Hot Casino Christmas

Well we are back in Brisbane after spending a couple of very hot days over Christmas down in Casino. It was El's first Christmas in Casino so the heat was a bit of a shock for her.
We spent a few days lounging around, going to family things and eating drinking and being merry quite a lot.
We also got to see Mum and Dads new dog -Storm. She is a replacement for the one that died recently. She is a smithfield Blue and they are born with little stubby tails which look quite interesting. She is only 8 months old but with all her speckled grey fur she looks like a distinguished old lady. We were trying to teach her a few tricks but she barks a lot and gets excited a bit too easily.

We followed the usual Christmas routines and went to my Grandmother's place on Christmas Eve. We caught up with a lot of people from Mum's side of the family. We haven't seen some of them for about 2 years so it was good to find out what has been happening. A lot of my younger cousins are bigger and there are some new additions I haven't met before. One of my cousins has had a little(but rather big for his age) boy that was the centre of attention. His dad said that all the ladies get clucky over him until they try and pick him up. El took a liking to him. He really liked trucks and my grandmother lives across the road from Norco so milk tankers come and go all night. El helped him unwrap his present and he was more interested in the paper than the present. He did a faceplant by jumping off El's lap and proceeded to try to pick up people's empties to get the last dregs. Luckily for him we all like a drink so there was never too much left in the cans for him to get.

On Christmas day we woke up early (Daylight savings) to open presents. We had a nice cold lunch , a few beers and an afternoon game of backyard cricket. It has been a few years since all us boys have been home for XMas so it was a good day. We eventually called it a day when the beer supplies finally ran out.

On Boxing day we visited my grandparent's farm for morning tea. We normally go out for lunch but with it being so hot we opted to go out earlier rather than swelter in the heat. We had a few afternoon drinks in preparation for an engagement party which was in a pub so we could save some money. We went and played pool at one of Craig's friends houses for a few hours before we went to the engagement party. The party was fun, with a good time had by all. Tony and Craig got a bit drunk, with Craig volunteering his services as a waiter. He doesn't remember.

My cousin Lee and Tony stayed at the party pretty late and Lee crashed at our place. The next morning we took him to pick up his car and went out to see Lee and his Dad on their farm out at Doubtful Creek. Lee was a litle seedy but took us on a 4wd tour of the property(1800 acres). 1st stop was his prized pumpkin vine crop and then he took us out the back to the run down shack and then we went bush bashing up some of the hills. The views were quite good. We could see MT Warning and a lot of valleys. El thinks she saw a wallaby(or possibly a yowie- we cant be sure) bounding across the track. Neither Lee or I saw it so it is possible she fabricated the whole thing. We were squished into the cab of a 4wd ute while Lee's cattle dog happily ran the entire time beside the truck, stopping every now and then to dunk in the cow troughs to cool off.

We are back in Brisbane now and are seriously considering buying an airconditioner. We went to check out the Myer Centre and Queen Street Mall with Wayne yesterday. It was good but there were too many people and the "sales" weren't that great.

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and has a safe and proposterous New Year.
Geoff and El

Monkey Nuts

It's quite hard to come up with interesting titles, but I think this one is pretty original. :-) We have these annoying palm trees in the backyard that drop ridiculous amounts of fruit which El has affectionately called "monkey nuts" (a throw back to her primary school years). The bats get in there of a night time and have a dance party throwing the fruit all over the place. The problem is that they clog the drains(the fruit not the bats) and when we get a storm the house turns into a house boat. We don the rain coats and brave the elements to unclog the drains but it would be so much easier to get rid of the palm trees(sorry greenpeace). Pity its a rental. About all we can do is mow the lawn. We are a little envious of everyone we know buying houses but we will get there eventually.

It now a year since we left for Canada. How the time has flown! We are seeing all the reports of snow in Jasper and Whistler and with this heat, we are feeling very jealous.

Only two weeks till Christmas now. Last year we had a white christmas so this year it will be a bit of a shock to experience the aussie style swelter down in Casino.
We have a real beauty of a tree up and have bought all of our presents early for once in our lives. Might try and get a photo of the tree (sorry to copy your idea Chris).

Last night we went to Sally and Andrew's housewarming party. It was good to catch up with them and see their new place. Their dog was quite well-behaved and didn't try and hump my leg or anything. :-) We had a good chat with Kylie and Mekiel (spelt horribly wrong I'm sure) and played giant frisbee with Andrew's little cousin.

The storms lately have been pretty spectacular. The last one on the Thursday just gone was massive. Our yard seems to flood and all the monkey nuts that have dropped from the palm tree clogged the drains. We didn't lose any power but in the last house we lost power nearly every time it rained.

It is still about a month until I find out about Dentistry. Fingers crossed. Either way a lot of beers will disappear (mostly by El's hand I'm sure). I still have contingency plans so I just have to wait and see.

Whipper Snippers, work and life

Well I have returned to work for a few days a week until I find out if I get into uni. The work is the same as I left a year ago and it has convinced me that I really don't want to be a scientist for the rest of my life. Hopefully one of the other options pans out and I can get on with things.

With all this rain and heat the lawn has finally got out of control; so much so we had to buy a whipper-snipper to cut through the jungle that surrounds our house(how exciting!) to stop the wild animals breeding. Its a real beauty.
El is still slaving away working five days a week at her job, we're both paying off debts from our trip but its all good getting back to reality. It is a challenge for her being a qualified scientician again. I have weined myself off my ebay addiction, especially after being beaten a couple of times(boohoo). So much stuff yet so little time(and money).

It has been a funny week with mix of good and bad events, but you need to roll with the punches. Unfortunately a good friend of Els mother passed away, so El and her mum went to the funeral yesterday. She said it was a good service. On a happier note, some people we know had a baby. They are going to name it Eleanore(El thinks they should spell it the same way as her name, not some imposter way).

We are both well and hope everyone else is the same.
Geoff and El

Fancy flower pic(too much free time) 

Life in general

Us at the wedding

Hey everyone, life is getting back to normal. I think we are well and truly back in the real world after spending so many months in denial. El is back working full time and I am back a couple of days a week. I am still waiting on results to see whether I will get into dentistry, but I have to wait until January to find out which is a bit of a pain.Just to let people know our smugmug site will be finishing soon. I will be trying to upload photos to our blog so hopefully we will be able to add photos to not only new blogs but some of our old ones as well.We went out to show Els dad and Eleanor some of the photos we took at their wedding. We stayed for lunch and had a few games of kelly pool to pass the time away. El is at work today-I'm working a bit later this week so I'm the house boyfriend having to do all the cleaning/cooking/washing etc(as long as I can schedule it in between X-box sessions).I am trying to ween myself off my ebay addiction, slowly, one day at a time .Hope everyone is wellGeoff and El

Work, marriages and departures.

