Yo Chimp, I’ve always wanted to go to Switzerland, because of the Alps, and I have this probably over romanticized-instagram-inspired-probably-not-as-awesome-as-the-internet-makes-it-out-to-be-but-still-awesome idea of sitting at a table overlooking the alps having cheese and chocolate.
Is the trip worth the cost of how 'spensive it is? Obviously it’s probably awesome, but is it worth it or would you recommend hitting other spots in Europe first if you haven’t been?
For the record, we are nature people, and wouldn’t get as much out of ‘Euro cities’ trips, i.e. Amsterdam, London, France etc. (which I’m sure are awesome).
We’ve only been to Europe once and it was a saunter across Italy. Naples (area yay, city bleck), Tuscany, Como (bomb), and Venice (meh.)
If you find yourself back there for a vacation, make sure you do the Smith-Dorian Trail between Hwy 40 north of Nakiska and Canmore. It is a gravel road that goes up to the peaks and travels the ridges until it drops down at either end, and even though it is a gravel road it is very well-maintained and very wide in places. My favorite time to travel it is in the winter, but it also spectacular in the other seasons. Above Canmore is the Canmore Reservoir that provides the water for the city - and is that beautiful turquoise glacial water color. I’ve seen countless elk and big horn sheep crossing the road, as well as a BUNCH of small animals like rabbits, lynx, fox, etc and an occasional bear. At the lower ends, we would often see elk or moose. One afternoon at the Hwy 40 end, our Durango was surrounded by a herd of big horn sheep, none in a hurry to move on seeming to be more interested in checking us out in the vehicle. If I remember correctly, the SDT is about 40 miles long. We would take visitors from home from Calgary up & over the SDT, then down into Canmore where we’d have lunch at a little Greek place in town.
The first pic was on the Smith-Dorian Trail, just above Canmore. The second pic was at Athabasca Falls, just south of Jasper. Here is one of a big lift I worked on at the Syncrude plant north of Fort McMurray back about 2004. 700T lift, about -20F that day…
That’s my oldest son. This pic was taken during his O-State freshman year Christmas break in 2002. He’s now a teacher-coach at Anna (TX), dad, and recently became a granddad. Time flies…
I don’t think he worked at Arby’s…he did work at Fazoli’s for a while, though. Can’t remember other jobs he had. He did student-coaching at Stillwater High and Cushing High in 2004 & 2005. He was a bit of a gym-rat while he was in school and it seems like he had a job at the Colvin Center at some point so it’s possible you could have run into him there or the Annex. I sent him a text asking him what his school-jobs were - I’ll let you know
AH! That could very well be it. He always claimed we drove by and kicked him out of the Durango on our way to Calgary - which was not far from the truth I was mobilizing to our project in Calgary / Fort McMurray from Texarkana, and my mom lived in Stillwater. So, we literally loaded him up along with all our stuff that wasn’t going in the moving van and went to Stillwater for 2 or 3 days to visit with Mom and get him moved-in and settled in the dorm, then proceeded on to Calgary.
Chris just replied…he just worked a Fazoli’s on Hall of Fame during his freshman year. Other than that, just the student coaching gigs at SJHS, SHS, and Cushing. He had a job at the Colvin Center weight room lined up, but the SJHS gig came up and he did that instead.
We did a snorkeling trip one day we were there, on the only reef Montego Bay has (as far as I know). It was fun. You don’t see much in the water…then you dip your face in the water, and there are fish tracking you, it’s hilarious. They all just swim along with you like no big deal.
Flying to PA by way of Charlotte today. On the flight to Charlotte, a lady asked me to switch my aisle seat for her middle seat so she could be by her husband… “No thank you. I paid for this upgrade to an aisle seat (I didn’t… Gold status gets me first 15 rows free) and prefer to keep it.” Lady stares a hole through my head the whole flight like I’m a bad person… I don’t feel bad about it at all.
But as all of you know I actually am a horrible person so that probably plays into it.
I was mobilizing to our project in Calgary / Fort McMurray from Texarkana, and my mom lived in Stillwater. So, we literally loaded him up along with all our stuff that wasn’t going in the moving van and went to Stillwater for 2 or 3 days to visit with Mom and get him moved-in and settled in the dorm, then proceeded on to Calgary.