Sunday, May 29, 2005
Kananaskis spring
Well, here goes! Mr White promised that I would update the world on our little trip to Kananaskis (also known as 'K Country' - probably because it would be easy to get carried away with those 'an' repeats - we could have ended up in Kanananananananaskis if we weren't careful!).
So in order to keep the promise, I think that this is going to turn out to be a bit of a photo blog. I'm not really in the mood to write screeds of text today as its about 20 degrees C, the sun is shining and the sky is pure blue - and I need to be outside! Mind you, being outside in all that beautiful sunshine also has a bit of a downside - the relative humidity at the moment is hovering somewhere around 20%, whereas I see that Belfast (NI) is luxuriating in a nice damp 80%! Did you ever think you'd hear me say that I missed the rain... Actually, its not bad at all... all it means is that you have to be sure to use moisturiser almost religiously (Mr White has even decided to do so - he told me a while ago that he thought moisturiser was really just 'for girls', but he has now decided that it is really for people who want to keep their skin), you have to water the lawn at least once a week, and you have to nurse your plants a bit more carefully than at home. Mr White reckons that buying annual bedding plants might have been somewhat optimistic, and we might have been better investing in some cacti...
Anyway, back to K Country...
We had decided to go away for a couple of nights over the long weekend, but rather than drive for days to get somewhere exotic, we decided to go a whole 45 minutes up the road to stay in the Delta Lodge at Kananaskis. What a fantastic setting! The leaders of the G8 also thought so too (I think), as they stayed up there for the 2002 Summit meeting that was hosted by Canada. Someone told me the other day that, for the 3 weeks before the summit meeting, there was a mountie posted at every trailhead for miles around, just to make sure that 'terrorists' didn't climb up a mountain for the express purpose of sniping at all our glorious heads of state (GW Bush being among that illustrious group).
So, here's the 'proof' that they were there ...
Mind you, I see now that the meeting was hosted by the now scandal ridden government of Msr Chretien - I wonder if they paid very large sums to a 'friend' of the government to make the plaque (confused? Check out the web for Liberal Sponsorship Scandal, Gomery Inquiry etc).
The hotel itself is nestled in the trees - trying very hard to look like it isn't there...
The rooms are pretty neat - we stayed in the Signature Club part of the hotel, in a 'loft suite' - which basically means that we had a one and a half storey room. Downstairs, there was a fireplace (very nifty), sofa, easy chair & footstool, desk, chair, bathroom (with jetted tub), fridge (NOT a mini-bar), coffee maker and kettle, TV etc etc. Upstairs was the bed, and another bathroom...complimentary evening snacks in the lounge, and (if you were capable of being up and about before 9.30am on the weekend, free continental breakfast in the lounge - very posh!!).
Here is the downstairs portion of the room...
And here is the upstairs...
And the rest of the location is fantastic - if you want a hotel in the middle of the mountains, with breath-taking views, with an 18 hole golf course in the valley, with miles of well maintained walking trails, with no shops to speak of, with an indoor heated pool, with an indoor/outdoor hot-tub, and with some nice restaurants, this is the place for you! As you can tell, I was impressed!
So here goes with the rest of the pics...
Well marked, well mapped, well maintained walking trails
The sign warns about ticks, but we didn't encounter any nasty little blood sucking critters...
Did come across a couple of bigger creatures though - these guys didn't seem too worried about us...
Now for some general views from our 10 mile hike (seriously!) on the Saturday we stayed in K Country...
If you look very carefully in this picture (above), you'll see a bunker on the golf course in the valley floor. We met a guy who told us he'd seen a grizzly bear and cubs fording the river on to the course once, and he said it was the funniest thing, because all you could see was golf clubs flying everywhere as the golfers scrambled to the carts to get away from the bear... I imagine the poor golfers didn't quite see the same humour in the situation!
This next picture is of a 'playing field' just behind the hotel - in our couple of days up there we saw it used for baseball, ultimate frisbee (bit like football, but throwing a frisbee instead), and weddings. The only problem with the outdoor wedding being set-up on Sunday was that the wind was whistling down the valley so hard that the 'bridal arch' (draped with some very fancy white silk) kept blowing over on to the grass - distinctly not bestest...
So, there you go - the latest in J and P adventures.
Next few weeks are looking a little busy - I head off to Boston to speak at a cancer registries conference (to stand in for my boss - 6th-8th June inclusive), off to Toronto to an epidemiology conference (27th-29th June inclusive), J goes home (10 days at start of July), J's brother, sister-in-law and Seb arrive 5th June (staying for 2 weeks), and Denise&Roy arrive early July (when Mr White is at home!). Phew!! Will keep you posted on all the goings on!