Well, it's been a while since we last posted. Lots of interesting things have happened since then.
Firstly, I managed to find a job. Back at the same place (but in a different lab). I am really enjoying it so far - the lab is friendly and the work is interesting. It has also been good to catch up with my mates from my former lab.
Secondly, my Dad and Eleanor got married last Saturday. It was threatening to rain but it managed to stay dry for the park ceremony then bucketed when we arrived for the indoor reception. It was a good night - the bridal party all looked pretty spiffy and it was great to catch up with some family that I haven't seen in years.
Thirdly, Bron and Ben are off to Canada tomorrow. They have an early flight so we will all be out there at the crack of dawn (just about) to see them off. I am very jealous that they are going into cold weather. We are going to miss them heaps.
That's about it for now. I'm not sure if anyone actually reads this still but ah well! Good for a diary anyway.
Love El and Geoff

Post Travel Depression

Hi everyone,
Well, the title is actually a lie but I thought it sounded cool. :-) We are slowly settling down to the real world. Pretty amazing that we have now been back for 3 weeks! We have both done the Centrelink thing to get us by until we find jobs. No luck yet but something's out there I hope. Last week we went down to Geoff's parent's place. It was good to catch up with the family. Geoff's Dad really liked the Ulu knife we bought for him from Alaska. The weekend before last Christine and Nigel got married. They both looked beautiful and it was also good to catch up with the old uni friends. :-)
Not much else to say really. For those reading this that we haven't seen yet - sorry for being slack and we will get round to seeing you soon!
So bye for now,
Love El and Geoff.

Home Sweet Home

Hi everyone,
Well the time has come (very quickly I might add) and we are back in the good 'ol land of Oz. After saying our goodbyes to Rob and Chrysa, we jumped on a plane that took us to Bangkok. The flight was pretty long but there was plenty of movies to watch and the seats were pretty comfy so no complaints here. I would recommend Thai Airways for sure. We landed in Bangkok at some ungodly hour like 5am and then proceeded to wait at the airport for... wait for this... 18 (and a half!) hours for our final flight into Brissy! We had been warned though (and therefore cannot complain too much) that we should book a hotel for the day for some sleep and to freshen up. However we decided to do the stingy thing and just stay at the airport. I am not really sure how we managed to stay sane for the day! We were both dead-tired and found the hard, bumpy rows of plastic chairs at the viewing level VERY uncomfortable to sleep on. I ended up sleeping on the floor for a bit but even that wasn't too good. We got some weird looks from people (including a cleaner trying to sweep the floor!) but we didn't care. I'd like to say at this point that we observed an awful number of planes landing and taking off! Eventually the hours ticked by and we checked in, did some duty free shopping and finally got on that plane at some time after 11pm!
The flight home was really empty and everyone in our section got 3 seats for themself. It was awesome to stretch out and get some shut-eye! Needless to say, this flight went really quick and before we knew it, we were home.
Geoff is currently crashing on the floor of his brother's place. He tells me he got his meat pie fix and a few beers to wash it down with. :-) I went home with my brother and suceeded in surprising my parents who thought we weren't coming back until September. The looks on their faces was priceless. We are now starting to get over the jetlag but everything still feels not real and it may take some time for everything to sink in.
We are glad to be back but also feel sad that our trip is over.
Hopefully we can keep this blog going and keep adding interesting stuff.
So for now, that's all folks!
Love El and Geoff

Lefkada

Hi everyone,
We are back after our 3 day holiday in Lefkada. This is one beautiful island. We visited 5 different beaches and were amazed with the beautiful shades of turquoise. The water was very pleasant to swim in and we enjoyed vegeing out on the beach as well. We also ate a lot of greek food and checked out the cool markets and shops in the main town. The island was packed with all the tourists and the roads were very windy, narrow and dangerous with lots of parked cars everywhere. Rob did a great job driving amidst the craziness of it all!
We stayed in an apartment close to the main town. The grounds were beautiful and it had a nice pool. We caught a few taxis into town for dinner and noticed how the cabbies had covered up the meters and then charged whatever they liked! Chrysa was on the ball though and stopped anything becoming too expensive!
Had a great trip - definitely worth visiting.
See ya,
Love El and Geoff.

Hot in Greece

Well we made it to Greece and are now staying with Chrysa and Rob on the outskirts of Athens in a place called Krioneri (or Kpyonepi in Greek). We have been here for about a week or so enjoying the sites, smells and tastes of being in Greece. We have almost overdosed on Souvlaki and olive oil but we are bearing it.
We have been checking out a few sites around Athens including Roman ruins dating back to 400B.C. or so. We also checked out the acropolis and the parthenon. The old temples are really cool.
We have been sampling a few of the local taverns( tabepnas in Greek) and various cafes trying to have the true greek experience. We are4 eternally grateful to Chrysa for all her translational skills. All we can really get by ourselves are tickets, bread and beer(not too shabby).
We went to a tavern that overlooks Athens the other night for a few drinks. We had a table but you have to buy a bottle of spirits to share. We had a few drinks each from it but Rob and I both felt ordinary the next day. We were suspicious because there were reports on the news about tampering that takes place in some establisments.
Anyway, we managed to recover ok and we went for a swim at a beach not far from Athens (near the site of the rowing in the 2004 Olympics). The water was really salty and quite nice. Lucky we had a few beers on hand to get the taste out of our mouths.
We are spending time around chrysa and Robs place. The days are really hot at the moment-the next few days are supposed to get up to around 40C.
We are going to one of the Ionian greek Islands-Lefkada this weekend. That should be really cool.
We are really enjoying our time here though the whole language barrier is a bit tough sometimes. As long as we can get beer and bread we should be able to get by.
Hope everyone is well.
Bye for now.
Geoff and El

