2000-09-12 - 1:31

Kick it up a notch

I'm happy to say that this entry is coming to you from Mountain Time . . . the Banff vacation is in effect and I'm loving it!

I actually overslept yesterday morning, which put a scare into things; but it didn't throw me off enough that I missed my plane. I just had to hustle a little bit.

The flight was okay. Four and a half hours ain't too bad . . . a little longer than the drives between Halifax and PEI, a little less than the drive between Ottawa and downtown Toronto. I slept a good portion of it, which was a bonus.

My brother John had rented a car and was waitng for me at the airport. The last time we had hookd up was Christmas of '98; so it was great to see him again.

The drive from Calgary to Banff was very cool. It's neat the way that the mountains creep up on you. John: "Yeah, there's a mountain in my backyard . . . literally." Sweet :)

Since we had the car for a little while longer, John gave me a quick tour of Banff. He was disappointed that we didn't see any elk, especially after we drove around the golf course; but I was certainly impressed.

The rest of last night was spent chilling. John's friend Aaron (Griff) was over; and we all played some Mario Tennis on the N64. After Kelly (John's girlfriend) got back, we hammered down on a pizza. It was that kind of night.

Today was awesome. John, Griff, and I went out hiking on some of the trails around Banff. If I wasn't on vacation, I'd have been sitting behind a desk working on a computer.

Instead, I hiked partway up and around Tunnel Mountain (John wasn't kidding about having a mountain in his backyard), down to Bow River, and back around town. How kick-ass is that? Life is good.

I snapped some cool pictures with the new camera. Everywhere you turn around here, you see something worth taking a picture. My favourite shots today were taken when we were on Tunnel and we saw a guy climbing an adjacent mountain. Very cool.

One of the main reasons that I came here was to get outside and enjoy the mountains and nature. Today was exactly what I had in mind.

So far, everything is excellent. It's cool to see John and Kelly again and their place is great. (Before I came here, I had never been to a living room that is complete with four lava lamps. Heheh.) He and Kelly have one bedroom and the other was free, so I have my own room while I'm here.

So, that's how things stand at the end of day two of the vacation. I'm loving it here and I'm definitely looking forward to the next week and a half.

J.