Adventures in french canada

After my conference in New Hampshire, I drove back to montreal and Jo flew out to meet me. After a massive breakfast, we had a quick explore of the city and then drove south west to our friends (eddie and kira) parents house in North Hatley, Quebec.
First we hung out on their porch for a few hours and devoured several pounds of great Quebec cheese. After that we went for a swim in the local lake and then back to their pad for a massive dinner.
The next day we went for a boat on lac massawippi and then headed down into the US of A for some yachting (however the customs officer didnt seem to believe us). After an awsome afternoon sailing we had some wine and more cheese and then headed to a local restaurant for a big feed.
Tomorrow we are heading down to the coast of maine and then slowly working our way back up to the great white north.


On the lake by eddie and kiras place.

Eddie and I taking a dip in the lake.

aye aye captain!

Great way to end a day on the water.

Gordon conference on synaptic transmission

On Sunday, Jaideep (my boss) and I flew from Calgary to Montreal, rented a car and drove down to New Hampshire to a sleepy little town called New London.
In this little town there is a college that is hosting a bianual meeting for neuroscience geeks interested in how brain cells talk to each other. Its actually pretty cool (no really). We get afternoons off and theres free beer in the evenings. Today we got out for a hike up a small mountian and tomorrow I will hopefully get a chance to go on a guided kayak trip down one of the local rivers. Neuroscience has its perks!

This was outside a place were we stopped for burgers on the way from Montreal to the US border.

Hike and a birthday

Last year, a few of us went for a ski tour up to a place called tent ridge. It was mostly a bushwack followed by some turns on crust and then a sketchy ski out a creek with lots of tree fall. Maybe it would be a better hike? So we decided to put it to the test on saturday.
The start of the hike was much the same as the ski, a bit of a bushwack, however, after we got out of the trees and onto the ridge, things got a lot better.

Jo on tent ridge.

View of the Spray lakes from the ridge.

Me with Mt Assiniboine in the background.

The hike had been really fun, all we needed to do was to get off the ridge and back to the car, however, the directions were somewhat vague. What ensued was more bushwacking, attack by killer mosquitos and a decent down an avy slope.

Sunday we decided to hang in town and hit up a birthday party that had potential to be massive!

Happy 1st birthday Kate.

Oh Canada day long weekend

Canadians aren't as smart as kiwis, but they do know a thing or two about holidays. In Alberta, there is a long weekend almost every month, and this month it was Canada day.
For the long weekend we decided to head off to Waterton National Park (about 3hrs south west of Calgary) with a bunch of friends.

On the saturday we did a hike called the Carthew-Alderson. This hike took you up to an alpine pass that had amazing views and then down into a valley with several lakes and finally spat you out in the township of Waterton. Below are a couple shots from the hike.



On sunday we did another hike called Akamina ridge. This one took you past a Forum lake that had some icebergs and then up a rocky exposed ridge. You then obtained the wider Akamina ridge which we traversed before dropping back down to Wall lake and back out to the car.

Paddy at Forum lake

Kip above Wall lake

Jo and I on the ridge

Jo and Heather on the way back down

Paddy mixin up a "hot toddy" after a tough day in the wilderness


Campfire and guitar