Vancouver

I am now in Vancouver. I stopped Tuesday night in Lake Louise and picked up Kaylee. We left early Wednesday morning. The drive went really well. Kaylee saw a bear and a wolf, but I did not see anything. We stopped in Sicamous at the Dutchman Ice cream place and had some home made ice cream. There was also a camel, llama, donkeys and ponies. When we got to Vancouver, we drove in a few circles until we finally found the hotel. We stayed at the Fairmont Waterfront and even had valet service. I was in my sweat pants as they are more comfortable for a long drive, so lets just say that I looked out of place. On Thursday we went to Granville Island and Stanley Park. It was a really rainy day, and we got soaked. I finally bought a umbrella (I will need one for living here) and it stopped raining. Granville was not as good as we expected, and thought that it was a waste of time. When we went to the park, it was still kind of rainy, so we just went to the aquarium, and drove the rest of the way around. The aquarium was pretty cool. We saw these giant creepy fish that live in Brazil, and we will never swim again. There were also Belugas and seals, and dolphins and a porpoise. Then we came to the place that I am now living. They all seem really nice. The older one, Coco is really hyper, and excited that I am here, She wants to spend all her time with me, which I think is cute. Julian is the younger one, and he has the most adorable little smile. Friday, we got up early, jumped on the sea bus, then the train, and took Kaylee to the airport. Then I took the train and sea bus back by myself (for those of you who know me well, you would not imagine me doing that). In the afternoon I took a walk to Lonsdale street and dropped off a few resumes. For the moment I have no internet, and am just using Nora's laptop as hers gets the internet. They have a Mac Air Port and my PC won't pick it up. Anyone have any ideas? No pics at this moment cause they are on my comp.

Exploring

Today, Dave was telling us stories about the old barn, the old staff housing and an old cave that a man lived in for many years. So tonight, we went and explored all the locations. We found a chair in the barn, that Brad claimed, and lots of cool stuff at the dig site...I mean cave site. Here is the cave story..Interesting story, from the 1950s - early 1970s, there was a blacksmith by the name of Jack Webster who worked at the Skyline stables. In the summer, he lived into a lean-to built up against one of the sheds. In the winter, he moved up the hill behind the barn into a kinda of cave he dug up there. There was a main room plus a couple of small rooms dug out underground. The main room wasn't a cave, just a hole in the ground with a tin roof over it at ground level. Apparently he stunk really bad and was a vegetarian. He finished his career at the horse stables at Maligne Lake.

Plans for the winter

SO, a lot of people have been asking if I have any plans for when I am done here in Jasper. I am going to move to Vancouver, and be an Au-Pair (live in nanny). There are 2 kids, a 17 month old and a 6 year old. I will write more when I am there.

Year End Party

We had the year end staff party for the stables the other night. It was a lot of fun. Last year, we just had it at the barn, but this year we went to the Athabasca Hotel restaurant. Dave and Lynda know the owner, so we got to make up a shot and had it named after us. It is Jack Daniels, Jager and Rum, so if you go to to the Atha-B in Jasper ask for the Skyline Shot. We bought Dave a bottle of Scotch, and he gave us all gift certificates for Mountain Equipment Co-op. I tried alcohol for the first time tonight, and it reaffirmed my belief that alcohol is not for me, it tastes gross. Here are a few pics. Also, here are a few pics of my room.

Hair, Hinton and Shooting

It has been a while since I updated, so here are a few pics. I dyed and cut my hair. I mostly got it layered, but got sideways bangs. I have not had bangs in a long time, so I went with a not so abrupt style. I streaked it with blonde streaks, and the bottom layer is red. Today we decided to go to Hinton so we could go to Boston Pizza. We decided to go shooting as well. We realized that we had no targets, so we used old CD's that don't work anymore, a red bull can that Vicki left in my car a while ago, a Dad's root beer bottle, a flint roller, and a milk 2 go bottle. The horse in the pics is my guide horse Copper.

Shovel Pass 09

I went into the back country on Saturday and came out today. I have been up two times before, and I have to say that this was probably the best time. I went up on a freight trip (so there were no paying riders) Eric and I took up hiker duffel's, bed sheets and groceries. On the second day ( we ride up the first, have one day there, and ride out the third) Eric and I fixed the fence. This entailed Eric cutting down two small trees that would make good rails, then we used a draw knife to shave the bark, then Eric beveled the ends and I held the rail while he nailed it on the post. Our hands got really sticky from the sap, and as you can see from the picture, picked up a lot of dirt. As we were finishing the fence, we could see a storm coming in, so we decided to ride in the snow. It was such a fun (but cold) ride, as there was snow, sleet and hail. I love that there was snow in August. After that, we went inside and played Rodeo Rama (like monopoly but rodeo style. I am so glad that I got this opportunity. Here are some pics of the trip.

Signal Mountain

Jaimie and I climbed a MOUNTAIN. It took us 6 hours and 35 minutes to get up and down. we left at 8am, and finished around 2:30ish. It was really foggy, and after about an hour we kept hearing snapping sounds. Jaimie brought Eric's hunting knife, so she got it out, and we walked with the knife out. We were very freaked out, but we never ran into the bear. When we finally got to the top it was so amazing. The view was breath taking, and there were a bunch of Marmots that came real close. We found a Moose antler. The mountain was 7,398 feet high. Now we are going to relax.