The Scottish Highlands

We are back in London after spending the last week travelling through Scotland. We were on a tour that took us up into the Highlands and the Isle of Skye. It was a really good week, learning about the history, seeing great scenery and most fun of all drinking scotch at the top of these magnificent mountains. We stayed at pubs, hostels etc and the others on the tour were really nice.
We saw a few famous battle fields like culloden and bannockburn and saw other cool stuff like Loch Ness and various castles.
Scotland was really cool, well worth a return visit in the future. It did rain a lot but thats typical Scottish weather for you.
We are jetting out to Athens tomorrow to catch up with Chrysa and Rob which should be great fun.
Bye for now
Geoff and El

London Town

Hi everyone,
Well we are here in London now. Our visit to Washington DC was fun, we went and saw lots of the president monuments, had a peek at the White House (from the fenceline) and also checked out Capitol Hill where the pollies live. It was unbelievably hot and humid, so we also spent alot of time in air-conditioned shops! We found the hostel where we stayed at to be a little too crowded and there wasn't any locks on the doors so we were a little concerned about our stuff... but there wasn't any problems as it turned out. We really enjoyed the backyard of the hostel... it was really leafy and there was a cool patio to sit back and enjoy a slurpie from the nearby 7-11 store. And they had hammocks in the yard which were very cool.
Early Thursday morning we caught a plane to London. Washington Airport was in shambles, millions of people everywhere, not enough signs and huge lineups for the security checks. The plane trip over the Atlantic was good though - we had little tvs in the backs of the chairs with lots of different movie channels. And the food was pretty good too. We got to London quite late in the evening and we were grateful to Geoff's mate who picked us up and directed us back to his place. The last couple of days we have done a fair bit of sight-seeing, we checked out Buckingham Palace (and saw the changing of the guard), walked through Trafalgar Square and got a look at the Tower Bridge from a distance. Yesterday we went to the Camden Markets and saw all the alternative people that we had been told about. Last night we went to a pool party over at Brixton. There was mostly Aussies, Kiwis and South Africans there and they were mad!
We are heading off to Edinburgh tomorrow on the train and we have booked with a tour group to see the Isles of Skye and other parts of Scotland. Should be fun. We will be back in London next weekend before heading off to Athens on Monday.
So that's about it for now. We have been a little surprised with the cost here in London. It's a good thing we aren't here for that long!
See ya,
Love El and Geoff

U.S.A.

Hello. We survived New York City. We had a shared dorm in a so-so hostel that was really overpriced.We stayed in the upper west side of manhattan which was really good and close to most things in downtown new york. New York was a cool place to visit-but there are so many people that we started to get the shits with it all. We visited the statue of liberty and saw the empire state building. On the way to the statue of liberty on the ferry we had a coast guard escort, machine guns and all.
Any major tourist building that you went into you had to go through a series of security checks.
We rode the subway a couple of times and went to times square. Even on a sunday there were probably 4 times more people than you see in Brisbane on a weekday in peak hour. The drivers and the pedestrians are crazy-a lot of horn honking going on. There are even signs posted warning of a $350 fine for honking.
We caught a 4.5hr bus trip to Washington D.C last night and are staying at a hostel in Takoma Park, on the outskirts of the CBD. We had to do laundry in the heat yesterday(it is about 35C or so) and there is only so much recycling of clothes that you can do.
Today we are going to check out a few things in D.C, hopefully the whitehouse Etc which should be good.
We are due to fly to London in about 3 days and catch up with some friends so hopefully that won't be too scary for us. We are a little hesitant but we will visit and try to keep a low profile.
Besides the heat, America is expensive! Even without the conversion you pay a lot for a little. It makes you appreciate the cost of living back home. We are getting about 70 cents to the dollar over here so things can get quite expensive when they show up on the credit card statement.
Oh well, it might be good training for the uk.
Talk again soon.
All the best
Geoff and El

Bye Bye Canada

Well hey hey everyone, the time has come for us to say goodbye to Canada and commence the rest of our round the world journey. Wye survived the camping , with bugs, noisy neighbours, rain, thunderstorms etc. We got absolutely chewed one night by ferocious little sandflies-they came right through the tent screen and drew blood by chewing behind our ears as we slept. Fun!
Well Canada truly has been a non-stop rollercoaster of thrills, kills(I hit a few little things in the rental car (Oops)) and chills and we are really going to miss it. This time tomorrow night we will be in the big apple but we are freaking out a little bit. We have been in a small city and camping so it will take a bit of time to get used to such a big city. We are looking forward to travelling again because it means we are getting closer to home(eventually).
We had a good last day in Halifax(and Canada). There is an international tatoo on in Halifax this weekend so there was an impromptu bagpipe and brass band performance for a couple of hours that we saw. We also went to the maritime museum which has a large titanic display and heaps of call maritime artifacts. Tonight we are in a guest house getting a good nights sleep before we catch a plane early tomorrow morning. After new york we will spend a few nights in Washington Dc before flying out to London to spend a week or so there.
Best be going now.
Hope everyone is well
Geoff and El

Crazy Camping Adventures

Hey everyone,
we have survived our first week of camping. Air beds that self-deflate, toilet trips at 2am in freezing rain and windy nights in a walmart cheapy summer tent pretty much sums it up. Not really. The scenery has been fantastic, and the nova scotians have been really friendly(especially when we say we are from Australia- "You're from where?") Apparently they don't get heaps of Aussies visiting over here- must be too far or something like that.
We have spent the last week camping in various provincial parks around nova scotia. They have been pretty quiet campgrounds, with hardly anyone camping. It is the third day of summer here(by canadian standards) and we had to get our winter gear out again the other night. It is very wet and cold and you can feel it in your bones.
We have spent the last couple of days around the bay of fundy, which is in the north of nova scotia. It has the worlds largest tides,up to 16 metres or so in height and we have been checking out the sandflats. The cliffs are very red and apparently full of fossils and amethyst but we haven't found any yet.
We are following a series of tourist drives around the province, and we occasionally get off the track a bit and have to back track when the signs are missing.
We are sitting in a library at Parrsboro at the moment doing some free surfing and will return to our campsite a bit later for some canned food and copious amounts of toast.Yum!
We have been fending off the aggressive squirrels trying to steal our food and enjoying the scenery.
Bye for now
Geoff and El

Nova Scotia

We are now in Halifax, Nova Scotia. We arrived here a couple of days ago after taking a 19hr train ride from Quebec City. The weather has been a little miserable (which can be normal for here) but not too bad. Yesterday we went for a walk around the waterfront checking out all the ships. We went to look around a WWII corvette which was pretty cool. We also went to the city's cittadel and checked out lots of old cannons, and a very extensive military museum.
We are in Halifax until Wednesday morning where we are hiring a car and planning to explore Nova Scotia. We are also going to buy a tent and try and see it on the cheap.
So that's about it for now.
Love Geoff and El.

