Maritimes (part one)

I was in Winnipeg the night before my flight to Montreal and there was a lunar eclipse. I got a few photos when it was early in the eclipse stages - here they are.

Quebec City
After flying in Montreal, we picked up a hire car and drove to Quebec City.
As some of you already know, Quebec City is a lovely place to visit and the old town is beautiful.
We had one night here before moving on to Fredericton.
Below are some photos from Quebec City old town area.

Fredericton, New Brunswick
Fredericton is a lovely quiet town in New Brunswick. Apparently it is the province with the most bridges and creek / river crossings.
On the drive from Quebec City to Fredericton, we passed through a pretty intense rain storm. When we got to Fredericton, we heard that there were a number of roads that were washed out from flash flooding and bridges getting washed away. The storm hit New Brunswick pretty hard. 
We stayed in a beautiful old house that has been converted to a B&B. It felt like we were staying in a house out of Gone with the Wind. Below is a photo of the room that we stayed in.
Jeff went to university in Fredericton, which is one of the main reasons for visiting. We visited the university, which has such lovely old and beautiful buildings. 
Fredericton is home to a great brewery (called Picaroons) - FYI (if you ever want to visit or try the beer!)

St. Andrew's
From Fredericton we drove to St. Andrews-by-the-sea and stopped at St. John on the way (still in the province of New Brunswick). 
St. Andrew's is a small beach town that seems to only be lively in the summer. It is an old small town that has been a holiday destination for many people, including the rich, during the summer. However, we arrived in early October and it was very very quiet. We didn't mind because we were ready for some quiet and relaxation. We only stayed one night and then moved on back up the Bay of Fundy, gradually making our way to Prince Edward Island.
Below is a photo of a lighthouse at St. Andrew's.

Bay of Fundy
The Bay of Fundy is home to some of the biggest tidal changes. We were in the area when the "super moon" was in full swing, so there were bigger than usual tides (changing in height by about 16 m).
We stayed in a small fishing village called Alma, and used it as a base to do a walk and to visit the Flower Pots (also called Hopewell Rocks). The changing tides have eroded the sandstone and conglomerate cliffs, leaving these pillars which they refer to as the flower pots. We visited this site twice - first when the tide was at its highest and then the next day when it was at its lowest. At low tide, you can walk along the beach and among the flower pots. At high tide, the whole area is covered in water. The tide changes pretty quickly and they have to sound alarms for people to get off the beach (if they have lingered too long).
Below are some photos at high tide and low tide.

Here are some photos from Alma

We went for a walk in the national park next to Alma and drove over this covered bridge. This was previously home to a mill (you can see the remnants of the dam on the right), and it was having significant impact on the fish numbers, so they removed the mill and the dam.

 These types of chairs are all over this area and I thought it was very cute. We came across these on our walk. They're positioned at the cliff edge (but not too close!) to give a good view and resting point for walkers.

This is a photo of a creek that we passed by on the walk (Jeff took this photo!)

(more to come, but I am slow, so i thought i should post this now)

Night Sky - Kananaskis

Last night I did a photography class on taking photos of the Milky Way. We went out into the mountains (near Bragg Creek ~1 1/2 hours from Calgary). I hired a wide angle lens and now I want to get one!
On the way home, I saw the greenish tinge of an Aurora on the horizon, so I pulled over and took some more snaps. It was my first time seeing an Aurora here and I was pretty excited to see it! 2:00 AM is apparently the right time to be out taking photos! ;) 
Here are some snaps from the night.
I hope you enjoy.
xo

Jimmy Simpson

A few weeks ago, I did a hike with a group of people to Mt Jimmy Simpson. It is a peak above Bow Lake / Bow Falls and has views of surrounding peaks and glaciers, and it is near the beginning of the Icefields Parkway (the road to Jasper). 
It was a challenging hike, steep and mostly rocky and boulder terrain, we did a fair bit of scrambling, and there was no real defined path (because it was mainly just rocky fields and ledges). The way up was fun until we got to the scree area before the saddle where you walk along the ridge to the peak. We got to the scree area at about 4pm and it was very steep, loose and difficult. We saw some people come down as we were getting closer to the first of the two saddles, and they set off some fairly large rocks / small boulders to run down the hill. We were all out of the way, but it was a little scary to see the size and speed of those rocks. We started the hike at 10 am and because we still weren't at the peak (or the saddle), and because of the loose and challenging scree / rock run, we decided to turn around. It is good that we did turn around because we didn't get back to the cars until 6pm (and then we had the 3 hr drive back to Calgary). It was a long day but we had some beautiful scenery, great weather and good company.
Here are some shots from parts of the hike.
xo

Bow Lake

Bow Lake 

View of Bow Lake from the hike 

View of Bow Lake

View of the saddle and the scree hill (the "trail" goes next to the snow patch), the peak is to the right (out of view) 

View back, just as we turned around

San Francisco

I think that San Francisco is a beautiful city. I had fantastic weather when I was there, with temperatures around 20 degrees - but it felt warm to me. I was in a t-shirt and still felt warm (others around me were in t-shirts too, it wasn't just me!). It feels like such an active city - so many people were out running, walking or cycling.

I stayed in the Marina district, within a few minutes walk of the Palace of Fine Arts (see below)... and some very fancy looking houses. I was also a short walk to the waterfront, which was nice (to be so close).

 The Palace of Fine Arts

 The Palace of Fine Arts

I got the first ferry over to Alcatraz Island on the Saturday, so I managed to see it before the crowds arrived. I definitely am glad that I did that. I was also fortunate to have fantastic weather that morning too - not low cloud, just sunny skies and pleasant temperatures. Sunday morning had low cloud that didn't lift for a while, so the visibility would have been limited that morning. It is an interesting place and I learnt a lot.

 On the ferry to Alcatraz Island - view of Alcatraz Island and the Golden Gate Bridge in the background

 Guard tower - Alcatraz

 Old Warden living space

 View of the Golden Gate bridge from Alcatraz Island

Inside Alcatraz 

On Sunday morning I went for a run around the Marina area (as part of my training), which I loved. I had planned on running across the bridge (2.7km long), but I heard that it gets busy with walkers. So I just ran along the water front area instead. I don't mind that I didn't run along the bridge that morning, because it was a little cloudy. But when I went back out later, it was gorgeous - see the photos below.

 Golden Gate Bridge from the south side

Another view of the Golden Gate bridge from the south side

Hike to Lodge

Some friends and I hiked out to a lodge in the Banff National Park - Shadow Lake Lodge. It is 14 km one-way trip. The winter path usually requires cross-country skiing or snowshoeing to make your way to the lodge. But because we have had a 'warm' winter, there was not a lot of snow, so we were able to walk the trail. 

Below are some photos from the trip.

 We stopped and had breakfast in Canmore on the morning of the trip up (this is where I took Paul, Liz, Maddy and Dan for breakfast too!)

 The lodges

Shadow Lake and Mt Ball (covered in cloud)