Lac Des Arcs: C'est magnifique!!

This weekend found us in bear country. About 20 km east of Canmore, just across the lake from the Lafarge cement plant was Lac Des Arcs campground. Surrounded by mountains, water and highway, it was a pretty nice campground.  We spent a relaxing weekend before our big trip to Kelowna next weekend. A word of advice though, if I might digress: if you test your bearspray don't hang around to see if it works. Will and I were out for a walk down by the lake and I thought I would shoot a bit to see how it works.  Number 1: it is a much finer spray than I was expecting; I thought it would be a stream.  And Number 2: man is it spicey. Once Will started to cough, I knew we were in trouble. But we survived and if ever in a situation where it must be used for real I will know what to expect. And if you need some spice on your food, this is the bomb!

Campsite was little open for my tastes but it sure made for some great scenery and the stars at night were amazing.

A late supper makes for beautiful light.

More scenery.

Mia jumping for joy at the prospect of camping for the weekend.

Just finishing up supper.

Shoulda been a farm girl.

Sun going down on the Lac Des Arcs.

Trying my luck at Grotto Pond. Still haven't caught anything this year, starting to think I am fish repellent.

Maybe a team would have better luck?

I Would Surmise the Arrival of the Tooth Fairy is Imminent

Yes, after many days of showing everyone how loose the tooth was, Mia finally conceded to letting Dad have at it with a little pair of extractors. And before you could say the Tooth Fairy was your Auntie, it was out. If you don't like blood don't look, otherwise enjoy.

Mere moments before extraction.

Oh the horror, blood everywhere!!!

A nice clean hole where a little baby tooth used to reside.

That permanent tooth can't wait to get in there.

Tooth Fairy Pillow, with note and tooth in bag standing by.

Packing it all up.

Can hardly wait to see what will be there in place of the tooth tomorrow morning.

As a side note, once the tooth was out Mia and Will were ready to put plan "Alpha" into action.  The plan was for Will to sleep under Mia's bed with a flashligh, set up cameras and microphones and catch the Tooth Fairy in the act. I had to warn them that if they should happen to actually catch her they would no doubt scare her away. Not only would she never return, she would rat them out to Santa. I hope they got the message.

-- Derek

Day 2 at Cypress as Nice as the First

Fishing is definitely the business of the day on this little trip.  Unfortunately nothing caught.  And still little miffed at losing some nice lures in the weeds.  Oh well that is the business I guess.  Today were at Bullshead Resevoir.  We may have been out of league a little bit here, there was no bait allowed and the minimum size if you wanted to keep was 50cm.  It sure was pretty though, take a look and see.  Don't know if you have noticed anything different about the pictures but we are using a circular polarizing filter, it take the haze out of the sky and the reflection off the water, makes the pictures look extra saturated, I think I kind of like it.

Doing my best the hide the frustration of not even getting a nibble and losing some nice lures in the weeds.

Cypress Hills Never Fails to Impress

And this is only the first half of the first day.