French Canada

Bonjour,
Zhe ne parl pas francais. I can't speak French as we have discovered. We have spent the last few days in the province of Quebec, first in Montreal and more recently in Quebec City. Montreal was cool, it is a vibrant mix of english and french speaking people. All the street and building signs are in french so we did a lot of guesswork. We stayed in a mixed dorm in Montreal for 1 night and met a nice couple from Ottawa. They took us around old montreal and showed us a cool lebanese bakery in the middle of the suburbs. Yum! We spent the next two nights in a private room. We walked to the top of Mont-Royal (where Montreal gets its name) and had a good view of the city. The buildings in Old Montreal were really interesting.
We caught a bus from montreal to Quebec City on Monday and have been looking around the city. We are staying at a hostel within the walled city of Quebec, built in the 1600s sometime. It is really cool to walk around looking at all the old structures and the interesting buildings. French is by far the dominant language here. We haven't had to use it too much- though we had trouble ordering subway in montreal- we think they ripped us off a bit but oh well shit happens.
We are catching a train to Halifax, Novia Scotia on Friday night. We are planning on camping for a few weeks around there, possibly Newfoundland as well but it depends on how much things cost.
Hope everyone is well.
All the best
Geoff and El

Toronto

Hi everyone,
Well, we made it over to this side of Canada. Our flight on Monday morning was pretty good, only took about 4 hours or so. The in-flight movie was pretty lame--> "winndixie". Must have been cheap. :(
We had two nights in a really friendly hostel (much better than the one in Vancouver). Yesterday we went with a small tour group to Niagara Falls. The falls were really spectacular. There is, however, a really tacky, Las Vegas-style strip that kinda ruins it though, with lots of sky scrapers, house of wax style museums, etc. Our tour guide drove us out to a lardy-dar winery where we tried some ice wine. Ice wine is made from grapes that are harvested at temperatures of minus 10 degrees and the resulting drink is VERY sweet. At prices of $55 for the skinnest half-bottle, it is a little out of our price range!
We also checked out a monument overlooking the Niagara river, where the British/Canadians defeated the Americans in the war of 1812. This park also contained the biggest squirrels we have ever seen in our lives! In the evening, the falls were lit up with lots of multi-coloured spotlights and it looked pretty cool.
Today we have checked out of our hostel and we have two more nights in Toronto (at another hostel) before we head off to Montreal on Friday morning. Today we are just wandering around having a look. We hope to go up the CN tower tomorrow. Toronto is very much a city, not as leafy or pretty as Vancouver (at least not what we have seen so far).
So that's it for now.
Bye,
El and Geoff.

Vancouver again

Hey everyone,
we are back in Vancouver spending a week here before flying out to toronto next monday. It is quite warm here compared to the winter temperatures we are used to(it is 25C or so and we are sweating). We seem to be the only people wearing hats though.
Yesterday being the true nerds that we are we went to the science centre. It was a pretty good afternoon-saw an IMAX movie about the nile which was really good. They had a lot of hands on stuff but we had to put up with the little shits of kids running around pushing in.
Vancouver is so much greener than when we were here in December. A couple of days ago we went for a walk in Stanley park and admired the flowers and beautiful green trees.
Our hostel is a bit on the dodgy side, room is small and the girls toilets are always clogged but it is in a good location and feels pretty safe. We are saving a bit of money which is always good. We went to the bar under the hostel the other night and had a few drinks but the server was a rude piece of work so she sort of spoiled it a bit. El was smiley after her mudslides and I was cheery after my few beers ("few" means lots hehe).
We have started organising hostels on the other side of canada, we have toronto, montreal and Quebec City all sorted at the moment. We will then decide what other parts of Canada we can afford to see.
Thats about it for now.
Hope everyone is behaving themselves.
Love Geoff and El.

yukon adventures

Hello ,
we are back in Calgary after spending two weeks travelling through the yukon , alaska and british columbia in a motorhome. We got as far north as whitehorse in the yukon and also had a look at the towns of Haines and skagway in alaska. The scenery was very cool, with the full range of snow, mountains ansd several types of forest.And yes everybody we saw a BEAR!!(We saw about 5 or so). We also saw moose,a wolf and various big animals like caribou, deer and elk We stayed mostly in quiet campgrounds which was really good> Not many campers on the road this time of year. .
There is too much detail to put in one blog so we will try and post a few more in detail about the places we visited.
Will talk to everyone soon.
Geoff and El.

No more work for El

Hello.
El finished up work yesterday. The skiing is not good any more so we have brought all our equipment down from the ski hill. El went out for a last ski on her lunch break yesterday and was not at all impressed.
She had to dodge dirt and rocks and ski very cautiously. Not fun at all.
We went out for drinks last night and had a good night. Still home in bed by 11pm though. We called the lab and talked to a few people before we went home. It was good to hear their voices.
Today we are bumming around town. We just overindulged at breakfast but it was all good. We had a quick squiz at a wildlife museum which has stuffed animals all through it. Scary and cool at the same time(not little animals like you see in toyworld). The size of the moose and the bears was quite scary. Wouldn't want to run into them in a dark alley.
Hope everyone is well and enjoying their long weekend (sorry those people in NSW-have to wait a bit longer for yours).
We are counting down the days until we get to leave jasper. This time in a week we will be in Calgary. Our last trip to Calgary was cut short so it should be good to have a better look around.
Bye for now
Geoff and El

Picnic in the woods

Hello everyone, yesterday we went for a walk around 6pm to go out for a picnic. We did the healthy thing and bought some KFC (in french on the same container it is PFK) and went to sit by the river. We sat down near the junction of the Miette and Athabasca rtivers. It is kind of nice now to see the water flowing and not have so much ice in it. We went down and played in the river bed for a while and could look up to see Old fort point(previous blog).
In our walk we saw a few different animals including a wolf, elk and a solitary deer. It is nice to be walking around in a t-shirt instead of having to wear the big bulky ski clothes all the time.

