Road Trip!

The next part of the journey home for Siobhan, after graciously dropping off my cat for me, is to get to her flight to Ireland....which she booked out of Las Vegas.  It seemed like a quick trip to Vegas would be a grand idea -- delay a couple a Bermuda goodbyes and pick up a couple of overdue hellos since several friends were all thinking a Vegas trip in August.

So making the way there, we hopped in the car and drove west for 3 hours, departing Saskatchewan and arriving in Medicine Hat, Alberta.

Pulled over at the provincial marker showing the border of where Saskatchewan and Alberta meet

Alberta has a few more hills in the background than Saskatchewan

The reason for staying in Medicine Hat was to visit with my brother and sister-in-law who live there.

Tessa, Jerry, and Shibby

Alberta skies are pretty nice too

Backyard looks a lot like Saskatchewan

They were kind enough to give us a little tour around the city limits.  There is a lot more farm irrigation near Medicine Hat than my part of Saskatchewan.

And of course there is the Medicine Hat teepee.  Apparently the story here is that this once stood at the Calgary Expo, and a philanthropist donated it to the city to mark the Native history of the area.  In fact, it now stands on land that was important to a local tribe.

Portraits of native life line the base of the teepee

Hard to get the true colors of the sky and the portraits at the same time, so did one of each

After that we headed back to their house, and caught the last of the sun setting on the subdivision.

We were also treated to a midnight display of more thunder and lightning.

Lost But Loving Saskatchewan

In the end the move from Bermuda was as chaotic and frustrating as the move to Bermuda.  There are no pictures or good stories to really tell about that process, except I made it out in one piece, with 3 cats, no tears, and one Siobhan (who agreed to divert her travel plans to see Saskatchewan en route to Ireland and carry one panther with her).  The panthers were not particularly pleased with this whole process, but their are settling into our temporary Saskatchewan home and getting to know their new Canadian relatives.  To be fair, they are mostly rampaging about in the night, enjoying the novelties of carpet and the joy of expression on the piano rather than forming social bonds, but they are happy all the same.  Lexi has been reunited with all the cat furniture she left behind 5 years ago in the Bermuda move and is happy as a little clam.  But I digress.

The departure from Bermuda started a very long day.  Last minute packing, turning the apartment over to the landlords, a ride to the airport from Helen, a long flight with 3 cats (one of which was a very vocal and unhappy Harry Panther), one barely caught connection for flight 2 with 3 cats (and one still very unhappy and vocal Harry Panther), followed by one 3 hour drive in the dark with 3 now much happier cats and one wild Saskatchewan storm.  Siobhan was treated to an amazing display of the various types of lightning for her first sight of Saskatchewan as we drove into a storm that was so strong we had to pull over as the driving rain made visibility zero at one point.  But we finally made it.

Day one in Saskatchewan, Friday, started out full swing.  Siobhan traded in her spot on the scooter for a seat in the semi as rode along for a couple of loads of grain delivery to a not so nearby elevator.

Later in the evening we went for a tour of the crops, with mom and dad showing Siobhan the ropes.

Fields of Gold

The Saskatchewan skies never disappoint and we got a nice sunset too.

Day 2, Saturday, was a nice low key day for a sleep in and a bit of unpacking.  We toured around my old hometown a little bit, drove up to Gravelbourg to have lunch with my nephew, and found a lot of nice things to take pictures of.  The prairies are quite beautiful, especially when you have been away from them for so long.

A slough just off the highway

Barbed wire fence at the edge of town

The thin barrier between country and town....this fence

An old red barn on old family land

A patch of brown eyed Susans near a crop....weeds....but pretty

Track through the road to another old abandoned yard on our land

I love love how old wooden buildings bend, lean, and change with time

Day 3 was Sunday, and we were on the road again.  We set out for "Rocking Beach" by Rockglen to meet up with my sister and my friend Tanya, who was celebrating her 17th anniversary and her parents 50th anniversary there.

