New Stuff

To get the new academic year off to a good start, we've got some new stuff in the Library. I'm sure Kathy will be pleased that the new security gate has now been installed and the chairs that she ordered have been delivered. [Non-library types might not be so interested, but take it from me: it's reasonably exciting for us].
We all agree that the entrance looks much better now - much more welcoming to the students.
Some people like the chairs better than others, we've decided that size of person is a definite comfort factor!

New Staff Orientation

Yesterday I took part in the new staff orientation here at the College. It was interesting as I got to meet staff from a variety of departments here (some I had already met, some were new to me) and get even more of a feel for the organisation of the College.
In the picture on the left, the new staff are in the boardroom being introduced to the Presidents and Deans and on the right is a picture of me on the tour of all the departments here. If you look carefully you can see that we are all carrying the same bag - one of the "presents" that we received on the tour (I also got some pens, a notepad and a LCC pin).

Icefields

After stopping off at the Lake Louise gondola, we went along the Icefields Parkway to the Columbia Icefields. The parkway itself was interesting as you could spot glaciers on top of the mountains. At the Coumbia Icefields there is a visitor centre and there you can buy tickets to go out onto the Athabasca Glacier (that the big one you can see in the picture on the left). It used to reach along to the road, but global warming means it shrinks a bit each year.
It's not safe to just wander out there so you go out in the special buses with the big huge wheels. You can see Laura & me standing next to our bus in the picture - I'm 5"8 so you can get an idea of the size. It meant that we felt perfectly safe and hardly felt any bumps as we travelled along the glacier.
Once you get right out onto the glacier there is a safe place where you can get out and walk around. That's fun as you get to see more clearly some of the smaller glaciers like the one behind Sarah & me in the picture.
It's just like walking on compacted icy snow, but is strange when you've also been informed that the ice you're standing on is a deep as the height of the Empire State Building! There are also lots of little streams running along so we all got to taste glacial water (I didn't think it was good). You can spot a stream just behind me & Laura in the last picture. We were lucky as it was very cold out there, but the sun came out which made it less chilly and the pictures look great!

Lake Louise (Sat 12th - weather improving)

On the way to the Icefields we stopped off at Lake Louise. Well actually we didn't make it to Lake Louise itself, or the townsite but we went up on the gondola on the opposite mountain. It was fun as you had the choice of the enclosed cable car or the ski-lift so we went up in the open ski-lift. The first picture is taken on the way back down. You can see the gondola and also Lake Louise at the foot of the mountains - it really was a fantastic view!
The second picture is Sarah, me & Laura at the top. Lake Louise is directly behind where I'm standing so you can't see it. We were fortunate as the weather was clear while we were up at the top and only started raining when we were almost at the bottom - so we didn't get too wet.
At the top of the mountain there was an interpretive centre which had displays on the wildlife in the area. This was supposedly my best chance of seeing a grizzly bear, but for some reason they weren't hanging around underneath the gondola for the tourists to spot (very inconsiderate I think)! I did see a couple of cute ground squirrels and just as we were leaving 2 deer came running out of some bushes across the top of the mountain - well I think that's what they were, 2 deer-like creatures with big antlers anyway (you can figure out for youselves from the final picture). They were chasing each other around, but I don't think they were fighting and they looked quite impressive so that almost made up for not seeing a bear. [Laura and Sarah saw one in Waterton so I think it's about time I spotted one too].

Banff (Fri 11th) - Rainclouds, hotsprings & the spa

As I mentioned, the weather in Banff was not great on the Friday. We didn't see the tops of the mountains very much as it rained on and off all day. The picture of me & Laura on the bridge is during one of the brighter spots in the day - you can see the top of the mountain!
Sadly, we'd all been expecting better weather so I ended up wearing the same pair of jeans all weekend and Sarah had to buy gloves!
However, we happily spent the morning looking round the many giftshops in the townsite before walking up to the Cave & Basin which is the sight of the original hot springs in Banff. It was interesting to find out how tourism developed after the discovery of the hot springs and the building of the railway for tourists to get into the Rockies. I also like how a lot of effort is being made to ensure the National Parks are protected for everyone to continue enjoying them.
After visiting the original hot springs, we went to the new man-made ones. If you look closely you can spot me in the centre of the pool. By this time the weather had got worse again and it rained for half the time we were in there (note the lifeguard with red jumper, hiking boots and raincoat with hood up at the back of the picture). The rain was almost quite refreshing as the pool was 40c. After half an hour in there we went upstairs to the spa for massages and for a whole hour did not care what the weather (or even the scenery) was like at all!

