Stampeeeeeeeeede!

I'm throwing out a disclaimer here. The spacing in this post is NUTS. I tried and tried to fix it, but I don't know what's wrong with it, and honestly, it took so long to write that I don't even care anymore. I also use the word "here" a lot, so bear with me and don't judge me. Just enjoy the post for what it is :-)

This list item was one of the ones that I was most excited about. And it almost didn't happen. Thanks, Mother Nature. But in the end, it all worked out, and it was one of the best times I've had in my life. Here's the story of my journey to The Calgary Stampede.


My sister and her boyfriend came home for a visit the week before I went out to visit them. They flew back to Calgary 3 days before I did. Their trip to the East Coast was a bit more hectic than they'd planned, since neighbourhoods very close to them were being evacuated. Why, you may ask? Because in June and July of 2013 most of Alberta was hit with torrential rains, causing flooding and massive damage in many regions, including the stampede grounds. My list was in jeopardy.

Now, my sister's boyfriend is a bit of a news hound at times, so we were kept pretty up to date on what was going on. I was determined that everything would be OK, even when things looked their worst. My mother kept telling me that it would be OK for me to cross it off the list, even if Stampede didn't happen because I'd planned to do it and only a natural disaster had stopped me. I just refused to believe that it wouldn't happen. My motto became the same as the city of Calgary and the Stampede itself; Come Hell or High Water. With a lot of hard work and many, many volunteers, they got the grounds in order and the Stampede went on.


It's easiest just to take my trip day by day, and it'll be mostly in pictures. I flew out at 5:40am on July 4th from the Saint John airport. I live about 40 minutes away from the airport, so I was looking at a pretty early morning, and so was my dad, who was going to drive me. Luckily for us both, 29 offered to let me stay at his place and drive me to the airport. After less than a month together. What a great guy, huh?

So anyway, with the 3 hour time difference, I landed around 11:30am. My sister was working and her boyfriend and his friend were on a hike, so I was left to my own devices in the Calgary airport. I survived and got a cab to my sister's house, where I promptly got a snack, turned on the Food Network and took a nap. Once everyone got home we packed up and headed to Ranchman's, a local bar where my sister's (1st place!) softball team was having a party. This was my first glimpse of just how much country music and cowboy gear I would be experiencing over the next 11 days. Have you ever seen the movie "Cool Runnings" about the Jamaican bobsleigh team? You know the bar where they get into a fight? Well, that was Ranchman's. They've even decorated to commemorate!



I met some of my sister's Calgary friends and even picked up some free swag! Yup, that's right, a free Fireball shot and some Fireball lip gloss, which tastes surprisingly like the real thing, minus the booze.

Double rainbow all the way!! What does it mean?? It's so beautiful!













 
The next day we all woke up early, dressed up in our western wear (I even had a cowboy hat, thanks to my sister and her boyfriend) and headed to the Stampede parade.

The square dancers did a few demos along the way. I have a special place in my heart for square dancers because my grandparents used to square dance. And yes, you DO see the word "hootenanny" on the side of that float. 

Ok, so I forget where these guys were from, but the guys were dancing around barefoot, shirtless and in their underwear with nothing but these little loin cloths in front. In the back they were open. Most of the guys wore boxer briefs or briefs, but the guy on the left here, he wore a thong. Jogged down the streets of Calgary with his butt cheeks hanging out. THAT'S dedication.

This is Harry the Horse, the Stampede mascot.

The guy in the front waving is parade marshall, Chris Hadfield, Canadian, astronaut and pretty good singer.

I loved this.

It's a friggin' stagecoach, straight out of "Calamity Jane"!

It's the Staypuft Marshmallow Man. And some other characters who seemed to have missed the memo that this float was for characters from BOOKS, not movies. It was for a library for God's sake.

Official Stampede float.

It's Bonhomme!! For those of you who don't know, he's the mascot for the Montreal Winter Festival. He's big in Canada.

It's Astar. He can put his arm back on. You can't. So play safe.

It's the Calgary Tower. Yup, they have a plush costume in the image of a national landmark.

The float from the town of Vulcan, Alberta. Apparently, they petitioned to have the North American premiere of JJ Abrams' "Star Trek" movie there. They even had Leonard Nimoy endorse them. Would have been great, except that there's no movie theater in Vulcan, Alberta.

The driver of this tank was nuts. He kept swinging the gun around like crazy. It was a bit unnerving...

