Pina Colada, Originally uploaded by iChris.
We're back from Mazatlan and not really enjoying the cold weather we're getting here now. If you're a sucker for punishment you can check out a whole wack of photos here.
Waking up Monday morning it felt like it was all a dream. It's good to pull out of regular life for awhile, but it's amazing how quickly you settle back in to old routines.
Feliz Navidad from Mazatlan, Originally uploaded by iChris.
Walking in the Water, Originally uploaded by iChris.
This is where we'll be this time tomorrow (approx)! Woo!
Hope you have a great Christmas and a happy new year!
The Walking Dead of IKEA
Originally uploaded by iChris.
We did a quick trip up to Edmonton on Sunday with Kev and Luanne. It was fun but as you can see from Kev's picture above, it took a lot out of us. And by that I mean it took a lot of cash out of us. Everywhere you look in IKEA there's a Swedish person holding out their hand and you dutifully hand over a $20 to be able to continue.
More pics from the trip here.
Echo Bay, Sunset
Originally uploaded by iChris.
Whole bunch of pics available here from our recent vacation at a friend's cabin on Echo Bay if you're interested.
This is very tempting for the next time I fly anywhere for longer than a few hours. I don't fly that often so it's not something I could really justify - but I hate - hate - trying to sleep on a plane.
Also, kudos to the SkyMall people for getting a real person in their ad. This guy looks like someone you'd actually end up sitting beside on a plane, he's just missing the drool slowly sliding down his face.
Friends of ours, Troy and Heather and their baby Libby, are travelling Scotland right now and heading to N. Ireland. Making me very jealous and rekindling the travel bug in Sue and I.
It's hard to believe the weekend is over after waiting for it for so long. Our trip out to Montreal was definitely too short as far as visiting but the U2 concert was amazing. Arcade Fire were really, really good. It was neat to see them in their home town and have a crowd that actually appreciated the opening band almost as much as the featured band.
Our tickets were just General Admission (standing on the floor) tickets and then when you enter the stadium they scan your ticket to see if you get in to the 'ellipse', basically the catwalk the band runs/walks around on during the concert. We didn't scan in and were bummed - but thanks to some of my u2log.com friends we were able to get smuggled in.
Obviously I'm a bit biased being a U2 fan to being with, but it was an amazing concert. Being that close to the band in such a small space with 300-400 other fans made it feel like a really intimate show - but then looking up and around you and seeing 15-20,000 other people singing along made it feel really, really big.
There were many, many highlights from the concert - it was treat to hear them close out with '40' with Adam and Edge swapping instruments. It was also neat to see the band so visibly moved by the response from the loud Montreal crowd.
Here's a video montage of a few clips I took with my digital still camera. And here's a whole schwack of pictures I took during the concert. Way too many but I figured since it's digital you can always go back and delete them later. :) Enjoy!
We've arrived in Montreal safe and sound. We've hijacked Matthew & Heidi's place (and their computer) while they're in T.O. until tomorrow. We walked down the street a few blocks in snowy Montreal to a Chinese restaurant and grabbed a bite and now we're going to hit up Matt's massive movie collection for a video to fall asleep to while dreams of U2 float in our head. :)
Ocean Palms, Mazatlan. This is where my brother-in-law is working to help try and sell. Starting price is now $330k US - only $10kUS downpayment required! :)
Where do you find cheap flights these days? Expedia?
U2's generator crew has started blogging. Follow them on their Euro leg of the tour. Hopefully 'the man' doesn't shut them down.
Yes, we have made it back to Saskatoon. It feels very wierd to be back home after being gone for a month. On the one hand, everything feels different... but then if I blink, it feels like we never left and Australia was all a dream.
Jet lag is starting to become an issue as I woke up last night at 3am and couldn't fall back asleep. Byron Bay is 16 hours ahead of us so it can really mess with your head when you think too hard about it.
There's so many different experiences that it's hard to relate any of it very well here. It was an amazing time spent getting to know Sue's family (her sister and brother-in-law live in Byron Bay, Australia which is why we all went). We got to see all things Australian: koalas, kanagaroos, beautiful beaches that go forever, surfing and boogie boarding in the ocean, dolphins, Sydney, the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, Foster's Lager, dingos, platypus, rain forest. We didn't get out to Uluru (the rock formerly known as Ayer's Rock, now known by it's proper Aboriginal name) because it's a long, long way out and in the middle of nowhere.
The best part of the trip was to get to know Chris & Lorinda (Sue's sister and brother-in-law) in their life in Byron. We saw where they live, where they work and got to meet their friends and the places they go for fun. They have an awesome church (nevermind the cheesy website) that puts a lot of North American churches to shame with how giving and caring it is for the community it lives in.