On Sunday night we all went on a moonlight walk up to pyramid bench, which is a small range overlooking Jasper to have a look at the moon rising. We went with "Friends of Jasper" which is a volunteer environment type group. We listened for the different sounds of the night and even howled at the moon to try to get the local wolf packs to answer us back. We looked at the moon and the planet mercury through a spotting scope which was really cool. We could see the craters on both the moon and on mercury.
We all can't wait until the end of this week when the ski hill closes. We will have another week or so and then off to the yukon.
El is on the last 3 days of her job and she can't wait to finish. This weekend we are hiring a car so we will be getting ready for the drive to calgary soon which should be good.
Hope everyone is well.
All the best for now.
Geoff(El says hi but is working today)

A Hike in the Woods

Well, from our last post we mentioned that we were going to do a 20km walk on Friday. We found out that there has been grizzly bears sightings on that trail and they were feeding on elk. So we decided not to do that hike!
Instead we walked up to Old Fort Point and did a 6km circuit around the back. We had previously bought some pepper bear spray just in case. We also walked quite slow and made a lot of noise, which is what you are supposed to do to alert any nearby bears. It was a little different to walking in the bush back home, not quite so relaxing when you are constantly clapping your hands, talking loudly and whistling!
Luckily for us we didn't come across any bears. We saw some elk and big horn sheep and a few squirrels. The scenery was pretty amazing as well.
It has been really hot here lately, getting up to 20 degrees most days. The skiing is pretty woeful now, lots of bare patches, streams and many runs are being closed due to the risk of avalanches. I have 3 days of work left now but there is hardly anyone coming skiing now so the days are very slow.
This time in two weeks we will be in our RV, making our way up into the Yukon. I can't wait to do something new.
I hope everyone is enjoying their long weekend.
Love El and Geoff

Moving house

Hey everyone, the time has come for us to up and leave our house. Our lease has run out and we have spent the last couple of days cleaning up. Luckily we are only moving next door so there is not too much of a hassle there. We have less than 2 weeks of the ski season left and will soon be moving on.
We have the three of us(Me, El and Jen) sharing a large room in the new house. The room is part of approved accomodation and each room has its own bathroom which is pretty cool. The girls do spend a lot of time in there though. The sunlight now is really different to when we first got here. El and I went out for dinner last night for cantonese and the sun didn't start setting until 9.30pm. If there weren't mountains it would set a lot later.
We will miss the place when we move out: a chapter of our travels is closing but a new one is beginning which is exciting. To have a routine like the one we had for the last couple of months was ok in the skiing and earning money aspects but we really didn't want to get into a rut again.
We will have no more high speed internet from now(at least until we have more stable jobs possibly on the east coast) so that is a bit sad.
I am back to wearing t-shirts and shorts(for those people who have never seen me in long pants) as it is getting to about 12C or so most days. It can still be -8 in the mornings though so I hold off going out until it has warmed up a little bit.
We are planning a 20km hike on friday so that should be really cool. We have to check with the parks office first though to check on bear activity. The animals all seem to be getting a bit more active. One of the big wigs at our work saw a cougar from the chairlift at the ski hill last week which is a little daunting. We might have to get some bear spray for the walk though.
Oh well, best be going now. Talk to everyone soon.
Geoff and El

Snow is going

Hey everyone,
spring seems to be on its way. The days are getting longer, warmer and it is snowing less. The ski season will be finishing in about 3 weeks and then it will be time for us to move on. We are heading north into the yukon in a motorhome which should be pretty cool. We get to pull over and camp pretty much wherever we want.
Last week we hired a car to go and do some shopping. They upgraded us to a luxury sedan due to the rest of the cars being unavailable. It was cool-it had a sun roof and power everything(see our photos on smugmug). We drove to Hinton, the nearest town to Jasper and went to Walmart and Safeway(two big chains like BigW and Woolies) cause the prices and availability of stuff here in Jasper can be a bit ridiculous.
We put the car through its paces-its good to drive when you haven't done it for so long, even if you are driving on the wrong side of the road here.
El and I are both looking forward to travelling again, too long in one place and you start getting back into the routine again which is not so much fun.
We have to move out of our basement on the 20th of this month, so hopefully we will be moving to the house next door which will save a lot of messing around. Tonight is a quiet night at home-we are hoping to ski tomorrow if it is not too icy.
All the best for now.
Geoff and El

Happy Easter

Hey everyone,
Well, I don't know how it happened but it's now April and we have been away nearly 4 months! I can't believe how fast the time is flying! We are now counting down the days until we finish up at the ski hill. They have set a closing date of May 1st, but our hours maybe cut back a bit before that. We aren't too worried either way!
I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter weekend/week. Over here they have Spring Break that runs after the Easter weekend. All week (since Good Friday) it has been a madhouse at the hill. I have never seen so many people queuing for rental equipment! My job was fairly slow (not so many groups booked) so I helped out with ticket sales, and confirming ski lessons. You get to talk to some really cool people but you also meet the exact opposite. :-)
All day Friday and into the night we had a massive dumping of snow in Jasper and up at the ski hill. Going home from the hill was "interesting" to say the least. We were fine but there was limited visibility and a lot of cars had gone off the road into ditches. Yesterday, being a Saturday, and being one the last day of the holidays, and having 23cm of new snow, was CRAZY. hehe So many people!! We weren't going to miss out on the fun however so Geoff and I went out in our lunch break and hit the slopes. It was just beautiful, all the trees were covered in white and the amount of powder was amazing. We had a lot of fun, even if Geoff was convinced to go down a blue (intermediate) run even though he didn't think he was ready for it. It was a bit choppy and he stacked it a few times, but he did well, and now he can say he's done a blue run!! Afterwards we went through some trees to get some "fresh tracks". Your skis sink down in the powder and the tops of our boots disappeared as well. Very cool. I then did a few runs by myself and managed to stack it coming off a chair lift. Quite embarrasssing, no broken bones, but I have a freaky bruise developing. Ouch.
Last night we had a BBQ and said goodbye to some Kiwi friends that had been working up at the hill but have decided to leave early. It was pretty cold to be cooking outside but we managed to do it quick and retreat back indoors. We had been missing the Aussie beer and BBQ thing so it was good fun.
Today Geoff and Jen are working and I'm buming around the house, contemplating whether to go skiing. I think today is going to much quieter up at the hill, so I should get cracking so I don't miss the bus up there!
Talk to you lot later.
Love El and Geoff