Dude is riding a bull down the street.

These giant puppet things were creepy. They kept coming into the crowd, trying to shake peoples' hands. The worst part was when they realized they were way behind their float and had to run to catch up. They kind of lumbered down the street with their long creepy arms flapping. Nightmarish...

After the parade we headed to the Stampede grounds to look around at the exhibits. Here we have a model from the agricultural college which helps students learn to help deliver calves. It was weird.

Here's a view of the grandstand, full of people from the side.

 Sheep!!!

 Interesting sheep facts!

 Baby pigs!

Baby chicks. Born the day before. Cutest. Thing. EVER.

 Donkeys. They wouldn't turn around. They were asses.

Goats. They had a goat show. There were 4 goats. 2 were lively, 2 were sleeping. So, naturally, they dragged the sleeping ones out to do the show. Very logical.

 Alpacas. Very fluffy and kinda cute.

 Llama. He was kinda snobby and wouldn't turn around.

Baby sheep. So cute! They kept leaping around. I almost couldn't handle it!

The craziest looking chicken I've ever seen. She DOES have a head. She just wouldn't hold still for my picture.

 Check out the size of this horse. Taller than me!

 Look at this beautiful horse! No, he's not wearing a hat.
















The poor, soggy Saddledome. It was flooded up to the 14th row. 

We took a break from the grounds and had supper at National. It was delicious! But more on that later.

We headed back to the grounds to check out the midway at night. They have this lovely ski lift type ride across the grounds. That's my sister and her friend in front of us. I was in the lift with my sister's boyfriend, and I was just a bit nervous. There's no lap bar and I was pretty sure I was going to fall out. I was assured I wouldn't. And I didn't.

Here's a view of the midway from above. Very pretty. I was also quite sure that I was going to drop my phone over the side. Once again, I didn't.

Ferris wheel!

I got this sweet bruise on my shoulder on a ride with my sister. Stupid centrifugal force pushing her against me for a very long time. It was a lot of fun, though!

Back we went the next day, heading to the rodeo. Here are the entry gates.

 On our way into the grandstand!

Pretty cool stunt bike show. Evil Kenevil's son was one of the riders.






Woo hoo!
 



















That guy in the middle is the rodeo clown. He was hilarious!

Here's me in a cowboy hat!

The next day my sister and I went downtown for some shopping and sightseeing. Here's the Calgary Tower!

Here's the elevator in the Calgary Tower. Notice the floor number. There aren't really floors, just the bottom and the top, but still.

Here I am on the glass floor! My hands were sweaty because I was so nervous.

I was pretty sure the floor was going to give out and I'd plunge to my death. But I didn't.








 

Here's a view of the Stampede grounds from the top of the tower.

The next day my sister and I headed to the mountains. I love taking pictures of the mountains.

Here is beautiful water in Lake Louise. I love it there. This time we walked down the path beside the lake, which was a lot longer than we'd expected. I love Lake Louise.

Here I am!! I know so many people who have this identical picture. In retrospect, I should probably have sat down, and I probably should have worn a different shirt.

Here is the Banff Springs hotel. We went inside to check it out. It was pretty fancy.

This is Calgary Olympic Park. It was the site of the 1988 Winter Olympics. It's still used in the winter as a practice site, and in the summer they turn the ski jump tower into a zipline and open the bobsleigh track for rides. I did both and lived to tell about it.

This isn't me, but it'll give you an idea of what it looks like to drop down three stories. Kinda scary, actually, but only at first.

Again, not me, but this is what it looks like to go down the bobsleigh run. A professional driver steers you down. I ended up straddling my sister's friend (whom I met the day before) with the driver straddling me. We got down the hill in something like 84 seconds, which was one of the best times of the day. It was all over very quickly and I only cracked my head once. Thank you, helmet!

Here we are at the Sam Roberts concert. That's hi on stage on the left. These are free concerts, so they're usually pretty crowded. We ended up moving to a different spot after this. It was a really good show!

 Even Sheriff Woody showed up!

Unfortunately, it started to rain on the way back to the car. Luckily I had the sweet $5 ponchos I bought for my sister and I a couple of days earlier. I think they're quite fashionable!

The next day we headed off to the chuck wagon races. We had standing room only tickets, so we were right down by the action. Here's the mayor of Calgary, Naheed Nenshi, waving his cowboy hat.

