Gregg and Erin's Wedding Photobooth

A beautiful ceremony, a delicious catered family style meal, a great DJ, and most importantly, getting to celebrate Gregg and Erin's wedding in the company of all of our lifelong friends. 30 years of brotherly bond provided an incredible camaraderie and intimacy to this event that ended with us dancing to classical wedding songs such as Limp Bizkit's Nookie, and the Ghostbusters theme song. Yeah, bet you wish you were there now.

We set up the photobooth after dinner, and while there were hundreds of shots taken, these are the ones of us boys and our respective attachés. The remaining photos will end up at www.flickr.com/photos/gregganderin in a couple days.


The final shot of the evening. Unfortunately Kris, Clint, and Jason had left by this point, but this is us, after all these years.


The evening's raison d'etre: Mr. and Mrs. Gregg Beever.


















This has to be one of my favourite photos of all time.







And I saved this photo specifically for last. While celebrating a beautiful wedding for one of our dearest friends, yesterday also marked the passing of Clint's father. We are deeply saddened by your loss, and all of us are thinking of you and your family. Clint wrote a powerful and moving statement, which I've copied and pasted below.

One Last Time
"Never be naive and think it can't happen to me. Because without fail, there will be one last time for everything. I got to say good bye one last time to my father, a week and a bit ago. I didn't want to believe that it would be. He looked as if he still had quite of bit of strength left. But yesterday it was time for my Dad to be at peace. That last good bye for me made all the difference in the world. If I didn't go to see him, this transition would have almost been unbearable to make. There are no words to describe losing a mentor, your best friend to help guide you through life, your father. Raymond Leslie Lever with the short time I did have with you, I couldn't have been more proud to call you Dad. There is so much pain to see you go, but I feel better knowing you are in a better place.

One of the most important things my dad taught me is how important family is. So after reading this, take the extra time and let the people know who are most important to you, that you love them deeply. For you never know when that last time will come."

-Clint Lever. October 18, 2015

Street Art - LAX

Here's a throwback to that time we went walking through a somewhat sketchy area of town in LA to checkout a few pieces of street art. And then I'm pretty sure we followed this up with meals at two different restaurants, back to back. Cause I'm a fatass. The end.






















This one was taken in a not so sketchy area.

Scrambles - East End of Rundle.

Thanksgiving. There are so many things to be thankful for - our health, our friends and family, our privileged position of middle class living in a first world country, our ability to pick up and travel whenever the itch comes... the list could go on endlessly, like THAT uncle unexpectedly saying 'a few words' at your wedding. But for me, the icing on this almost embarrassingly rich cake of life is Anita. She makes the goods become greats, and the bads that less unpalatable.

Nine years ago I took her up the East End of Rundle for her first scramble, thinking it would be a piece of cake. But like baking your first cake, it was a lesson in uncertainty, took significantly longer than it should have, and there were surprisingly a lot of tears and cussing. I thought we'd never hike a mountain together again. Fast forward nearly a decade later, after we'd scrambled close to a dozen mountains together, I brought her back to her first peak and proudly watched her redeem herself on one her biggest defeats in life. It was a fiercely windblown day, and there were a couple of moments where she looked Rundle square on and the unease of memories past crept back in, but then she summited and proclaimed victory at the top, like a boss.


Anita poses victoriously on the East tip of the summit. You can almost hear an audible, "Take THAT Mt. Bitch!"




Anita's favourite stalling tactic when she's tired: stopping, and "surveying" the trail ahead. Half the time, she's looking at the wrong mountain.


The only way to escape the wind yesterday was to hug up against the rock face.


More trail surveying.


About two thirds of the way up.


The view backdropping our day included Ha Ling, Lawrence Grassi, and the Three Sisters.


Final push towards the summit. Anita does a little bit of technical scrambling.


Me on the East tip.


View of the south side of the Canmore Corridor's peaks.


The summit ridge.


Anita chilling in a beautifully constructed windshelter on the ridge.




Me on the next major summit tip to the Northwest (look close, I'm that speck at the top).




And finally, our descent back to the car.

YOU TWO IS GONNA GET FAT

Anita and I went for dinner last night at Sushi Kawa, and as per usual, we ordered enough to feed a family of 8. The waitress took our order without judgement, until we reached the 'oh, one last thing, can we also have the grilled Hamachi cheek?' Her face scrunched up into an awkward expression of 'I don't want to be impolite, but YOU TWO IS GONNA GET FAT.' She didn't actually say that, but smiled, bowed, and more diplomatically said "That will be more than enough."

It's our 7th anniversary today. The past 2500+ days have flown by as our shared passion in all things exotic food and travel have taken us thousands and thousands of miles through 34 countries and countless cities. Here's to many many more!

A couple photos from our time in Tokyo earlier this year:

We went for fresh sushi breakfast (twice) at Tsukiji Fish Market, Tokyo.


Mmmm... Chirashi Don for breakfast.