Snowing in Spring

Hey everyone, it is the third day of spring(spring over here starts on the 20th of March for some reason) and it is snowing heaps. We have had 10cm in town in the last day or so and everything looks pretty and white again. El and I had a day off together yesterday and spent the day bumming around town, having lunch, shopping etc. There is a bug going around here at the moment. Jen had it for a couple of days now I think I am getting it. We all feel a bit Bla! but are otherwise fine. We are counting the days until the end of the season when we will start travelling again. We have booked a campervan to drive up into the yukon and it should be a really good trip. El and I went skiing together the other day which was really fun, we are getting better each time and skiing for free really helps.
Today I am staying home cause I am a bit sick and don't want to ski. Last week Jen and I went up for a walk on Pyramid Bench, which is a small range overlooking Jasper(there are a few photos on smugmug if you want to seeg them). We saw bighorn sheep(with little horns) and a squirrel eating some food. Those squirrels can move fast when they want to. We trapsed through mud and ice but the view was worth it. Unfortunately on the day we went up it was cloudy and the park guys were using chain saws so the serenity in a few places was less than ideal. The walk was still good though.
Besides that , we have been enjoying fresh snow and relaxing. We both hope everyone is well. Bye for now
Geoff and El

El's birthday week

Hey everyone, it has been a busy week. To start with, El's mum came over to stay with us for a week and has left today to go to Prince George. And then El had her 25th birthday. We went out on Saturday night to do a walk through Maligne canyon, which has spectacular frozen water-falls and frozen water. We had to put ice-cleats on over gumboots which we got from a place in town. It was really quite different walking through this canyon at night with little headlamps on. One of the guys in the group fell into the river and got his feet wet, but all was really good after that.d
On Monday and tuesday we hired a car so we could go on a few drives around the place. On Monday we drove out to several lakes near Jasper. We went out to Pyramid and Patricia lakes and had a nice walk along the shores. The lakes were frozen but you could see the potential for summer fun with all the kayaks, canoes and sailing boats waiting for the ice to melt so that they could get out there. One observation we made is that it is much easier to skim a rock across a frozen lake than an unfrozen one:). We also drove to old fort point and climbed to the top. From up there you get views of Jasper, the mountains and valleys for miles and miles. Up there we were also lucky enough to see some bighorn sheep, though they were a bit far away to get any decent photos.
On monday we also drove out to Maligne lake via Medicine Lake(medicine lake empties in winter because of sink holes in its bottom). The drive was spectacular passing through avalanche country, towering cliffs and lakes. At maligne lake, El and her mum had a snowball fight in the carpark. I tackled El into a snowbank and my el cheapo pants ripped. It was a bit cool for the rest of the afternoon.
On the way back from maligne lake, we saw a car had nosed itself(with help from the people inside-doing fishies I think) into a snowdrift at the side of the road. I helped them get unbogged by putting rocks under their wheels and pushing with the help of another guy that pulled over to help. A tour bus didn't stop to see if anyone was ok. So that was monday.
On tuesday we went for a longer drive down into British Columbia to visit a few places down there.The drive through the rockies down into British Columbia is great, mountains and lakes jump at you everywhere you look. First stop was Mt Robson provincial park, which is home to Mt Robson, the tallest mountain in the Canadian Rockies. We couldn't see the mountain though cause it was snowing heavily. In the carpark for the Mt Robson info centre we smashed frozen puddles and played in metre deep powdery snow. It was really nice for El's mum cause she had never really seen snow falling before. We then went to the non-existent town Tete Jaune Cache, which is famous historically for Canadians, but there is not much else to see there. After Tete Jaune we headed down to Valemount, a town in BC which is famous for snowmobiling - not much snow there though. We had lunch at the "Loose Moose Pub and Bistro" before starting back for Jasper. On the way back we stopped at Rearguard falls-that was pretty. Looked like bear country to me- but still haven't seen any. We got back to Jasper eventually and went out to Jasper Park Lodge(where the richer people stay) and had hot chocolates to round off the day. We eventually got back to our house, sore and tired but glad we had been out and about.
El had to work today so I dropped her mum off at the train station. El was sad to see her mum go and sad she had to go back to work.
We both hope everyone is well.
Geoff and El

Now we have internet

Hey everyone, we now have the internet at home, which is pretty cool. Still working up at the hill though. I did the same silly thing as El did and bought some skis. Can't really ski though so I am more just pointing down the hill and hoping for the best.
Hopefully I haven't been too silly and we will have enough dosh to keep going for a while. I am picking them up tomorrow morning. We ski for free and get free lessons so it should be good. We just have to get them back to Oz at the end of the Season.
I just updated our photo page at smugmug to show the views we get from work. They sure beat the QIMR views that we used to have.
Just a quick note tonight, hope all is well for everyone.
Love Geoff and El

Fitness Freaks and Freaks in General

Hey everyone,
Well, we've done it... we joined the gym. Probably not so much a shock for Geoff since he's done it all before. But it's new to me. So many machines... and I don't have a clue how to use them. hehe But I'm slowly learning about them all. With our membership we also get access to squash courts. Now that is a fun game. We have only done it once (but going again tonight hopefully). It's something I wouldn't mind starting up when we get home. :-)

I have an amusing story to share. My Mum is coming over to visit soon (yay!!) and we needed to round up a bed from somewhere. I saw an ad up at the shops about a moving sale and they had a mattress going really cheap. We didn't feel like paying good money to shift it home, so we decided that we would carry it ourselves. Geoff (aka pack horse) did a great job lugging this mattress on his head/shoulders down the main street of Jasper. It took about 20 mins to get home!! We got the funniest stares from people driving by and we couldn't stop laughing ourselves. Crazy Aussies, that's what we are!! :-)

One last thing to share with you all... I have now seen a pack-rat. At work we had a hole in the wall or ceiling and there was this little creature that kept coming into the photocopier room and startling people. It was doing a good job eating the flooring and phone wires as well. Well, they set up this live-trap to catch the little fella. I came into work on Tuesday and there it was sitting in the trap. About the size of a rat, with a bushy tail and big eyes like a possum. So cute. I think they were going to let it loose away from work. :-)

Anyway, enough of my ramblings.
Hope everyone is well.
Love El and Geoff

Head cold

Hey everyone. It finally happened. I have gotten sick. Not too bad though. I think it may have started on the weekend when I had to carry bags in and out of -10C all day. It is just my head that is stuffed up and my eyes are watery. Today El is working up at the hill and I am down here in Jasper doing my email and stuff. It is about -10C today but it feels nice when you are all rugged up with multiple layers of clothes-beats being hot or freezing cold. I am working tomorrow so hopefully I should be good by then.
Not much else is happening here at the moment. Just working to get by and then go travelling again. I don't think we will get much money but at least we are not touching our savings.
Hope everyone is good.
Love
Geoff and El