After the chucks were over they started the grandstand show. Here is a picture of the Young Canadians performing. I was told they were horribly cheesy and hard to watch, and I wasn't disappointed. The singing wasn't too bad, but the acting was atrocious, the choreography was bizarre and the costumes were out of this world ridiculous (and borderline ethnically offensive at times). Good for a laugh, though!

This part of the show was kind of cool. While the Young Canadians (unfortunately) sang Heart's "Barracuda", a pair of acrobatic twins did a routine in which they swung around the stage on a rope, sometimes with one holding the rope and the other hanging from his brother. It was very impressive!

This was SO cool! A team of Chinese acrobats did a routine where some held poles and others climbed the poles and then leaped from pole to pole. At one point, as you can see in this picture, the pole holders were standing on giant rubber balls. Crazy, but amazing to watch.

This is a scene from the Alberta Ballet's Elton John show. Not sure who came up with the concept, but here we have a baseball team dancing to "Benny and the Jets".

This was also really cool to see. They had wires strung from the top of the grandstand to the top of the stage (on which cowboys had flown in during the rodeo), and this amazing sculpture walked across the sky. There are two people in there, one at the front and one at the back, controlling the legs of the moose. 




And now, I present you with a special section called "The Food I Ate at the Calgary Stampede". Some of it I ate at restaurants, but I included it here because I am always amazed by the quality and diversity of the food I eat in Calgary. The food on the midway is almost an event in itself. I didn't even get to try a portion of what I wanted to try, but if I'd eaten everything I wanted to I would have been broke and fat. But, here is what I DID eat.

This wasn't at the Stampede, it was on my sister's deck, but it was delicious. Mmm, ceasar.

Pretty sure they put some kind of addictive substance in this lemonade, because if I was on the Stampede grounds, I HAD to get a lemonade from Lemon Heaven. Just lemons, ice and a little bit of sugar water. I tried to recreate it when I got home. Not as good, but passable.

Lobster poutine. Delightfully rich and cheesy. We got this at the restaurant I mentioned earlier, National. I highly recommend it!

Seafood chowder, which was also delicious. Both dishes were really rich, so I ended up leaving most of the fries with their amazing cheese sauce. Wish I had them now...

This is a ham and pineapple pancake at Pfanntastic Pannenkoek Haus. It was sweet and savoury and HUGE, so I took half of it home and ate it the next day. Just as good the second day! If you want more info on the restaurant check out Season 1, Episode 25 of "You Gotta Eat Here" on the Food Network.

This is the menu from Tubby Dog, which makes fancy hot dogs. "You Gotta Eat Here" also featured it on Season 1, Episode 22. Hopefully you can see the list of toppings. If not, here are the ones my sister, her boyfriend and I ordered. Their friend ordered the Slaw Dog, which was basically a hot dog with coleslaw on it, but I didn't get a picture of it.

This is the PBJ, which my sister's boyfriend always gets. It has, as you can imagine, peanut butter and jam, and your choice of cereal. His choice? Reese's peanut butter cup cereal. It didn't appeal to me at all, but it's his favourite.

This is my sister's hot dog, The Harlow. It has bacon, cheese, mustard and relish. I thought about getting this one, but I don't like relish, and I was intrigued by...










...the potato chips on the A-Bomb. It has all the same topping as the Harlow, but it has the chips and ketchup instead of relish. I was expecting just plain chips, but there were also barbeque, which I'm not a huge fan of. We decided to take our hot dogs back to the house to eat, and this lovely picture was taken before I dropped my hot dog on the floor of the cab. RIGHT outside my sister's house. I cleaned it up as best I could and yes, I still ate it. It was a clean cab and I really wanted that hot dog.

This is a delicious chicken taco I got from Naco, a food truck on the midway. It was one of the healthier choices I made.

Cherry lemonade, just to try something different. It was good, but not as good as the original.

I got this ice cream at Village Ice Cream. It was hit by the flood and only re-opened a couple of days before we went. Apparently it's usually quite busy, but when we went there were only a few people there. All their ice cream is made on site, and they use local products in a lot of their flavours. I had vanilla (on the left), which had little bits of real vanilla in it and salted caramel (on the right), which was amazing. I'm glad I paired it with the vanilla because it was quite rich and I don't think I could have eaten a whole dish of it.

