My Summer Holidays

Let's not kid ourselves: from a meteorological perspective, Canada is a a bi-polar nation. In my city of Edmonton, we see winter lows hit -57 c on some days, while having summer highs of +35c. This offers both challenges (especially psychologically) and opportunities if you like to be active.


This has been a fantastic summer. I've got a lot of camping, hiking, mountain biking, kayaking and beer in since school ended (definitely a perk of being a teacher, having summers off!). The result has been a lot of wonderful memories, a few adventures and, inevitably, a few battle scars. Though in the middle of nowhere in many ways, Edmonton is a great town with an amazing river valley, hundreds of kilometers of bike paths, lakes and national parks close by full of elk, bison, coyotes, moose, etc. We also have a whole lot of amazing festivals.

Though I wish the Rocky Mountains were closer, they are only a three hour drive away. Jasper has become a second home for me this summer, and, in fact, I'm heading there again in the morning for a bit of camping, hiking and mountain biking with a friend visiting from New Jersey and my daughter.

So, as I've not been blogging a whole lot as of late, I reckoned that I'd share some scenes from what I have been up to. Enjoy the pics and perhaps make this a future travel destination!