Weekend in Washington

Just got back from a weekend in Washington.

Smithsonian, White House, National Mall, The Zoo....

Once I'm through the Alberta pictures, I'll upload some from Washington.

Canton, Ohio

A couple weeks back I had some meetings down in Ohio.

I managed to fly in early enough that I was able to sneak out to Canton to visit the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

They had some pretty cool and interesting exhibits but the jewel was the Hall of Busts.

303 busts - one of each Hall of Famer.

The awesome part was that we happened to visit the week after the 2016 induction ceremony, so the new inducties busts were already on display, including Kevin Greene, one of my all time favourites.

Pictures (mostly busts) from Canton are now up in the galleries

NOT Drumheller

After the Rockies, we headed east of Calgary.

First we visited Drumheller, then Dinosaur Provincial Park.

Apparently, a lot of people get the two mixed up.

Drumheller is home to the Royal Tyrrell Dinosaur Museum.

Dinosaur Provincial Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is where more than 400 dinosaur skeletons (more than 40 species of dinosaur) have been found.

One place displays dinosaur fossils, the other is a source of dinosaur fossils.

It was rainy and mosquito-y the day we were there, but that didn't stop me from wandering the park.

The left-in-ground fossil displays were pretty neat as was the mini-museum.

Pictures from Dinosaur Provincial Park are now up in the galleries

Burlington Show & Shine

One day back at the beginning of July when the wife was working a Saturday, I grabbed the little guy and his stroller and heading one town over to check out their annual car show and shine.

In the past I would have brought along two or three lenses and walked up and down the strip a few times, taking wide shots, macros, candids...

...but by adapting to having the little guy with me, it was a fun challenge to pick out a single lens and get the shots I wanted during only one stroll up the strip (because there's no room in the diaper bag for another lens and because the little one's not about to sit through more than one pass).

The results can be awesome or abysmal.

I think they were purdy awesome this time around.

Pics are up in the Auto gallery

PS - more from Alberta still to come.

Banff

It was a short trip to Banff/the Rockies.

We spent two nights in Banff before heading east.

The hotel we stayed at was on the side of a mountain (can be seen on the bottom right of the picture below).

It had spectacular views, but was a bit old and dusty.

We visited the Cave & Basin national historic site - back in 1885, Canada's first national park was created due to these springs.

A place of particular personal interest was...well, its actually two places:

First, right next to the Cave & Basin site is a pavilion commemorating the internment camps of WWI. The exhibit is called Enemy Aliens, Prisoners of War and had a section about how Ukrainians were held in internment camps during WWI because at the time Austria occupied Ukraine. And it mentioned how they were forced to do hard labour, to create the roads in the Rocky Mountain parks for example.

The second place was along the old highway 1 at the base of Castle Mountain. This is where they put a statue and plaque commemorating those "enemy aliens" who were held at the Castle Mountain camp.

The reason these hold personal interest to me is that my great grandfather, who was in his early twenties at the time, was interned at Castle Mountain/Banff for years (of hard labour) during WWI.

Spectacular views, Canadian history, personal history - overall a great destination.

Pictures of Banff are up in the galleries

Ohio

Oh, by the way, I was in Ohio last week and will have some pics from that trip up after I've gotten the Alberta trip posted.

Coolio.

Jasper

First gallery up is Jasper, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Lovely place, lovely drive to Jasper.

Enjoyed lunch at a local restaurant and got to see Jasper the Bear.

What more could you ask for?

Pictures from Jasper are up in the Galleries

A few days in Alberta

Just got back from a short photo trip in Alberta.

We managed to see some of the Rockies, as well as some dinosaur  fossils.

Banff, Jasper, Drumheller and Dinosaur Provincial Park – two UNESCO world heritage sites, a museum or two, and some interesting historical sites.

Pictures to come.