Chicken and waffles. Probably the best thing I ate on the grounds. The waffle was nice and fluffy, with tasty syrup on it, then a few pieces of an amazingly crispy and flavourful fried chicken topped with white gravy. Soooo good!!

Chocolate covered frozen banana. Yes, I know what it looks like. Is this not the longest banana you've ever seen?? All in all it wasn't that good. Sadly.

Deep fried Snickers bar. They deep fry EVERYTHING here. One stand was even selling deep fried bubblegum and DEEP FRIED BUTTER, which basically just ended up being a buttery hollow dough, or so I hear. I didn't attempt those one. This Snickers bar was ok, except I don't like peanuts. So basically, this Snickers would have been better if it was a Mars bar.

Probably the best candy apple I've ever eaten. I think it was probably because, since the Stampede is so busy, they make them quite frequently so it was nice and fresh. The apple was crunchy and delicious and the candy was perfect. My sister and I debated with her boyfriend over which was better, candy apples or caramel apples. We voted for candy, he voted for caramel. Clearly, we are right.

Cotton candy. Nothing special here, just a bag of pure sugar, which is always good.

This is a delicious hot dog from the grandstand. I didn't take a picture early enough for you to see the whole thing...

Last, but not least, a special Stampede edition can of Bud. This was my sister's, not mine. I didn't drink that night, because I was driving. Yes, that's right, I drove in Calgary. Hooray for me!










So that was my trip! I obviously have a lot more pictures, but since this post took about 8 hours as it was, I think there's enough here that you get a pretty good idea of what my trip was like. I had so much fun, thanks to my fantastic tour guides. So if you ever get the chance to go see the Calgary Stampede, I highly recommend that you do, and take in some of the other sights in Calgary and surrounding areas. Yahoo!!!!

How Green is My Thumb?

Hello there, oh, readers of mine! It has definitely been a while. It's been a very busy summer, and, honestly, after the last minute surge I had right before my birthday, I was too exhausted to catch up on my blog posts. I'm almost there, however, with only this and one other post to go before I'm caught up with year one of The Valancy Stirling Project. The last one, the post on my trip to Stampede, will be a big one, so I imagine it'll take me some time to complete. And I took several hundred pictures that I'll have to sift through to tell my story. But I digress. Here is the latest installment, my post on list item number 25, Plant and Take Care of a Big Garden.

One reason I waited so long to do this post was that I wanted to prove that I did, in fact, take CARE of the garden, not just plant it. I was finally able to harvest the other day, so I had something to prove that I'd done what I set out to do. 

 
I spent a moderate amount of money on my garden. Luckily, I got a really good deal on dirt, and I already had most of the seeds. Most of my money was spent making the gardens on either side of my door pretty. Here's a before and after, because you know how I love my before and after shots.

In the spring this is what I came home to everyday. We worked so hard on the inside we forgot about the outside, until the snow melted, that is. 

And here's the end product! I dug up the right side and planted pansies, creeping jenny, nasturtiums and a few other flowers. We had huge rain storms in May and June, which washed away all of my nasturtiums and drowning several of my pansies. I left the other side alone, because it was full of forget-me-nots, which I love. 






Now, as some of you may remember, my original plan was to plant the garden in the now empty lot where my late uncle's house used to stand. Unfortunately, once my cousins and I began clean-up, we discovered that the ground was too contaminated by glass and construction debris to be useable. We went to plan B and opted for container gardening. I have to say that I wasn't overly impressed with the end result. But more on that later.

In the beginning, there was an empty lot. Well, empty in that there was no house on it, but in actuality it was a mess of wood, glass and random house paraphernalia. And a freezer. That came from my basement. My dad and I dragged it out. Then neighbourhood hooligans moved it down here. And yes, we took the lid off.



Anywho, my cousins and I worked very hard raking and shoveling the debris into piles and dumping it into an abandoned septic tank on the property. All that rain we got in May, however, weighed it all down too much for us to move it. We never did finish, but it ended up looking better, until the grass grew, and then it all looked like a horrible, overgrown mess. The huge amounts of rain also affected our planting. Not only did we have to wait much later than I'd planned to actually plant (end of May, beginning of June to be exact), but once we did we got lots more wind and rain, and many of our seeds either washed or blew away.

Eventually, however, we did get it all planted.

This is the side garden before, which was more successful than the containers.