P
So in order to keep the promise, I think that this is going to turn out to be a bit of a photo blog. I'm not really in the mood to write screeds of text today as its about 20 degrees C, the sun is shining and the sky is pure blue - and I need to be outside! Mind you, being outside in all that beautiful sunshine also has a bit of a downside - the relative humidity at the moment is hovering somewhere around 20%, whereas I see that Belfast (NI) is luxuriating in a nice damp 80%! Did you ever think you'd hear me say that I missed the rain... Actually, its not bad at all... all it means is that you have to be sure to use moisturiser almost religiously (Mr White has even decided to do so - he told me a while ago that he thought moisturiser was really just 'for girls', but he has now decided that it is really for people who want to keep their skin), you have to water the lawn at least once a week, and you have to nurse your plants a bit more carefully than at home. Mr White reckons that buying annual bedding plants might have been somewhat optimistic, and we might have been better investing in some cacti...
Anyway, back to K Country...
We had decided to go away for a couple of nights over the long weekend, but rather than drive for days to get somewhere exotic, we decided to go a whole 45 minutes up the road to stay in the Delta Lodge at Kananaskis. What a fantastic setting! The leaders of the G8 also thought so too (I think), as they stayed up there for the 2002 Summit meeting that was hosted by Canada. Someone told me the other day that, for the 3 weeks before the summit meeting, there was a mountie posted at every trailhead for miles around, just to make sure that 'terrorists' didn't climb up a mountain for the express purpose of sniping at all our glorious heads of state (GW Bush being among that illustrious group).
So, here's the 'proof' that they were there ...
Mind you, I see now that the meeting was hosted by the now scandal ridden government of Msr Chretien - I wonder if they paid very large sums to a 'friend' of the government to make the plaque (confused? Check out the web for Liberal Sponsorship Scandal, Gomery Inquiry etc).
The hotel itself is nestled in the trees - trying very hard to look like it isn't there...
The rooms are pretty neat - we stayed in the Signature Club part of the hotel, in a 'loft suite' - which basically means that we had a one and a half storey room. Downstairs, there was a fireplace (very nifty), sofa, easy chair & footstool, desk, chair, bathroom (with jetted tub), fridge (NOT a mini-bar), coffee maker and kettle, TV etc etc. Upstairs was the bed, and another bathroom...complimentary evening snacks in the lounge, and (if you were capable of being up and about before 9.30am on the weekend, free continental breakfast in the lounge - very posh!!).
Here is the downstairs portion of the room...
And here is the upstairs...
And the rest of the location is fantastic - if you want a hotel in the middle of the mountains, with breath-taking views, with an 18 hole golf course in the valley, with miles of well maintained walking trails, with no shops to speak of, with an indoor heated pool, with an indoor/outdoor hot-tub, and with some nice restaurants, this is the place for you! As you can tell, I was impressed!
So here goes with the rest of the pics...
Well marked, well mapped, well maintained walking trails
The sign warns about ticks, but we didn't encounter any nasty little blood sucking critters...
Did come across a couple of bigger creatures though - these guys didn't seem too worried about us...
Now for some general views from our 10 mile hike (seriously!) on the Saturday we stayed in K Country...
If you look very carefully in this picture (above), you'll see a bunker on the golf course in the valley floor. We met a guy who told us he'd seen a grizzly bear and cubs fording the river on to the course once, and he said it was the funniest thing, because all you could see was golf clubs flying everywhere as the golfers scrambled to the carts to get away from the bear... I imagine the poor golfers didn't quite see the same humour in the situation!
This next picture is of a 'playing field' just behind the hotel - in our couple of days up there we saw it used for baseball, ultimate frisbee (bit like football, but throwing a frisbee instead), and weddings. The only problem with the outdoor wedding being set-up on Sunday was that the wind was whistling down the valley so hard that the 'bridal arch' (draped with some very fancy white silk) kept blowing over on to the grass - distinctly not bestest...
So, there you go - the latest in J and P adventures.
Next few weeks are looking a little busy - I head off to Boston to speak at a cancer registries conference (to stand in for my boss - 6th-8th June inclusive), off to Toronto to an epidemiology conference (27th-29th June inclusive), J goes home (10 days at start of July), J's brother, sister-in-law and Seb arrive 5th June (staying for 2 weeks), and Denise&Roy arrive early July (when Mr White is at home!). Phew!! Will keep you posted on all the goings on!
P
Comments:
Post a Comment