Snowing Again

Hey everyone,
We are pleased to announce the arrival of Winter again in Jasper. yipee!! hehe It has dropped in temperatures to below zero and there is LOTS of snow. It is amazing how it can lift your spirits to see the town again in a blanket of white. So pretty, and so much easier to walk around without stacking on the ice or slush. :-)
I went skiing on Friday and it was awesome. :-) So soft with all the fallen snow. I had a lesson too and found out that I wasn't doing turns correctly. It is always good when you get better at something.
Well, we have survived yet another weekend of busy crowds up at the ski hill and just finished eating at the weekly free community dinner. I love Sunday evenings now! :-)
Not much else to say really, hope everyone survived the massive storms that hit on Wednesday. We actually heard about them here so they must have been bad?
Talk to you all later.
Love El and Geoff

Road trip

Hello everybody
I had my first go at driving yesterday in a new chrysler. Me and Jen hired a car and drove to Hinton, which is about an hour away. It is weird sitting on the left side of the car and driving on the wrong side of the road but with someone there to remind you its not too bad. We saw a herd of elk feeding in a paddock beside the highway- the views of the lakes and mountains on the drive were awesome. We went to Hinton because Jasper is only a small village and has mostly tourist shops. I bought an el-cheapo DVD player for $48 so we can get movies every now and then.I will sell it again when we leave. WE also loaded up on groceries and Jen bought some house stuff. In Hinton we went to a few big-chain shops like "The Brick" , Wal-mart and Tim-Hortons fast food restaurant. The drive to Hinton was really good but on the way back it was blowing a gail. Car was swaying all over the road and I had to really hold it. It must have been the mountain winds sweeping through the valley where we were driving. Its a good confidence builder anyway for future expeditions.
Today it is raining and it is El's friday(even though its wednesday). It is my sunday. Pretty miserable today you might say.
Otherwise the mountains are still as pretty as always and the footpaths are still slippery. I'm back to answering phones tomorrow.
Hope all is good where you are.
Geoff and El

jasperiffic

Hi everyone, another day here in lovely Jasper. Today I am on one of my days off and El is slaving away at the hill. The saturday just gone was the busiest day at the hill since 1988. We had over four thousand people there. Line ups were huge and there were people coming out of the woodwork. It was a good day though. Yesterday was quiet in comparison. I worked in customer service stuff this weekend. Hopefully it continues- the days aren't guaranteed yet but they really do need someone there at least on saturdays. We are still sliding all over the footpaths when we walk and at work on saturday I had another tumble cause I was carrying some big luggage to a trailer over some ice. I bruised my little finger but it seems to have disappeared now(the bruise not my finger).
Will keep everyone posted on our events- hope everyone is not too hot. It is about +6C today so nice and warm by jasper standards. It should drop to -20C or so in the next few days. It hasn't snowed for about a week and we really want it to so it will be easier to walk around.
Bye for now
Geoff and El

Happy Australia Day

Hey everyone,
El here. Today is my Saturday (even though it's Thursday). Geoff is working today and tomorrow at his reception job. Yesterday he was offered another 2 days in guest services, so we are both very happy about that. He may even have a day in ticket sales. :-)
Yesterday we did our bit for Australia Day. There are 10 or so Aussies up at the ski hill so we all got into the spirit of things. We decorated the place with green and yellow streamers and balloons, and put "Hug an Aussie" signs everywhere. I got lots of hugs from complete strangers, it was nice. At lunch time they put on a BBQ up at the mid mountain chalet and few of the braver Aussies did a run down the mountain in board shorts and shirts. hehe
Last night we continued on with the celebrations and had some bundy rum and tim tams. Pity we couldn't do the usual thing and go to the beach, but it was fun all the same. :-)
I hope everyone enjoyed their day off.
And now there is only one more thing to say -
aussie aussie aussie
oi oi oi
hehe.
Love to you all.
El and Geoff.

Slippery

Hi again everyone. It has warmed up to the +ves now and it has been raining. As a result the roads and footpaths are very very slippery. People were ice skating(with skates on) down the main street the other night as all the snow melts, turns to water and refreezes. It was so bad on Wednesday that I couldn't get across one of the streets near our house because as soon as you stood on it you slid straight back to the gutter. El tried to do the same thing on thursday and she couldn't do it either so she stayed at home all day. I slightly stacked it on wednesday with groceries in tow but only fell to one knee-no damage done. I have seen several people falling completely and doing some damage to themselves.
It has not been raining up at the ski hill where we work because of the higher elevation everything falls as snow. The road up the hill is better than the ones in town cause there has been no rain on it ,only snow. It snowed yesterday in Jasper which reduces the ice on the footpaths and roads, but it is raining now so it will be icy again soon. Last night we were going to watch an ice-hockey game but it was cancelled because the other team couldn't get through because of avalanches! We ended up playing indoor mini golf instead.
The highways around Jasper are opening and closing all the time as avalanches and slippery roads are too dangerous for anyone. The highway into British Columbia was closed for more than 24hrs so heaps of trucks were parked in the streets of Jasper.
Today it is overcast and raining here in Jasper and possibly snowing up at Marmot Basin(the name of the ski hill we work at). Otherwise all is good.
Hope everyone is enjoying the heat over there.
We are enjoying the warmer cold temperatures(if that makes sense).
Adios Muchachos and muchachas
Geoff and El

Its snowing(again)!

hey everybody. It is quite warm here by Jasper standards(-4C) and it is expected to warm up over the next week. We survived the cold snap. For three days or so in a row temperatures were close to -40C because of an artic cold front that swept through. For at least a week it should be warmer then it will return to those cold temperatures.
Right now we are in the middle of Jasper in January, a festival that has different things like chilli cookoffs, ski races, dogsledding etc for a couple fo weeks. Yesterday there were a few things on up at the ski hill.
Every monday night there is a community dinner put on by a local group that puts out free food for everybody. Last night we had chicken, rice and vegies. Its good to save a bit of money every now and then. El and Jen are working up at the ski hill today and I'm bumming around town. I hope to go skiing to have a bit more practice tomorrow or wednesday. I think we are going to have a go at curling on wednesday night.
Hope everyone is doing ok. Feel free to email us--> one or both of us gets to our email every now and then.
Goodye for now
Geoff and El