And this is how it looked in the end. My cucumbers, beans, tomatoes, green peppers and peas were planted here. The peas were an epic fail. Most of them washed away. The beans weren't much better, but I got some. The green peppers NEVER grow well, so I'll probably just put in 2 more tomato plants next year because they grew really well. The cucumbers were ok, but not as good as last year.

Now, back to container gardening. First, my dad drilled holes in some totes for me. Then my friend and I filled them with big rocks.

Then I filled them all with dirt. Each bin took 3 bags of dirt. In retrospect, I should have added some manure or something to enrich the soil. Maybe that's why they were pretty much a bust.






The rain had slowed down, but we were still getting enough that I rarely had to water the gardens myself. When I did, however, I realized that I didn't have a normal sized watering can, which forced me to have to water my garden with this.

 

Not easy. I eventually bought a new one, but only had to use it a few times. Everything started growing pretty quickly, which got me really excited.

 

I planted my seed potatoes a bit later than the other stuff, but they also sprouted up quickly.











And then I went to Calgary. We had a HUGE heat wave in NB while I was away. My cousin faithfully watered the garden for me, but I guess it just wasn't enough. I was away for 11 days and when I came back most of the garden looked exactly the way it had when I left. And it stayed that way. Some things stopped growing entirely (onions, green onions, mesculin mix) and some looked promising briefly but didn't amount to anything (yellow zucchini, carrots). I ended up with a grand total of I think 4 radishes and enough lettuce to make a very, very small salad. Like, about 1/2 a cup. I also got one tiny green pepper. They never grow. I don't even know why I bother.

Last year I did really well with my beans, radishes and cucumbers. This year the beans and cucumbers were ok, but my best growers were my potatoes and my tomatoes.

Look at that gorgeous thing. I've never really had success with tomatoes before, but this year I was just giddy about them! I'd go check on them everyday just to see the progress, and when the first one ripened I brought it in the house and my parents and I shared it. Delicious. 








And so I came to the end of the summer. The other night I had a Scentsy party and one of the girls said there was supposed to be frost that night. I panicked. I was NOT about to lose my entire harvest that I'd nursed all summer. So, at 10 o'clock at night I went out in the cold and the dark, flashlight in one had, plastic bag in the other, and I harvested my crops. I was fine in the side garden, but when I had to go down to the other yard to harvest from my totes I admit to calling for help from my dad. And he came down in the dark, because he's a good daddy. So, there we were, late at night with only a flashlight, digging through a bucket of cold dirt for potatoes. I was really impressed by the potato harvest, so I'll definitely grow them again. When I got back to the house my mom came down and helped me wash it all.

Here's the final tally!! There's about 8 pounds of tomatoes (most of which are now in a box covered in newspapers to help them ripen) and 4 pounds of potatoes. You can see my bumper crop of lettuce there, along with my last radish and my microscopic green pepper. I jarred the beans, and I'll probably serve them at Thanksgiving, so everyone who helped me with the garden can taste them. I got a 250ml jar and a 500ml jar. I'll eat the tiny salad someday with my supper. I had some potatoes tonight and will probably just continue to pick away at them. I love potatoes. The cucumbers will probably go to my mother, who is planning on making mustard pickles, and the tomatoes will be made into ketchup. Can't wait!




So that was my garden experience this year. I learn more and get better harvests every year. 29 (now officially my boyfriend, by the way) asked me if I thought it was worth the money I'd spent, and to me it was. I absolutely LOVE seeing my garden go from a little plot of dirt to a lush green space full of natural, healthy vegetables. It may not look like much, but today, for the first time ever, I ate potatoes that had been growing in the ground a day before. I know exactly how old all that food is. I watched them grow from almost nothing into the beautiful feast you see here. I know that they are natural, with no pesticides, and I feel an amazing sense of accomplishment when I look at this picture. Yet another list item that I am proud to show off!

With a Song in My Heart

I have never really been musically inclined. I love music and singing, but I'm not a fantastic singer and, sadly, I have never been able to play an instrument. My dad, most of my uncles and several cousins play multiple instruments but the best I've been able to do was the recorder in elementary school. I've tried several instruments since, but I haven't gotten the hang of any of them.


When it came time to cross this item off the list I took some time to seriously think about what kind of instrument I could realistically learn to play that wouldn't cost me too much. After watching some Youtube videos I developed an interest in the glockenspiel, which is basically a metal xylophone. After price checking around I found a good one and my parents bought it for me as an early birthday present.


