Paul Ille [dot] com

So it’s a couple days late Happy Thanksgiving anyway.

We hosted our first Thanksgiving here this year and it was a lot of fun. While we weren’t able to get the entire family together, we did manage to get a good portion of it, we had a good time and damn did we have food. I didn’t even get to taste all of the food we had cause there was just so much! There was:

Turkey, Chipolte Turkey Breast, Ham, Home made Cranberry sauce, String beans, Califlower with cheese, Califlower, Mushrooms, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Spinach with garlic, Sweet Potatoes, Stuffing, Creamed Onions, Cornbread Casserole, Corn…and that’s just what I know we had on my half of the table!

For dessert we had:

Brownies, Brownies with Chocolate Chips, Apple Pie, Chocolate and Peanut Butter Pie, Cookies, Rhubarb Pie…there were more, but I was running around so I didn’t have the chance to see everything.

The food was phenomenal. I just love the year end holidays. Great food and great company.

But, this year wasn’t JUST our first Thanksgiving at our house. It was the first year Sandy or I had Thanksgiving anywhere, but our Grandparent’s houses. This was something that weighed heavy on our minds, but I can’t imagine it didn’t weigh a bit heavier on mine. While this year was the first year Sandy’s family didn’t have Thanksgiving at her Grandparent’s house, it was the first time I hadn’t spent any of Thanksgiving with my extended family – they were unable to come for one reason or another. This fact didn’t fully hit me until I spoke with my Grandfather on Thanksgiving morning. I thought about him throughout the day and wished he had been able to make it. Don’t get me wrong. I was still very happy to have my Brother, Sister-in-law, newly born neice, Mother and Aunt Betty there to represent.

I enjoyed having Thanksgiving at our home and I’d like to continue to host it for the family. Everything has to change doesn’t it?

I had Thanksgiving at Sandy’s Grandparent’s house one year earlier – Sandy’s Grandmother has long since past, but I always say Grandparent’s anyway. I remember the long room they had with a long table going all the way down through it fitting at least 20 or 25 people. I remember thinking, damn that’s quite a table and I appreciated the fact that everyone was at that one long table together. My family always had a good time, but we always had one smaller dining room table with everyone else at semi-crappy folding tables – it was somewhat disconnected at times. There was always a distant feeling I didn’t like, but of course I hadn’t realized that until I saw this gigantic table.

The following year, Sandy’s Grandfather unfortunately broke his hip and decided to sell his home. With that, he also decided to give us his dining room table. Being such a stickler for tradition, it was clear we’d have to take the torch and host it for the family, but it’s funny that I didn’t realize there was a very crafty trick played on me. The dining room table was 110 inches long with the leafs in! It couldn’t fit 20-25 people! It could maybe fit 10 or so maxed. So what exactly did Sandy’s Grandfather do? He built additional tables to butt up against the dining room table to give the illusion of a long table. It worked. Brilliant. Fooled me. The whole time I was wondering how on Earth we’d fit that table in our dining room!

I decided to take Sandy’s Grandfather’s idea and run with it.

The dining room table was 110 inches long and 42 inches wide. I took two 6 foot heavy duty folding tables that I had, bolted 3/4 inch plywood 6 foot by 42 inch on top to match the width and height of the dining room table and presto! We had a 21 foot and change dining room table.

Sure, it didn’t look so hot with sawdust and rulers on top, but that’s when I turned the show over to Sandy’s wizardry (and Jonathan’s vacuuming skills hehe). She did an amazing job getting table cloths and decorating the table from cranberries with candles to plate chargers and nicely folded napkins. Amazing. The final touch was the centerpeece sent by a good friend who unfortunately couldn’t make it. It was perfect.

I was a bit bummed that I didn’t get a picture of the entire table full with the entire family. I should have had everyone pose for one big picture (I will next year), but sometimes I guess the moments just can’t be captured. The best I got was a partial table taken from my seat at the head, but there were about 5 people cut out. The two empty seats are from my Brother and his wife putting baby Maddie to sleep.

But in the end, the entire family WAS there and everyone contributed. The centerpiece, my Mother’s chairs, Sandy’s Grandfather’s dining room table, my Grandmother’s piano and everyone who came or was on our minds. To history, future and new beginnings!

It was a great day and we had a lot of laughs, good food and great company. We hope you and your families all had the same I can’t wait until next year! – but Christmas cometh We’re hosting that too!