Road Trip

With Laura & Sarah both visiting we had to do something exciting at the weekend, so we went to Banff. Fortunately I had a flex-day last Friday so we could set off on Thursday 10th after I finished work.
As usual it was sunny and clear in Lethbridge, but as we headed towards Calgary the skies darkened, it rained and there was lightning every minute coming in great forks towards the earth. All 3 of us agreed we'd never seen anything like it before! When we stopped for a break at A&W the power cut out momentarily, but everything was restored seconds later.
There's so much on our Banff trip that I'm splitting it into sections. The pictures here are all taken from the car (it took 4 hours to get there so I spent a lot of time taking pictures from the car). The first is just outside Banff National Park as we were approaching Canmore. This was the best weather we had experienced outside Lethbridge - the skies here had cleared dramatically!
The weather on Friday was not great either, but the mountains looked great as wisps of cloud caught in them. You'll see in later postings that it didn't spoil anything for us. Saturday & Sunday were much brighter as you can see from the other "road" pictures. The middle picture is one of the many lakes on the Icefields Parkway heading from Lake Louise to the Columbia Icefields. The second is going back in the opposite direction.
Despite all the 'promising' warnings to watch out for wildlife, I still didn't get to see any bears on the trip!

Writing On Stone

Writing on Stone is a provincial park south east of Lethbridge, not far from the border of Montana. We went there yesterday (Mon 7th) as it's [another] public holiday in Canada. It's very unusual as it has lots of rock art and carvings. At one time it was inhabited by the Blackfoot people who would come on "vision quests" after fasting for several days. The site also has lots of hoodoos which are the strange rock formations you can see in the pictures. It looked like something out of Star Wars/Trek to me!
It was really, really hot out there and we made the mistake of going along the hoodoo trail to see the rock art during the hottest part of the day (around 4pm). The guide at the interpretive centre was obviously at bit worried that we weren't put off that the temperature along the trail was around 40c and loaned us hats! Rattlesnakes were another warning as one had recently bitten someone's pet dog who had sniffed down its hole. The guide also pointed out the tap so we could stock up on water. Sadly we wished we had listened to her and gone along later as we felt like we were doing our own vision quest as we were all feeling faint and sick in the heat (closest I've ever been to proper sunstroke, oops).
But we made it back again and the Milk River was beckoning - it was lovely and cool, but not cold like at Waterton. We all jumped in fully clothed and quite happily swam around in there for at least an hour. It was 6pm when we finally got out, but it was still so hot that we dried off quickly.

Frank Slide

No, not the name of a person here. In 1903 there was a disaster in the town of Frank (west of Lethbridge, along the Crowsnest Trail, almost on the border with BC) when a chunk of Turtle Mountain suddenly collapsed and covered part of the town. There had been no warnings and about 70 people were killed. There were even miners underneath at the time but fortunately they survived, being able to dig their way out of the mine.
We visited on Saturday (5th Aug). As you can see from the picture, it's still obvious where the mountain collapsed and the "slide." What I was unprepared for was the remaining rocks which cover an area up to 3km. Some of the rocks were estimated to crash down on the town at a speed of around 120kmph. Rocks of all sizes and shapes spread out in a zone from the bottom of the mountain and it looked like the surface of the moon.

Calgary

I arrived in Calgary to find flooding and hailstones so thick it looked like snow on the ground - a little different to what I've been used to in Lethbridge! Sarah thought I had just been lying about the good weather here. It improved slightly the next day and was quite nice in the morning, however we didn't get to appreciate that as we were shopping at the Chinook Mall.
In the afternoon we went to Heritage Park which was really good. It's a reconstructed town with buildings that have been moved from various places in Canada so that there's a bank, post office, school, newspaper printers, bakery (the cinnamon rolls were great), sweetshop, blacksmiths, gas station, railway station, police station, etc, etc. Sadly as soon as we arrived it started to rain and I was only wearing sandals. We went for a ride on the steam train there and it cleared up so we were able to appreciate the whole park better. Note that in the picture I am leaning on the umbrella which Kathy left in her car (thankyou very much).
They also had an 'intepretive programme' running throughout the day telling the story of a robbery from outside the post office, the mounties catching the thieves and finally a court trial outside the town hall (see picture). The actors were really funny so that was a highlight.

Evacuation

Just to prove that August in Colleges is always the same ... yesterday some of the construction workers hit a corroded gas line and it leaked into the College. They were actually very good in getting everyone out as we could all smell it in the Library and weren't sure what was happening! The buildings were closed for almost 2 hours so we were forced to take an extended lunch break (a sacrifice I know). Unfortunately, only one of us in the library had evacuated with a purse, but she was feeling generous so we headed out for chinese food. If you're really interested, you can read about it in the Lethbridge Herald http://www.lethbridgeherald.com/article_3591.php Just to add to the excitement, I also got to see some Canadian Firemen!
The picture is the back of my residence, the 2 windows on the bottom right are my bedrooms. Fortunately no gas leaked in there, but sadly I don't have hot water until Saturday. Luckily I'm off to Calgary tonight to meet Sarah.

Don't know how I'll ship this home...

This weekend I went hunting & shot my first bear! The guys at the College were so proud of me that they've stuffed it and mounted it in a case. I think it'll look great as a trophy in the living room at home!

Ok, that's a lie (fooled you?)

Actually this weekend was spent shopping, doing laundry and a visit to the Helen Schuler Coulee Centre (no bears but plenty of gophers).
This is a Kodiak bear which is the College mascot. This guy lives in the Physical Education building. (Please ignore the bad photography and the flash, couldn't get it any better). I think he's quite impressive - you certainly don't find anything like this at Burton!!!