Finding sheet music proved to be a challenge. There didn't seem to be anything online specifically designed for glockenspiels, but I found a few I thought I might try. I'm not very good at reading music, however, so I mostly just ended up playing by ear. I fiddle around with it from time to time, but I can really only play one song. And here it is.

Other than that all I can really do is play the scales. Which sounds kind of nice. So I'll show you that too. Please ignore the weird face I'm making.

Have I discovered a new career? No. Will the national glockenspiel players society be knocking on my door any time soon? Absolutely not. But I've found out that it's a lot of fun to play, so I'll keep at it, and who knows? Maybe I'll be rocking out before you know it.

Oh, and just because I thought it was funny, here's my blooper reel.

Attempt one at my song;

 

And yes, I somehow managed to screw up the scales. Although I swear there was something weird with that key...

Climb Every Mountain

Well, I definitely won't be climbing EVERY mountain. This one was...well, let's be honest. I was pretty sure I was going to die on this mountain and that my sister would have to drag my carcass back down behind her. But I didn't. I survived it and, standing at the top of that mountain, I silently congratulated myself for not sitting down on the trail and waiting for my sister and her boyfriend to come back down to retrieve me. It was incredible up there. But more on that later. 

As you may remember, shortly before my trip, Alberta was hit by a series of huge rainstorms, which caused massive flooding. By the time I arrived the worst had been cleaned up, but many places were closed, including, very sadly, the Calgary Zoo, which is my favourite place in the city. Another place that was closed; the mountain my sister and her boyfriend had planned to take me to climb.

Time for the back-up plan. A few days before I arrived my sister's boyfriend and his friend went for a hike and the only mountain open was Mount Yamnuska. They didn't die, and, since it was still the only mountain open when my turn came around, I decided to go for it.





Here's a bit of info on Mount Yamnuska. Its official name is actually Mount Laurie, but is most often referred to by its native name, Mount Yamnuska which means "wall of rock". It has a vertical elevation gain of 533 meters, with a trail for hiking and multiple areas for rock climbing. It is listed as a moderately difficult climb and should take about 1-3 hours to complete.



The weather forecast seemed a bit ominous for hike day, but by the time the day rolled around it was sunny and bright. I, of course, didn't have a hat (and received a lecture from my sister in response. Like I'm a mountain climbing expert and knew I'd need a hat! I was surrounded by trees! But I digress...), but I was in luck and my sister had a spare hat in the car. 



As we started out I felt great. I had on my new outfit I'd bought just for the occasion and my comfy new sneakers. I skipped along behind my sister and her boyfriend with a smile on my face. And then I ran out of flat ground. By the time I reached this sign about 10 minutes in, the thought "what have I gotten myself into" came screaming into my head. 



Turns out I was a little bit more out of shape than I'd thought. And apparently I'm much more appetizing to Albertan mosquitoes than I am to the New Brunswick variety because I was absolutely eaten alive during my hike. I rarely get bitten at all, but on this day I think that every square inch of my body was bitten and itchy. I had to take multiple scratch breaks, so frequently, in fact, that a stranger and his daughter stopped to offer me some After-bite. It helped for a minute, but it was excruciating for most of the journey. 

Aside from the bug bites, the fatigue and the fact that there were times when I literally had to lift my leg up the hill with my hands, I couldn't have been happier with my climb. By the time we reached the plateau about half way up I was so excited, I couldn't wait to get to the top. Mostly so I could rest, but that's beside the point.

This is the "crown" of the mountain as seen from about half way up. You don't technically climb to the top unless you use rock climbing equipment. I climbed up to where the tree line ends.

This is the beautiful view of the surrounding mountains. I can't describe how amazing it feels to be looking out at that from the side of a mountain.






 

I thought this heart shaped lake would make an interesting picture.

 Just relaxing.










 

Somewhere in this picture is the overly friendly (and slightly maniacal) chipmunk who kept disturbing me as I sat admiring the view. My sister's boyfriend and his friend had encountered one on their hike and it bit his friend's finger. I was paranoid that one would bite me too so I kept squirting it with my water bottle when it got too close. Which was frequently. Little bastard made me waste my precious water. They were even worse at the top when we had our snack. I was surrounded on three sides at one point, which we took as our cue to go.