Cat Tails along the road south of Assiniboia

The road to Rockglen....starts to get hilly

Demon Duck....hard to see but if you zoom in it has red eyes (or maybe it's a griebe -- info supplied by Jody Bevan!)

the destination

 Once we arrived, the park was actually rocking -- because the anniversary group was both large and lively.  We had a great time, and a lot of laughs, mostly at the expense of either Tanya or myself as usual.  But was glad to meet up with friends and go camping for a night before heading out again on the road trip.  And what does one do when camping?  Mostly sit around a campfire with a bevvy and make fun of each other...or maybe that's just it.  Siobhan will never forgive us for teasing about her accent or the Americans for making us keep asking about the Irish "looky cherms."  Tanya and Leanne will never outlive the "high five" comment.  And thanks to Toby, who wasn't paying attention when his wife Tanya repeated my suggestion that everyone hook up their campers and do a roadtrip to Alaska, what he did hear was just something about hooker camp, so apparently I have quite the reunion to plan for the next get together.  Much fun and many laughs were had....that's how we camp at Rocking Beach.

Stalking Cinderella

Sometimes Bermuda can be a bit lit a fairy tale world.  It certainly seems magical to the tourists, I should know, I was one once and found it so haunting that I made my way there to live.  It can scream Disney Princess with all the Christmas and New Year's Balls.  It can also be a little bit like Peter Pan's Neverland, where one can have a tendency to want to stay forever...and enjoy the youthfulness of living abroad, parties, boat trips, random celebrations, and not "growing up" for as long as possible.  But when you are working lots and doing the routine tasks of life -- cleaning, cooking, laundry -- you can lose sight of the fairy tale.

So I considered myself lucky to see one play out in front of me while sailing at Castle Harbour.  It went a little something like this:

Princess B was living happily ever before, not in a remote castle in Europe, but in the good old US of A.  Rather than flitting about like some of those more famous fairy tale princesses, Princess B was a modern day sort of princess -- you know, the kind that play sports, goes to College, and answers to Bianca instead of Pincess B.  Finding Prince Charming is the challenge of many modern day princesses...in fact, that particular legend is probably a very old geezer by now....but the prophecy has always been that he must have grandsons, or great grandsons out there.  One just has to find, or perchance be found, by one.

While Princess B was in College, she met a nice boy, with goldie blond hair and one of those smiles that twinkles when he smiles, just like in all the cartoons.  Ivan was not the grandson, or great grandson of Prince Charming, but he sure knew how to spot a Princess.  In fact, while the bloodline may not have been directly linked to royalty, there must have been some close connection to Prince Charming, the specifics of which have been lost in history.  How do I know this?  Because Ivan knew the secret of being of Prince is not in who your ancestors are, but in who you choose to be.

Prince Ivan had a job in insurance, or maybe it was re-insurance, and Ivan used this to come up with a plan.  You see, he also knew that a Princess who answers to Bianca will always BE a princess all on her own, but that every girl, even one who prefers to simply call herself Bianca, deserves to be treated like a Princess.  And so Prince Ivan crossed his fingers behind his back and told the lovely Bianca that his company was sending him on a mundane work related trip to Bermuda, and worse yet, that they wanted him to bring his girlfriend for the social dinner where the men would do business and the women would smile and, oh I don't know, talk about gardens and such...old school business dealings.  And so off they flew, in an ordinary plane, since all the magic carpets were booked, for a very short business trip to Bermuda.

Once there, Ivan again crossed his fingers and told Princess B that they had just enough time to meet some old friends and go for a quick swim.  They donned snorkels and masks and entered the jewel blue green waters below a real live castle on that little island that is the jewel of the Atlantic. 

They saw fish, and enjoyed the warmth of the summer sea, and after snorkelling a little way out, they spotted something in the sand below that clear blue sea.

"What is is?" Ivan asked, looking at a tiny treasure chest box that was very familiar to him indeed.  "Don't touch it," Princess B said, "it must belong to someone, surely they set it out and we shouldn't disturb it," she said.  "Let's just take a quick look," Prince Ivan said with a growing smile.  And so Princess B submerged again, and dove down to the shallow sea, where the tiny treasure box sat atop the white sand.  She reached out for it and slowly opened the lid, and was shocked to see the sun glinting back at her on the floor of the sea within the facets of a diamond.  A diamond ring.

"We have to put it back!" B said as she came to the surface.  "It's yours B," Ivan said smiling.  At first B didn't understand, she didn't understand any of it.  Until Prince Ivan spoke some very special words from his heart, and asked her to be his Princess for life.  She said yes...and that is the beginning of happily ever after.

