Prelude to Patagonia, Part ... I've lost count

Anita wanted to do one more hike in the Rockies before we embark on our trek to Chile, so we did a short one to end what has been a pretty spectacular hiking and scrambling season for us. She saddled herself down with pyjamas and other random articles from the house in her continuing 'training' for Patagonia. I'm surprised and a bit disappointed she didn't pull a blender out of her pack to make us some smoothies when we reached the end.

Moose Mountain is a 15km roundtrip hike near Bragg Creek, and though its elevation gain to the summit is only in the mid 500m range, the view at the end is pretty nice for the little effort expended. And considering it's October, we can't really complain about the conditions, despite the cold winds at the top.




Don't litter. Pack your peels out with you.








Pose of the day goes to Mike.














Searching for shelter from the wind at the summit.




Proof I was part of this hike.







Oh, hey! This is my 400th entry on this blog! Happy 400th, blog. I will eat some tiramisu cake for you.

Five Years of XOXO ... Gossip Girl?

Yesterday marked the fifth anniversary of our wedding. Not that five years of experience qualifies us as experts on marital longevity, but I will share with you a secret to our success: common ground, and where that is lacking, mutual respect of that lack.

Example: Anita was watching the series finale of Gossip Girl this morning on DVD. BAAAAAAARRRRF. I'm guessing that the majority of you don't follow that show (yes, I WILL judge you for that), so my personal synopsis of the premise for you is this: someone anonymously blogs the comings and goings of a group of white, upper class, snobby, elitist bitches and douchebags 'struggling' through life. It's disgusting on so many levels. And for reasons I can't explain, Anita just LOVES it. But while I would rather grind my face against a cheese grater than watch that show, I do occasionally sit down and watch it with her anyways. (Okay, you can now judge me for that).

Anyways, I'm not sure why I've chosen to discuss my repulsion for that show as part of a celebration of our relationship. Moving on to the good parts. Of which there are many, but undoubtedly, our biggest shared passion lies routed in that desire to explore... countless flight, train, bus, and ferry connections have taken us through 30 countries and 100+ cities for food, drink, and adventure these past five years. Enjoy a small sampling of such below. Looking forward to our next 100 cities.


Wroclaw, Poland


London, England


Arashiyama, Japan


Sevilla, Spain


Lyon, France


Rome, Italy


Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam


New York, USA


Lisbon, Portugal


Amsterdam, Holland


Alishan, Taiwan


Budapest, Hungary


Hong Kong


Plitvice National Park, Croatia


Pripyat (Chernobyl), Ukraine


Riga, Latvia


Beijing, China


Montreal, Canada


Prague, Czech Republic


Angor Wat, Cambodia


Ljubljana, Slovenia


Bucharest, Romania

Keep Calm and Dickhead On!

I'm particularly proud to say that I have PERSONALLY disappointed a distinguished (more like DICKstinguished) member of our provincial Legislative Assembly today. I excerpt the relevant portion of his email cc'd to me, below:

"I’m a bit disappointed that Mr Mach wasn’t interested enough to follow up on..."

Now the details of who this MLA is, or how he arrived at this statement aren't important, but if I were to draw an analogy, it would go something like this. Man goes to the Fire Department to report a robbery, gets upset when Fire Department explains that the Police are actually the proper place to register the report/ complaint, but they would at least be willing to help connect him with the Police. And then rather than going to the Police as one would expect, the man instead sends a snarky email to the Fire Department for not showing more interest in said robbery.

Good job, dipshitstick. Was basic comprehension not a part of your degree in Dumbassery?! BTW, how IS the Liberal Party of AB faring these days?* Like 5 farts in a strong breeze? Quelle Surprise! With Steinbergs (Arrested Development reference) such as yourself holding the torch, it's a wonder your political party hasn't been flushed like a runny deuce, let alone continue to have any representation in the Legislature at all. I wonder, what do you tell yourselves after each crushing electoral defeat? Keep calm and dickhead on? Cause that's the only way I can rationalize today's ridiculous misplaced condescending email...

Have a nice day, shitcan! Anyways, enough of me being snide and bitter. On to things that make me happy: BEER!!!

We took a free tour through the Widmer Brothers Brewery in Portland, saw their production facility, and drank some free beer samples. It was pretty awesome, considering the cost ($0).




Free beer tastings, and you keep the glass as a souvenir after!




Huge silos housing their barley malt.


Various barley and specialty malts used in their brewing processes.


Samples of their extruded bittering hops.


Quality Control!


Enormous fermentation tanks. Double walled, with glycol cooling sleeves inside to maintain temperatures.


One more photo, for scale.









*And just in case anyone mistakenly gets the impression that I'm a right leaning conservative, sorry, not so much. I'm merely taking a 'low hanging fruit' stab at the Liberals (and their pathetic 5 seat showing in the current AB Legislature) because this particular MLA thought he could get on a dick soapbox and expect to NOT face pushback.