Mountains alone and uninhibited, was exactly what I needed. The cool air and panoramic views refreshed my mind and all of life's bumps that I had gotten so trapped in were released. I finished my drive home feeling light and prepared to take on the real world again.

Au Natural

It had rained overnight at my house, but the morning was bright and glorious. I was sitting on the deck reading a book and enjoying my morning coffee when this exquisite creature caught my eye.

It was just a leaf clinging to the remnants of last night's rain, but I was enthralled. So simple and beautiful, and with just the tiniest change in angle or depth of field, this delicate masterpiece of nature changed. The drops captured the sunbeams and spread them multicoloured to reflect from drop to drop.

I spent 30 minutes moving around the table, marvelling at the perfect spheres and the magnifying effect of the water. I took 36 photos until they were starting to look repetative even to myself.

But what I did not do was any post-editing*. This leaf in all its glory took my breath away all on its own. I was spellbound.

And though I won't bore you with all 36 shots (because seriously, they were all blog-worthy), I wanted to post enough as a reminder that beauty is everywhere. Plain and simple, yet elegant and remarkable, if you pay attention and are willing to give it a bit of your time.

 *all shots post-edited for size and watermark only

Apocalypse North

Lightning and twenty minutes of torrential sheets of rain, 

sandwiched between gloriously blue sky and puffy white clouds.

This is life in Alberta.

Score

There are many stereotypes around life in small-town America. Some of them are pleasant, some not so much. But there is something to be said for spending an afternoon sitting on the grass watching a kids soccer game while parents and friends of all ages cheer on their girls from blankets and picnic baskets and folding chairs on the sidelines.

One of my favourite parts of visiting Grants Pass is sharing everyday life events with the people who have become so important to me. On April 28, Zoey's soccer game was exactly what I needed.

Her team didn't win that day. 

But the smiles on their faces, the sound of the parents calling out encouragement to their daughters, the smell of the freshly cut field, and the feel of the grass between my bare toes, made for a small town American afternoon that definitely scored high in my books.

Four Days In Oregon

Seventeen hours and thirty-seven minutes.

That's how long it takes to drive from Calgary, Alberta, Canada to Grants Pass, Oregon, United States. 

It's a short amount of time in the grand scheme of things. Less than one day, and you can still include a couple hours sleep to boot. But when you have only a hundred and forty-four hours in the span of a month to use at your leisure, giving seventeen and a half of them over to one project requires that project to have a certain level of significance. To give double that time in order to make it back home, and thus leaving yourself only four days out of sixty-five to do with as you please, well, that makes the project a flat-out priority.

And so it was that I spent four days in Oregon in April of 2019.

I checked off my 'to-do' list within the first twelve hours. Only two people knew I was coming at all, and with social media as it is, it is difficult to keep your presence a secret in a place the size of Grants Pass so I needed to get things done before word got out that I was in town. With that covered and a huge weight off my shoulders, I set out to visit and relax and explore, and to enjoy my brief time in the place I've grown to feel I belong.

 And on the way home, a Stop The Car moment in a little place called Sandpoint, Idaho.

  

And finally, the British Columbia/Alberta border, making just enough time to stop in at home for a suitcase switchover and continue on my way north and back to real life.