Travelling to Idaho

I was gone to the University of Idaho Potato Conference last week in Pocatello, ID. It was a long drive - about 900km - but it was beautiful for most of it. For about 500kms you drive through the mountains. The road conditions were pretty good considering that they are mountain passes. Here are a few pictures I got on the road. You'll note that for some I pulled off the road to take while others I did not. However - I have a mini-tripod that I put the camera on and duct-taped it to the dash so taking pictures was no harder than changing the radio station - just turn on and hit the shutter button.

Auberge Brown

I was up in Old, AB (45mins north of Calgary) for the week taking a Certified Crop Adviser Course at Olds College. I chose to stay in a Bed & Breakfast nearby the college. It was amazing. I could walk to classes everyday and walk downtown at night for supper. And of course I got gourmet breakfast every morning. It was only $60 per night compared to about $100 per night at the local motels. The house is about 100 years old and it feels like you are stepping back in time staying there. The key to my room was an old skeleton key! How cool is that? I have a few pictures below of my room. They have some more on their website. If you are ever in the area I highly recommend it.

http://www.brown-residence.com/en/index.php

Christmas 2007

For Christmas this year we went back to Manitoba. We did lots of visiting with friends in Winnipeg when we first arrived and then settled into Lisa's parents place in Steinbach for the rest of the week. Below are a selection of some of the pictures taken.

Me checking out the amazon.ca box and wondering what it was that Lisa got me ...


... and to my great joy it was a book all about tea! 400 pages of the Story of Tea. I love it. Already have 1/4 of it read.


Lisa admiring the shiny package from me ...


... only to find out sometimes shiny packages don't have what you think :( (there was actually a gift certificate for a spa in there (in the form of money, my plans to get it in Lethbridge were foiled) but I needed a more creative way to give it to her.


The sweaters that Ryan gave to me ...


The cashmere sweater Dave gave to Lisa ...


Cadence (our niece) playing with the gift we gave her :D


The a cross-stitch blanket for Cadence that Lisa slaved over for the past year


We were all tired but we had to go for the little-kid-in-big-hat picture (a Growers Supply hat I might add).


And finally the new word of the trip was horFrost ... this is what it means - when ice fog sticks to trees and makes beautiful scenery. It also is the name of a restaurant that we went to in Portage la Prairie on the way back. Some old friends of Lisa's from Steinbach started the restaurant in August so we decided to try it out. Its really worth it to check it out if you are in Portage some time :D These pictures were taken in Moosomin, where we stayed on the way back home.