As we neared the top I started to doubt my ability to scramble up the last few feet. My sister and her boyfriend had encouraged me all the way up, and they told me they wouldn't let me cross it off my list if I didn't go all the way to the top. And so I did. Here I am with the beautiful view in the background.

And here is the view from the top. You really can see for miles on a clear day. It's breathtaking.

Here's the view of the valley at the back of the mountain. My sister's boyfriend said that sometimes you can see bears running through the field...which only scared me a bit. Also, as we were sitting here we heard a huge crack of thunder and, consequently, tried to boot it back down the hill as quickly as we could. Because no one wants to be stuck at the top of a mountain in a thunderstorm. We made it down in about 2.5 hours, well ahead of the thunderstorm and headed to Canmore for a celebratory meal at the Grizzly Paw. Yum, yum! 




And so, here I am; Lisa Magee, fearless mountain climber. I'll do it again someday, just so I can see that view again. And if you're in the Calgary area, say hello to Mount Yamnuska for me and tell her I'll come see her again soon.

 

My Whovian Adventure Part 9

Oh, the Eighth Doctor. Yet more proof that the series has been left in some very incapable hands at times. My issues with the show have never been about the performance of the Doctors themselves. No, not even the Sixth. Ridiculous costume choices, boring story lines, awful companions and poor character arcs were the problem. And the Eighth Doctor was no different. 

 
Paul McGann played the Eighth Doctor, very well in my opinion, in a one-off TV movie created with the intention of regenerating (pardon the pun) the series. It didn't work, but it was once again more due to poor production choices than anything Paul McGann did. He was kind of wonderful actually, almost a perfect segue from Classic to Modern Who. In an effort to appeal to a wider audience, they, regrettably, made everyone with the exception of the Doctor American. It lost some of its charm and authenticity for me there. And they gave him really stupid hair.



There's a lot going on here in only 90 minutes. The Seventh Doctor appears, gets shot and taken to hospital where he 'dies' and then regenerates in the freezer of the morgue. He then stumbles around wrapped in a sheet in his typical regeneration haze, not knowing who he is or what he's doing. He meets up with Dr. Grace Holloway, who thinks he's crazy.In the meantime, the Master is at it again, this time in the form of Eric Roberts, who has always rubbed me the wrong way to begin with. Add some Asian gangs, an atomic clock, car chases, explosions and it starts to feel more like a Jerry Bruckheimer movie than Doctor Who.

By the time the Doctor figures out who he is and forms a plan to save the world yet again, the movie is at least half over. He also gets a bit ripped off in the companion department. He gets saddled with 2 rather poor excuses for companions, who never travel in the TARDIS and who spend most of the movie either working for the enemy or trying to have him arrested. And then in the end they both die...but are somehow brought back. I'm still not entirely sure how.

Grace is the first person he tries to get help from, but she thinks he's crazy and locks him out of her house. Eventually though, she comes around and even earns the distinct honour of being the first companion to smooch the Doctor. GASP!! She's ok, but I've seen far too many companions to be impressed by her. Although to be fair, she didn't get much opportunity to shine in this 90 minute movie.

This is Chang Lee. He is there in the alley when the Seventh Doctor gets shot, and goes to the hospital with him...where he promptly tries to steal the Doctor's stuff when he finds out he's dead. He then teams up with the Master and becomes his lackey, until he realizes the Master doesn't care about him and joins the Doctor. He's pretty boring.








I'm not going to list 5 things about the Eighth Doctor, because I've pretty much told you all you need to know. This movie suffers from too much story in too little time. It was like they tried to fill the gap between 1989 and 1996 and squeeze a whole 4-5 episode story arc into an hour and a half of television time, when most of the people watching would have no idea what was happening. The jump from the style of the Seventh to the Eighth Doctor is a huge one, and the jump from the Eighth to the Ninth is just as big, but at least the Eighth serves as some kind of a bridge between the two eras. The Eighth Doctor continues on in written stories for the next decade, so is allowed to grow a bit more, although not on screen. The show continues to struggle to find its place through these years and into the Ninth years, finally coming into its own during the Tenth Doctor's years. But more on that later...

My Whovian Adventure Part 8

I'm back!! After my vacation to Calgary, my return and attempt to get back in the swing of things, my birthday, and a trip to PEI this past weekend, I have been horribly neglectful of my blog. But I promise to get a few posts done over the next couple of days and get caught up as soon as I can. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed right now with all the posts I have to write, but I'll get them done. And then I can start on my new list!