Sent home from work

Hey everybody, I got sent home from work on my first day. Not from incompetence, but because it was too cold. They closed the ski hill for the day for only the second time in 10yrs. It was -34C or so up there plus windchill so it was probably -40C.brrrrr. They sent home 90% of the people that worked there. It was -37C in town this morning. Yesterday I bought a neck warmer thingy that you can use like a scarf. Keeps cold out pretty well.
Handling switchboards is a tricky business. I didn't cut anyone off and didn't give anyone the wrong numbers (I think). Tomorrow will tell.
We have found a place to live. It is a 3 bedroom basement apartment that is already furnished. We will be living there with one of Els friends and possibly another guy from the ski hill. It looks ok and should be fine for the next 3 months.
Just have to find some sheets and stuff to put in it- Jasper has mainly touristy shops so we may have to really look around.
Got to go now and investigate the town for sheets and pillows.
Geoff and El

House hunting

Hey everybody I am now a receptionist/office type person. I will be working at the ski hill for a couple of days a week to start with and then hopefully they are finding a couple more days for me elsewhere up there, otherwise I will look for some work in town. At the moment I work when El has days off so it will evenings when we do stuff together. We will probably stay in Jasper until the end of the ski season(first week of may normally) and then continue our travels.
I have been looking at apartments to rent. Not a lot out there but I think I have found a nice enough place to stay. Will put in applications tomorrow hopefully.
It is not so cold today, only about -15 or so. We have acclimatised so much compared to when we arrived in Vancouver(it was +4C) there. The only thing that really makes you cold is the wind. We are mastering the layering of clothes. In a couple of days the wind chill will drop to the temperature to the -30s so that might not be the best to be out in.
I think the mountains have captured us. We aren't really thinking much of Toronto at the moment because of the scenery and the small town feel here in Jasper. Hopefully we will get along ok but all is good at the moment.
Hope everyone is nice and warm where they are.
Geoff (and El)

Staying in Jasper

Hey everyone, looks like we will be staying in Jasper for a while. El has landed a sales job at Marmot Basin Ski resort which is just outside Jasper. We were supposed to stay in Calgary and see Banff but we made a mad dash to get back to Jasper for an interview at the ski hill. Looks like it was worth it. I am also supposed to have a job for a couple of days a week being a switchboard operator up at the resort. I get to play with phones and talk to people. Pay for either of our jobs is not like what we get being scientists, but it should be enough to get by and not use our savings. We will probably be looking for a house to rent soon.
I am having to amuse myself while El goes up slaving away at the ski hill. When we work up there we can ski for free. Not that it is of any use to me at the moment. I will have to learn to ski first. Hopefully if I get a couple of days a week it will pick up and I will get more work.
We are staying in a house at the moment and are renting the top floor. It has a provate bathroom, fridge and kettle but no kitchen.
We have postponed our trip to toronto until the end of may. At the moment it is more miserable over there than here, and here we have the rocky mountains to look at every morning. I wonder whether we won't notice them by the time we are ready to leave.
The days are cold, as people would expect. Yesterday I had to use an outdoor pay phone for half an hour in a blizzard to change flights and cancel some hostel bookings. My fingers felt like they were going to fall off.
It is still dark at 9am in the morning so it is often hard for El to get up at six to get ready for work. There is a shuttle service that picks her up at the door, so it should be the same shuttle that I will be getting. Whether I have two days a week of work or 4 is yet to be determined.
Hope everyone is not to sad about going back to work. We didn't want to work, but this travel business is bloody expensive.
Hope everyone is well
Geoff and el (el is working today), I am out and about

Calgary

Hey everyone,
Well, we survived the cold of Edmonton and have moved onto warmer pastures.... sort of. We are in Calgary now, and experiencing a mild temperature of minus 15... :-) We found out this morning that we MAY have jobs in the ski resort of Jasper, and have cancelled our Banff trip and shortened the Calgary one as well. Kinda exciting tho, will keep you posted if we actually got them. We have to rock up Wednesday morning at the ski resort and we aren't sure if we will be working straight away or going for an interview.
Calgary seems quite pretty with all the snow around. We went for a walk this arvo around the park near the partially frozen main river. Very pretty. Saw alot of ducks sitting in a non-frozen pond.. they must have insulated backsides or something. :-) Later on this arvy we might head for this Australian pub that we have spotted in our walks. They sell genuine Aussie beers and tucker. There seemed to be a Fosters sign out the front!
Today we also went up the top of the Calgary tower... it is about 500 feet up. A bit woosy compared to the Sydney centrepoint, but still an awesome view.
Hope there wasn't too many bears with sore heads after New Years. Ours was pretty tame, a few drinks in the room and pizza on the run for dinner.
Okay, nuff for now.
Love to you all.
El and Geoff :-)

happy new year

hey everyone, happy new year. We are currently in Edmonton and it is about -30c or so. Bloody cold. We have had a busy week. We went skiing(I went crashing and El went skiing) up at Marmot basin which is about half an hour out of jasper. It was a beautiful day, no clouds and quite warm but the snow is still cold when you spend most of your time falling. I can ski ok, I just can't stop. We have put job applications in to work at the skifield selling tickets or whatever so hopefully something will come of it. We went walking on wednesday out on some trails surrounding jasper. We saw a deer fall off the ice in to the river and disappear. It got sucked under the ice. We couldn't do much for it though. Saw lots of animal tracks through the snow, but still no bears. We had hot chocolate at Jasper Park lodge and lived the high life on a budget. Got so sore from walking and skiing. Yesterday we walked from where we were staying to the bus station in about -20c weather. It was blowing a gale so it felt really really cold. Snow was getting in our eyes and it was like being at the beach when there is a sandstorm except about 60 degrees colder. It was 6am in the morning and we bolted for a 6:25am bus to Edmonton which was delayed by an hour so we didn't need to rush. We got about an hour out of Jasper when the bus broke down in the middle of nowhere. Transmission was stuffed. Waited on the bus with a load of whingers and whiners until a new bus arrived. Eventually got to Edmonton about 2pm, only 2.5hrs late. Got to the hostel and checked in. Pretty yucky, but cheap and ok. Went out to Mexican restaurant for dinner and had beers in Filthy McNasty's irish pub. More like a skatie pub than an irish pub.
Today we are checking out the famous West Edmonton Mall. It is so big- it has a wave pool and is making El homesick for aussie beaches. Also has a theme park and hotels.
Not sure what we are doing for new years tonight. Hope everyone had a good night.
Love Geoff and El