An Escape Campervan cruise down the California coast with Calvin & Hobbes
Cruising down the California coast’s Cabrillo highway from San Francisco with Calvin & Hobbes and no agenda can only mean one thing: adventure! There is little doubt that memories of this five-night escape make it, perhaps, one of Christa's and my most memorable road trips ever. Since then we’ve threatened to replicate the event –
Floating the Bow and our kayaking essentials checklist
As novice kayakers, it was quite an adrenaline rush to gather our equipment, load the boats, decide upon a suitable launch location and then stand on the banks of the Bow River surveying its flow pattern. This, partly to look as if I knew what I was doing and partly to reconsider whether we should
Derek’s Favourite Garden Accessories and Necessities
It’s nearly impossible to visit a garden centre for planting material without peeking at their garden accessories. For the most part, these items are nice-to-have accessories rather than must-have necessities. But, sometimes one can craftily motivate why an accessory should become a necessity. This also often helps justify the cost! Here is an alphabetical list
Derek’s favourite 5 value-for-money Garden Centres in Calgary
I have to confess that I’m one of those gardeners-in-denial. I’m all gung-ho to get my garden growing just as soon as the weather warms to daytime highs in the low teens with mild disregard to the still-chilly overnight temperatures. I simply don’t have the patience to wait for that unspoken gardening rule to come
Hola Diego! Introducing the not-so-secret life of our pet
We’re celebrating a birthday in our home today. It’s the four-month "hatchday" of our baby bird, a green-cheek conure whom we’ve affectionately named Diego. Although we’ve only had him in our home for barely a month, it’s as if he has been a part of our lives for forever. Weighing in at only 70 grams
Make Room for the Broom
North Woven Broom Company, Crawford Bay, BC As a male my tendency would be to see a broom as purely functional. A handle. Bristles. Get the job done. The thing with visiting an Artisan’s workspace and seeing them engaged in their craft is that the observer forms a strange and unintentional bond with the Artisan’s unique
A Magical Hideaway in the BC Woods at Owl Ridge
Spontaneous Spring 2019 Road Trip The cabin at Owl Ridge near Riondel, BC is not just any cabin. For readers to understand what significance this log cabin situated in the woods above Kootenay Lake’s east shore has to Christa and I, you would need to have a little more insight into our love story. A little
The back-story to “I Am Calgary”
It’s a milestone week for us here at “I Am Calgary” (IAC). It’s the anniversary of our first birthday since go-live on April 14th, 2018. We’ve had such fun. Discovering. Exploring. Filming. Photographing. Meeting. Posting. Sharing. Writing. These are all critical elements of what I wanted to do to showcase life in and around Calgary, my new home city. It’s the essence of
Derek’s Road Trip Essentials Checklist
We sure do love a good road trip. Check out our most recent road trip stories here. We also love leaving some space for spontaneity during our journey, sometimes not even booking accommodation ahead of time and trying to figure it out when we get there. None the less, there are always a few key
Hot springs, bird watching and the Nordic god of snow
Spontaneous Spring 2019 Road Trip Day #2 Following our annual indulgent spa pamper in Canmore the previous day, we settled in and enjoyed a comfortable enough sleep in our cozy and somewhat smaller-than-usual bed in our penthouse perch at Radium Chalet. Read about our Day #1 experience here. We managed to mobilize ourselves in time to
