Blog Catch-up: April and May Pictures

Vacation in Drumheller

In May, Christina and I needed a change so we journeyed out on a roadtrip for the May long weekend. The only thing we were certain of was that we did not want to travel too far...less than 3 hours to destination. On a whim, we considered Drumheller and with a couple of calls to Bed and Breakfasts we were on the road.

The B&B we selected was/is entitled Taste The Past and it turned out to be great. It was located right downtown and had a great English couple as hosts that completely overfed us each morning.

 The best part of our B&B was that it was right near the Worlds Biggest Dinosaur.

Of course no trip to Drumheller is complete without a visit to the Royal Tyrell Museum. The museum was absolutely packed. It wasn't bad for navigating around but it was nearly impossible to get good pictures of anything with kids running around.

 This is the most badass skeleton set-up of all time!

By far my favorite part of the trip was visiting the Atlas Coal Mine. The Atlas Coal Mine National Historic Site is one of the most complete coal mining museums in Canada.  They offer tours and educational programs through the old mine, tipple and rail system. Christina and I decided to take the mine tour and got geared up for the excursion.

Instead of descending down a mine shaft we actually followed an incline conveyor tunnel towards the adjacent hill.

The guide had some cool stories of the hardships and camaraderie of the miners. It was all too apparent that we are all a bunch of soft wusses today.

The actual mine is closed of for safety reasons but they have plans to re-excavate in a couple of years. Once we exited the tunnel we came to the blacksmiths shop on top of the hill. It was pretty well stripped but from the hill we got a good view of the area.

 We concluded our tour by descending down the side of the hill taking pictures along the way.

Like any good miner we finished our excursion at the Last Chance Saloon. 

I had the required Pilsner and pickled egg while Chrissy chose the apple pie (she is wholesome).

I can't recommend high enough the B&B and the Coal Mine tour that we took if you ever find yourself in Drumheller. 

Encore Opera: Storm the Stage

(April Part 2) 

As mentioned before (See link) I am on the board of the Edmonton Opera Encore group and once a year we host a big party on the stage of an opera at the Jubilee Auditorium. In April, we hosted our party - Storm The Stage.

Basically, the whole premise of the party is to hang out on the stage, drink some beer, get a behind the scene tour, schmooze, listen to a dj, and play dress-up in previous opera costumes and wigs. Every year its a great time and this year was no exception. 

Christina and I playing dress up.

I think Chrissy looks like a Star Trek TOS red shirt in the right picture.

 The white snoop dogg pose to the left

 Family resemblance to a young Geoff and Monica.

Christina has got my back.

 What a sultry raven haired albino!

The rest of the encore group was looking good too.

My personal favourite picture.

The next Storm the Stage party is coming up soon on October 21,2011. 

For more information click http://www.edmontonopera.com/sts/ and follow @encoreopera on twitter.

The theme for this year is "atypical Edmonton" and we are having a film contest. Rules below.

Submit a short, 60 second movie, no spoken dialogue, any music (operatic music preferred). Think up and coming, unknown secrets of Edmonton, of opera in Edmonton, of art in Edmonton