I read lots of good books, most of which were supplied by Troy, but I also picked up a book by Bill Bryson (In a Sunburned Country
I could very easily go back and live there, if called to. But I know we're not meant to be there (right now anyway). It's probably for the best, since death lurks around every corner in Australia in the form of deadly snakes and spiders. Not that we saw anything deadly while we were there - but I'm sure they were around, they probably just don't go for tourists so as to not scare them away.
Lots more to say - but some experiences are better related in person than on a blog. Pictures are here for those that like pictures.
We're still alive - just haven't really been on the old internet too much. Byron Bay has tons of free high speed internet in the form of backpacker/travel arrangment places that try and get you to book your travel arrangmenets with them - but you can just ignore them and use the free internet.
I tried my hand at surfing for the first time yesterday. It was a blast but tons of work. It's a little like skiing in that you have 10 seconds of fun after 5 minutes of "work" to get out to where you can try and surf. Boogie boarding is still the preferred mode of wave riding for me so far, but surfing definitely has more options for fun.
We're just over half way through our vacation and with each day it makes it harder and harder to remember regular life back home. Sometimes I think it'd be easier to just pull out of life for awhile and stay down here - definitely more fun and my surfing would really improve rather than in Saskatchewan. Speaking of Saskatchewan, hope all my Apple peeps back home have booked their copy of Tiger from their friendly neighborhood computer store.
Just pipe dreaming. Gotta run and find a hostel to stay at in Sydney.
Well, we're off to Australia tomorrow. It feels quite wierd to be stepping out of our own lives for a whole month - but I know it will be good for us because we've become quite comfortable with everything right now.
I don't have much to say right now, other than I have some packing to do still. Any major travel related writing will be done over on Sue's family site (located here for now. Mental note: don't try and change web hosting companies right before you try and leave on a trip. Not a good idea.
Oh man, I could spend a lot of time looking at these photos.
So as some of you know, Sue's sister and brother-in-law live in Australia. As you also may know, Australia is not anywhere near Canada. Further, you may even realize that nobody is offering free teleportation devices to teleport instantly to Australia from Canada.
Which brings us to the fact that in April, we're heading down (via old fashioned aeroplane) to Australia for a month to visit, along with Sue's parents and her other sister and brother-in-law.
I'm filled with excited apprehension. Flying has long since lost it's novelty on me, and especially flying for 20+hrs. But I've never been to Australia and I hear it's a nice place.
In honor of our trip, U2 decided to announce their tour and declare that their only Canadian date thus far will be in Vancouver while we're gone. Stupid rich rock stars. (For any "hardcore" U2 fans that happen by, I realize that the tour is secondary to the illness in the U2 members family)
We've made it back after two weeks in Mexico. You can click your way through the photos here on flickr if you like. I put about 60 up there so you've been warned.
It all came to an end so quickly, at least it feels like it did. When you first get there it feels like two weeks will go on forever, but then by the time we're heading to the airport outside Mazatlan it feels like we just got there. The trip home definitely took forever. First a delayed flight in Mazatlan, then again in Los Angeles. We got a 3 hour lay-over in Vegas so we took a cab and hit the strip. It's amazing how something can be so beautiful and so ugly at the same time. I had just finished reading Bringing Down the House, a Christmas gift from Sue, and so the Vegas mythology was in my head. I didn't see anyone carrying around wads of cash, but the minimum limits at some of the blackjack tables were enough to do your head in.
Speaking of Christmas gifts, I got a guitar from Jamie and Ives that's down at the condo. It's a cheap, old Mexican classical style guitar and it's nice to not worry about things being in tune sometimes.
We had a New Year's fire on the beach (I'm going backwards through my photos now) and some beautiful sunsets. We got to see turtles, dolphins, and a semi-pro baseball game. (I'm not sure how those three fit together) Jamie and Ives got set up in their new apartment and my parents got a new car ('86 Jetta for those keeping score).
We met Jamie's new family, I found my new office and saw the site of Sue's family's new condo.
Ives tried fire-spinning (without the fire), we tried some really fresh shrimp, and Jamie and Ives got some baby clothes.
Enough photo linking. You can figure out the rest on your own. It's both good and bad to be back home. Mazatlan always inspires us to think outside our regular lives and look at ways we can improve ourselves as well as the world around us. Part of the inspiration comes from the world around us (poverty mixed with much wealth and the beauty and friendly nature of the Mexican people) as well as from the books we have time to read while on vacation there. A good portion of the people in Mazatlan live on around $10US per day and are satisfied and surviving on that. Most of us make at least that in one hour and are scrambling for ways to make more. Imagine the good that could come from giving up either the struggle for money or your money for good. Sue and I talked about how two families/friends could live together in a house and give away one families' income to better the world.