As for me, and how I come in, I just happened to be floating nearby on the Sand Dollar, watching this all unfold.  We had a bit of a warning from one of the happy couple's friends, who swam out to tell us, which was a good idea because it wouldn't have been quite the fairy tale ending if we had snorkeled away with the treasure.  And so I decided to try my hand at being a paparazzi...hence the title of today's blog "Stalking Cinderella."  After she said yes, we sent our emails in a bottle to send them pictures of their fairy tale proposal in the beautiful Bermuda seas.  The moral of this story is....be the prince or princess you were meant to be,  treat others as such...and watch them shine like gold.

That was the fairy tale ending for the Bermuda days.  Now I am off to a new kingdom, to see what magic and adventure awaits me.  Sure hope it isn't full of trolls!

The Last Bermuda Pictures

It was to be a Sunday that I would take my last pictures of Bermuda.  That wasn't what I expected since it would be a Thursday that I would depart....but that's when it turned out to be.  Fortunately that Sunday was a good day.  I went back to Castle Harbour that day with Captain Mark.

It turns out that Castle Harbour will be the place I remember as my favorite spot in Bermuda, with its expanse of calm crystal waters, sand dollars beneath your toes, longtails screeching above, and parrot fish nibbling rocks nearby.

I actually spent most of my time swimming after parrot fish, swimming back to the boat for refills, and lazing about in the sun and water.  But I did take a little time to go on land and take a few photos...mostly of longtails of course.

But what was really really special was hiking along a little used path, we all heard and audible "honk."  We all froze, and took very very careful footsteps, thankfully, because nestled on the path rather than a nest on the cliffside was this little fella here.

A baby longtail...ok technically a longtail chick

We were very careful not to touch or disturb, and Captain Mark said he would call a conservation officer that night and let them know about this little baby's location.  But after 6 years of chasing these birds up and down cliffs and coves for a good photo, it was the best thing I could imagine to spy a young one, healthily honking while the parents reeled nearby to attract us away from their chick.  I expect that to be the first and last time I see one of these in person, what a privilege!

The rest of the day was just watching the day go by.  There were several other boats in the water on this day.

Had a great view of Nonsuch and Cooper's Island.

And on the last Sunday evening scooter ride home I got to catch the sunlight fading over the Martello Tower at Ferry Reach.

Thank you Bermuda....it was quite the ride!  Stay tuned to see where we end up next!

Cloudy Day Walkabout

Tuesday morning of my last week in Bermuda dawned a little cloudy.  It was probably for the best that I was not going to have a lazy day on the beach.  It gave me time to do that baking that I promised my former coworkers that I would do.  But once that was done it seemed a travesty to not go to the beach since it hadn't actually rained yet, despite the forecast and clouds.  i decided to revisit Elbow beach, as one of my favorite rocks is there.  Yes, I have favorite rocks.

As always, Bermuda had a few treats out, even though the sun was not one of them.  I found a postcard perfect piece of seaweed enjoying the lonely beach.

And I had an unobstructed views of my favorite beach and some of the rocky areas at the far end if it.

And near the very end of the beach is my favorite rock.  The water was a bit rough on this particular morning, but it made for some nice photos anyway.  The favorite rock kind of reminds me of a crown.  When I first visited the island as a tourist almost 6 years ago, I walked down Elbow Beach every day and to this rock, fascinated by the lava rocks in the sea.  This picture was my favorite of my first trip to Bermuda...and I think it shows that it already captured my heart.

Me back in 2008, on what I thought was a once in a lifetime trip to Bermuda.  Life is funny.

On this day, I said goodbye rock, as I was not sure when I would be seeing it again.

And near my favorite rock was something I had been hoping to catch on film for a long time.  A Portuguese Man-O-War which had washed up on the sand.  Elation is not how people normally feel when they meet these, as those long purple tentacles create a stinging burning sensation if they touch you.  But I thought it looked quite pretty sprawled out on the sand.

I spent quite a bit of time, with a stick, and the Man-O-War, trying to place it so that the current would pull it back out to sea.  That didn't work.  So I took it out a few feet and tried to get it past the waves....but it still kept washing ashore.  I think I got one tentacle brush at some point, but it didn't sting too badly.  After a while I realized it probably wasn't going to survive the battering on the rocks as it kept getting washed back ashore, so I put it in a little pool of water near where I found it, hoping it wouldn't dry out, and that it would get a free ride out to sea when the tide rose a while later.  Godspeed little fella!