About Me
- Name: Patrick
- Location: Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom
I'm an Engineer working in Tyne and Wear, having moved from Belfast 3 years ago. Before the move I had never lived away from home and have had to work alot of things out for myself. I'm a big fan of Ice Hockey, in particular my team the Belfast Giants who I travel to see all over the UK. I also have a beautiful fiancee Victoria with whom I live in Gateshead. I also publish a weekly Ice Hockey Podcast with my friend Aaron, available on iTunes called A View From The Bridge
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Between July 9th and August 20th 2004, Patrick Smyth and Claire McAllister will travel between Vancouver and Toronto on a whistle-stop tour of the Worlds 2nd biggest country.
Saturday, July 17, 2004
Nine Days In...
We had a very very early start this morning as we loaded the bus and headed off in the direction of Banff. On the cards was a trip through the "Ice Parkway", a connection parkway betwwen Banff and Jasper National parks.
First stop was Tangle Falls, another spectacular waterfall created by the moving glacier. Then it was on the the glacier itself. The Columbia Icefiels are an incredible sight to behold, Ice as far as the eye can see, solid and immense! It also gave us time to try and increase our score in our new game....
Everyone at Tangle Falls
With so many tourists we attempted to see how many pictures we could lurk in the background of, you had to look and smile in the camera. Dan was the overwhelming victor with a total of 21 pictures, all of which hilarious to see done.
We hit the lakes, Moraine, Louise and the most spectacular, Peyto. I'll leave the pictures to speak for me on these, it was a beautiful day, with incredible tealy-blue water in each lake, ice cold glacier water and incredible mountain views. Peyto Lake especially was beautiful, we got some great pics and video footage.
Peyto Lake
Moraine Lake
Claire lookin good at Lake Louise
To the great relief of the travelling group, and my own disappointment, my video camera then died and needs a head cleaning, so thats that out of action until i get to back to vancouver. On the otherhand, I've made nearly an hours worth of footage in a week... so that should work out to 6 hours by the time i get home.... and who exactly will want to watch that??? hmmm i may lay off on the auld camcorder for a bit.
So we visited the lakes, with a bit of Creedence Clearwater Revival as our soundtrack. and made our way on into Banff. A very nice town, but seems to be very tourist orientated. All the shop styles are the same alpine typ front, just like in Whistler. It does have a fabulous looking hotel though, that looks like the hotel from The Shining.
The group booked into the SameSun Hostel and we each had a badly needed shower... considering the last hostel didnt have running water.... before a keg party ensued, with guess what... a barbeque! I know you are all shocked at that because we've barely toughed a drop since the trip has begun and BBQ's have been scarce... well if the weather is good, the weather is good.
Keg Par-tay!!!
The keg, however, ran dry very quickly. So the group of 12 hit the town for a few more in a wee english theme bar. These British and Irish bars seem to be all the rage over here. personally i cant see the attraction, but as most of the other bars are pretty crap, they'll have to do at the best of a bad bunch.
It was an early night for us, as tomorrow is a big big day.... White Water Rafting
Patrick + Claire
First stop was Tangle Falls, another spectacular waterfall created by the moving glacier. Then it was on the the glacier itself. The Columbia Icefiels are an incredible sight to behold, Ice as far as the eye can see, solid and immense! It also gave us time to try and increase our score in our new game....
Everyone at Tangle Falls
With so many tourists we attempted to see how many pictures we could lurk in the background of, you had to look and smile in the camera. Dan was the overwhelming victor with a total of 21 pictures, all of which hilarious to see done.
We hit the lakes, Moraine, Louise and the most spectacular, Peyto. I'll leave the pictures to speak for me on these, it was a beautiful day, with incredible tealy-blue water in each lake, ice cold glacier water and incredible mountain views. Peyto Lake especially was beautiful, we got some great pics and video footage.
Peyto Lake
Moraine Lake
Claire lookin good at Lake Louise
To the great relief of the travelling group, and my own disappointment, my video camera then died and needs a head cleaning, so thats that out of action until i get to back to vancouver. On the otherhand, I've made nearly an hours worth of footage in a week... so that should work out to 6 hours by the time i get home.... and who exactly will want to watch that??? hmmm i may lay off on the auld camcorder for a bit.
So we visited the lakes, with a bit of Creedence Clearwater Revival as our soundtrack. and made our way on into Banff. A very nice town, but seems to be very tourist orientated. All the shop styles are the same alpine typ front, just like in Whistler. It does have a fabulous looking hotel though, that looks like the hotel from The Shining.
The group booked into the SameSun Hostel and we each had a badly needed shower... considering the last hostel didnt have running water.... before a keg party ensued, with guess what... a barbeque! I know you are all shocked at that because we've barely toughed a drop since the trip has begun and BBQ's have been scarce... well if the weather is good, the weather is good.
Keg Par-tay!!!
The keg, however, ran dry very quickly. So the group of 12 hit the town for a few more in a wee english theme bar. These British and Irish bars seem to be all the rage over here. personally i cant see the attraction, but as most of the other bars are pretty crap, they'll have to do at the best of a bad bunch.
It was an early night for us, as tomorrow is a big big day.... White Water Rafting
Patrick + Claire