The problem comes in forgetting all these things we are inspired by and settling back into a routine. With a trip to Australia coming up in 3 months, I don't know that we'll have time to get back into that routine. :)
We{re in Mazatlan right now. Enjoying the warm weather and even warmer pool.
I cant figure out how to use all the punctation on this keyboard so it{s a little bit messy.
Cya l8r.
Scott, Phil and I get to join up with our boss in Toronto this weekend for a conference with all the other campus retailers across Canada. We get into the T at midnight tonight and then get blasted by all the vendors trying to pitch us their wares in the form of pens, t-shirts and hats. Sunday we get more of the same and fly out, arriving back home around midnight.
If I have internet access, I'll be dumping pics up on flickr.
Well much to Sue's surprise, I've decided to skip the final day's wrap up (quick summary - we ate another fine breakfast, spotted some wild turkeys, had another heady session with David, exchanged email addresses and phone numbers with people, packed up our car, took our time heading to the Charlotte airport by stopping at a Appleby's for lunch and a Krispy Kreme for dessert, flew to Minneapolis, ate McDonald's in a moment of fast-food weakness, got a free Oreo McFlurry, flew to Saskatoon, fell asleep) and just post a whole schwack of pictures instead. The pictures are kind of in reverse order right now - I need to change the default for where it puts pictures when I upload them.
There's something like 4 billion pictures spread over 5 billion pages, so feel free to take your time not even viewing them at all. Some of my personal highlights are below:
We had an early wake up call ñ 7:15 was breakfast ñ so I was pretty groggy for the first session. Great food all weekend hasnít helped the lethargy. David, the speaker, has an amazing amount of knowledge in his head and itís been great to get a lot of the background of the story in Isaiah as heís been teaching. Sometimes itís a bit much to follow (like this morning when youíre tired) but itís been good. We had a 4 and ‡ hour break this afternoon that we put to good use. First of all we had a good afternoon nap. Then we went for a walk down to the chapel on the grounds here. A beautiful building with lots of history behind most everything in and around the place (the pews, the pulpit, the doors, etc). It was a quick hike down, but a steep hike back up but we managed to make it back without having to resort to a van ride. Sue loved the shrimp for supper, I filled up on rice.
(This one was written in the 3rd person since Sue hijacked my laptop and took over for a day.)
This Holiday Inn Express had the cinnamon buns we know and love, but a bad set up for their breakfast bar. Sue spent most of breakfast analyzing how she could improve the layout.
Well today we did a bit of driving. We started off by going through Gatlinburg ñ which is kind of like the Banff of the south. Lots of candy shops, toyshops, houses of horror and tacky t-shirt shops. We went through Ripleyís Museum which was interesting. Apparently itís the one that inspired the TV show. Lots of weird, wacky stuff.
Well they were all out of cinnamon buns, but they replaced them with Krispy Kreme donuts instead ñ which maintains our fat level intake just the same. We booked some tickets for the Dolly Parton Dixie Stampede 4pm show and then headed out to do some outlet shopping (yee-haw!) Not too bad a shopping day, picked up some taffey, a pair of sandals for myself, sweater for Sue and a birthday gift for someone else.
We woke up at 4:10am to make it for a 6am flight out of Sítoon. Nothing that eventful except for the choice to bring a laptop, iPod and digital camera makes for a longer than usual security check. (Mental Note: Wear something that doesnít require a belt but still stays up without a belt) We landed in Minneapolis, MN and stopped for our usual Cinnabon treat before finding our gate.
It was a bit odd because the last time weíd been there was in November with Kev & Lue and Mark for the National Youth Workerís Conference in St. Louis ñ so it felt like we were missing some people this time.
We went up to my parent's shack at Waskesiu this weekend - (pics available here if you're interested) and now we're getting ready to leave for North Carolina. It's supposed to be 25 - 35 degrees down there this week so we'll hopefully get at least one full week of summer this year.
I love the pics on this site. There's just something about Dublin that I love. My original reason for heading to Ireland the first time was due to my, er, mild enjoyment of a little rock 'n roll outfit called U2. But the funny thing is, aside from wandering past the Clarence Hotel they own I never did any of the U2 touristy things. I fell in love with the rest of the country and didn't even hit up Windmill Lanes where they recorded a lot of their albums. I kind of regret that now that they have (or will be) tearing the studio down.
Ah well, I'll still have the memories of sitting in the back of a van on an empty keg being driven around Dublin by a drunk old Irishman, eventually ending up at The Wicked Wolf packed full of people all singing U2 tunes at the top of their lungs.
... going to edmonton this weekend with kevin and luanne - we have to try and convince luanne to see sw:ep2 at the silvercity. she can't stand sci-fi and i can't stand not seeing sw:ep2 in a nice theatre so we'll see what happens. it should be an epic battle ...