Ok, so, after a rather disastrous turn with the Sixth Doctor, they came back strong with the Seventh. Played by Sylvester McCoy, the Seventh Doctor was quirky, funny, caring and smart. Not the know-it-all kind of smart displayed by the Sixth Doctor, but something that harkened back to the Fourth Doctor. Not too nice, but not overly snarky either. The story lines were a lot more interesting, the characters gelled well together, the technology was finally starting to catch up with the creatures so they looked less phoney....and then they cancelled the show. Assholes. After surviving for 26 years (except for a brief hiatus during the Sixth Doctor), the Doctor just couldn't find a place on TV. Sadly, because these were some of my favourite episodes.

 

The regeneration scene from the Sixth to the Seventh Doctor is...different. Apparently, Colin Baker (the Sixth Doctor) was upset about the fact that his Doctor was being phased out and refused to appear in the regeneration scene...so instead, they slapped a curly blond wig on Sylvester McCoy, had him lay on the floor of the TARDIS, shook it around a bit and put some squiggly lines over his face. And boom goes the dynamite, the Seventh Doctor arrives. He hangs onto Mel for a few more episodes (unfortunately), before getting a new one and then just disappearing for 7 years.

The Seventh Doctor only had two companions. One I kind of liked, one I kind of hated. Like, she was right up there with Adric on my list of most hated companions. 

Mel was there for the horrible regeneration and stuck around for a little bit. She's supposed to be some kind of scientific genius, so when a scientific crisis comes up on an alien planet she stays behind to help out. To be quite honest, most of the time she seems to be more concerned with fitness than science most of the time. I was glad to see her and her annoying voice go.

Ace joined the Doctor right before Mel left. She's a feisty teenager who actually plays well off the Doctor. Although she doesn't take any crap from anyone, she's respectful of the Doctor. Plus, she's an explosives expert, which is awesome. Ace actually gets a back story, which we learn about bit by bit, unlike a lot of companions who just show up (ahem, MEL), or just float through life with the Doctor and then are shuffled off in one way or another. At the end of the Seventh Doctor's run he returns  Ace to her home so she can deal with her past and move on with her future. And then he sets off alone. Ah, the lonely life of a Time Lord.



Here are the top 5 things about the Seventh Doctor;


1. Clothes; The Seventh Doctor is a much better dresser than his predecessor. Although he keeps the question marks all over his clothes (for some reason the producer felt it was a good idea, although the sliding ratings since his takeover should have overruled his costume choices), he gets a nice hat, jacket, trousers and a sweater vest, which go well with his ever present umbrella. Which comes in handy from time to time.

2. The Greatest Show in the Galaxy; So, the premise of this episode was that there were aliens who set up a circus for their own entertainment. They found people wandering the desert and forced them to perform in the ring. If they weren't entertaining enough, they were vaporized. Obviously, the only person to succeed was the Doctor, so he defeated the aliens. The cool part about this episode was the girl in this picture. She turned into quite a believable werewolf. Pretty good visuals.



3. The Candyman; This was another of my favourite episodes, 'The Happiness Patrol'. This guy you see in the picture here is the Candyman, a bad guy who is made of, apparently, licorice allsorts. And how, does the Doctor defeat him? By spraying him with lemonade so he sticks to the floor. Twice. Eventually he gets sucked into a tube and destroyed. But before that, he is candy-coated awesomeness.

Stigorax

Rahzar

 4. Stigorax; This is a Stigorax named Fifi, and her master Helen A, the Architect of Happiness in 'The Happiness Patrol'. I'm pretty sure it was just a puppet, but it looked cool, and it reminded me a lot of Rahzar from the Ninja Turtles.





 

5. Awesome Cameo; I have always loved cameos, and I have seen surprisingly few in my watching of 30 odd years of the Doctor. Maybe I'd see more if I watched more British TV (I've already noticed several in my viewing of the Tenth Doctor, but more on that later), but I definitely noticed this one. I even IMDBd it to make sure I was right. And I was. Behold! I give you....Geoffrey Butler from 'Fresh Prince' playing a bartender to the Seventh Doctor!!

And so that's the Seventh Doctor. Although the show was cancelled during his run, he is in my opinion one of the best Doctors. When they made the TV movie in the mid nineties in hopes of resurrecting the series, he was great enough to come back and reprise his role. He's definitely worth a watch!