Waterton, Alberta

I love the mountains! 

I was in Alberta for two weeks in October for my semi-annual trip west. I go to see all of my Nova Scotia friends who now live out there. I also like to see my Alberta friends :)

 Lots of  exciting things happened while I was there. I bought a new camera, which I am completely in love with. A Canon 40D. 

I've had the camera for about 3 weeks now and have already taken over 1,000 pictures! I love photography.

I spent some time with Doug and Ashley Campbell (my fellow Sasquatch Music Festival adventurers) We watched some movies, got The Albertan's back together to play some Rock Band, and had fun at the Ramada wave pool/water slides!

The Days moved into their new home while I was there. It's nice! And they even have a Princess Amy's Castle in the back yard. AKA a shed. ha ha

Steve has a new car, which I got to drive while he was at work every day! It was so much more convenient than taking the bus. 

Shaun dressed up as a werewolf for Halloween. Shaun, Jessica, and I took Jericho to the mall to trick or treat. Shaun the werewolf had fun scaring the children and even some adults!

Alec flew down from Edmonton to visit for the weekend. While he was there, Steve, Alec and I went on a weekend trip to Waterton! It was Alec's first time in the mountains. Waterton is one of my favourite places to visit. We left Lethbridge at lunch time (Steve and Alec had to buy some remote control toys before we left). We met Shaun and Jessica at their house just outside Cardston, then followed them to Waterton. 

Waterton is a tourist town and is basically closed during the off season. There were deer everywhere! You could just walk up to the deer and take their picture. 

Our first stop was Cameron Falls.

We went for a hike while watching for bears and other interesting animals. Shaun, Alec, and Steve had a rock throwing contest. They were trying to hit the next mountain. ha ha

We stayed in Cardston for the night instead of Waterton because there was a Raptors game on TV which Alec needed to see, and the hotel in Waterton didn't have a TV. Our hotel in Cardston was just down the street from the Temple. Of course, I took the opportunity to get some night shots of the temple.

The hotel was an interesting experience. The toilet broke in the middle of the night, and when we woke up in the morning, the doorknob didn't work! However, the TV was fine. We went back to Waterton the next morning after stopping at Shaun and Jessica's for a while to play on the hay bales.

It was quite cloudy during our second trip to Waterton, although it didn't start raining until we were about to leave. We played on the beach for a while where Alec, Steve and Shaun hit rocks with sticks. We then had lunch before Alec, Steve and Shaun found a playground to play on (for 2 hours) while Jessica, Jericho and I watched a movie in the car! It was pretty cold out and the seats in the car were heated. We were pretty comfortable.

We drove back to Cardston for supper at a Chinese food buffet. The fortune that came in my fortune cookie said "Remember three months from this date! Your lucky star is shining" So I'll have to pay attention to 2 February 2009... see if anything interesting happens. If everything works out, I should be at the beginning of my around-the-world trip! 

I'm home now, and still having fun playing with my camera in order to learn what all the buttons do! 

My Cabot Trail adventure!

I fell in love with Nova Scotia all over again this weekend! I can't believe that it has taken me 26 years to finally drive around the Cabot Trail. It is unbelievable. My friend, Colin, and I left New Glasgow on Friday morning at 11am. We had a nice drive to Cape Breton. It was sunny all weekend, which was great for pictures! 

I took my first picture before we even got to the Cabot Trail. I'm not exactly sure where we were, but it wasn't far from the causeway. I saw a swamp that looked interesting...  

Colin was prepared to stop on the side of the road as soon as I said "Stop!" ha ha. After a few times, he would just stop whenever he saw a place to pull over because he assumed I would want to get out and take pictures... which was true :)

There are so many cute towns and villages along the coast!

We stopped in Cheticamp for the night. What a great little town! So picturesque.

We stayed at the Cheticamp Island Resort.

The view from the cottage was perfect. I had to keep reminding myself I was still in Nova Scotia! It seemed so different.

I was pretty excited to get back on the road in the morning. We left the cottage at around 9:30 and drove through Cheticamp on our way to Pleasant Bay through the Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

I was not prepared for how excited I would be when I saw the Highlands!

I love the ocean!

A nice view of the road we were about to travel

There seemed to be more yellow and orange leaves than any other colour. So, when we saw some reds we stopped!

We decided to visit my grandparents in Glace Bay on our way home. As a short cut, we took the Englishtown Ferry. Colin was quite amused by this ferry. As was I. It crosses a section of St. Anne's Bay that is only about a few hundred feet wide. The ferry only holds about 12 cars. It seems like if you anchored the ferry in the middle of the water, and had a ramp on either side, you'd be able to just drive right across! It was a fun little 5 minute adventure though :) 

This is the view of St. Anne's Bay from Kelly's Mountain.

The trip was amazing and something I will definitely do again! 

D&C 128:23 describes how I felt as we drove.

I'm a blogger!

I've finally fallen victim to the fad of blogging. Which, as it turns out, seems to be much more than a fad. I'll admit my mistake. Blogging has some great potential.

I've decided to dedicate my blog to my travels and the pictures I take along the way.

Hodder Family Reunion (from the photographer's perspective)

Mom put together a great family reunion for the Hodder side of the family, which actually includes Hodders, MacKinnons, Earls and Quists.

It was really great to spend time with everyone! It was our very first reunion, but we all hope to do it again soon. Hopefully, next time we will have ALL the Earls with us!

Nannie, Poppa, Brenda, Steve and I went strawberry picking before everyone arrived for the reunion. We picked about 20 boxes of strawberries at McLean's U Pick (owned by my friend, Rachael McLean's family)

Mom, Dad, Brenda, Steve and I went to PEI for a little tour and some Deep Sea Fishing. PEI was the only maritime province that Steve had never visited, so we had to get there!

Deep sea fishing is one of my favourite summer time activities! 

There were lots of fun activities planned for the weekend including swimming, mini olympics, a bonfire on the beach with a s'more making contest, a service project, family home evening, projects for Laura, family portraits, and lots of food!

Of course I spent most of the time taking pictures of everyone and everything.