It's not what you know, but...

Oz's friend Justin (aka J-burt or DJ hybrid) was kind enough to put us up while we stayed in Calgary. We went to a bar where a scene from the movie "Cool Runnings" was filmed (the one where the get in a bar fight), and did some line dancing there, as well as riding on a mechanical bull. Needless to say that good times. Unfortunately, there is not much photographic evidence of these good times.

Oz's friend Tom (aka Tom) lives in Edmonton, which is a city that had a very nice vibe to it (for those comfortable with the comparison, Edmonton=Ottawa vs Calgary=Toronto). I would consider living in Edmonton if the winters weren't so harsh. Tom took us to this nice place to eat that had some pretty delicious Po' boys. Definitely got my money's and appetite's worth. Tom also had a brother Lucas, who has life figured out. Lucas is a park ranger (!) who actually lives in the park with his sweet wife who researches wildlife, they have a sweet home there, have their own garden with home-made greenhouse, lots of awesome stuff on their bookshelf, and still have a large-screen TV on which to play video games. Also, they have a cat. We stayed at their place near Jasper for a couple of nights while checking out the splendid nature nearby.

Lucas' place. Kitty korner to this (so upset we didn't get a picture) was the garden that included a home-built greenhouse. Lots of sheds nearby to house cool stuff. Literally a 2 minute walk away was:

...that was the pathway to the barn-type area where horses could be kept, with trough areas to feed them with hay and whatnot (I've been told from a reliable source that "hay is for horses", so I can only assume that horses or possibly cows would enjoy that type of atmosphere).

Also, I've forgotten to mention our wildlife count. The following two pictures contribute:

...we also saw (another) black bear, a black bear family, a grizzly bear cub (that we very quickly vacated the area for), elk, mountain goats, a polar bear, an alien (on a sign - great marketing strategy), dinosaurs, pirates, numerous birds, prairie dogs, lemurs, and lots of not-so-sapien-homo-sapiens.

This is a picturesque view of some type of lake that drains somehow at some point in the year. I forget all the details, but it was impressive at the time. Also, the guy we asked to take pictures of us did a great job of getting us in the picture, but managed to somehow not get any of the background in the picture, so this is the one I'm sharing:

Later, we decided to scale one of the peaks, mainly to prove our manliness, and ability to deal with snow:

Fortunately, we were able to fend off the yetis (there were multiple signs warning people not to hike to the summit for fear of bears - I think they just didn't want people there for legal reasons because it was snowy and slippery - that we summited anyhow, but did not take pictures of due to lack of non-clouds) and then awesome other things happened that I couldn't fit into this run-on sentence.

Unfortunately, when we got back to the town of Jasper (where the fantastic accommodations were) we were attacked by a ferocious bear:

...stay tuned to find out whether or not I lived or died.

In other news, I've signed a lease to live near Cook street village. Very excited. Will be moving there likely in early August.