We have a lot to be thankful for. I think we all do, don’t we?

We landed in Newark around 7pm Monday night and finally got home around 9pm. It was quite a long day considering we started waiting for the shuttle to Calgary at 7am in Banff (factoring in the 2 hour difference it was 9am EST though). We only had yesterday to relax because today we’re going to be surprising Jonathan.

He felt a bit bummed that he couldn’t go with us to Banff, but of course that was just for Mom and Dad. So we did the next best thing. We’re going to leave tonight for Orlando, Florida so all 3 of us can have a honeymoon The kewl part about it is that Jonathan has no idea. At 3pm we’re going to pick him up from school and drive straight to the Newark airport and we aren’t going to tell him where we’re going unless he figures it out. If it takes getting to where we board the plane, so be it! It’ll be great fun.

Anyways, between yesterday and today I was able to setup a gallery with more pictures of Banff. It starts slow with pictures of our hotel and such, but it’s worth watching past that. Banff was simply beautiful and it made taking pictures really easy for me. The scenes just kinda jumped into the camera.

You can access the gallery from here and then click on the section called Banff, Canada.

If you want to read more about the entire trip, check out these posts.

Banff, Canada Day 1 – Travelled
Banff, Canada Day 2
Banff, Canada Day 3
Banff, Canada Day 4
Banff, Canada Day 5 – Rested
Banff, Canada Day 6
Banff, Canada Day 7

Enjoy!

Well, today is our last day here in Banff unfortunately. We have to take a shuttle out of here at 7:30am tomorrow in order to catch our flight. Our flight isn’t until around noon, but the shuttle to Calgary takes about 2 hours.

On the bright side, we had a great day today. The Glacier Trail Tour we took today was probably the best tour we took all week. We went back to Lake Louise for a bit, stopped by a few other lakes and had the chance to hang out on an actual glacier. We also finally saw some animals!

I took another stab at taking a better picture of Lake Louise.

From what we can tell, according to the locals, seeing moose is extremely rare, at least at this time of year, so it was a real treat to catch a pair of moose hanging out just off the side of the road. Unfortunately I could only snap a picture of one of them. The other was  hiding in some trees further back.

Peyto Lake was absolutely beautiful.

We stopped at a smaller lake in what I believe was near the Saskatchewan Crossing and I snapped off some pictures. The reflections in the water were awesome and the woman paddling around in the water made me jealous.

Going to the Columbia Icefields was really unique and I’m glad we went.

The icefields are an amazing work of nature. It’s over 300 meters thick, feeds several glaciers and is twice the size of the city of Vancouver. We didn’t go on the actual icefield, but we did go up onto one of the glaciers it serves called the Athabasca Glacier. I think they said this particular glacier was about 700o feet above sea level. The icefields were up another 3000 feet.

Getting up to the glacier was fairly impressive. We first took a regular passenger bus up to a second bus station and then got into this offroad, winter-weather-shredding monster bus that took us the rest of the way up.

The first thing I did when I got off the bus was stick my foot in the loose ice on the glacier’s surface.

Here are some pictures of the actual glacier.

Our tour guide pulled us aside and brought us to an area of the glacier where there was a bit of water seeping through. We dunked a paper cup she had brought with her and we drank some of the glacier’s water. It had to be the purest water I’d ever tasted. It was amazing.

On our way back we spotted a couple of Mountain Goats which was our second lucky animal spotting!

We stopped at Bow Lake which was another great site. The shores of this lake were littered with small pebbles and the water splashed on to it almost like a beach’s waves would. It was so peaceful.

It appears no one wants the Ravens hanging around so they discourage feeding them, but…

…they still hang around anyways lol

I’m unsure if this picture reflects the size of the Raven. This is the first time I’d seen one in person and I was surprised at how big they are. They are probably double the size of your typical crow.

Last, but not least, it was interesting to see how they protect their wildlife. They literally build overpasses and underpasses near highways just for wildlife to cross. On either side of highways you can see 4-5 foot fences with another 1.5 feet burried down into the ground to cut down on animals crossing the highway. They say since they did it, animals killed by cars are down 80%. I suppose it’s good for people too lol

Here’s one of the overpasses. It’s wide enough to fit cars, but it’s for wildlife!

We took a bit of a break from excursions on Day 5 and hung out in the center of town a bit more buying miscellaneous gifts for our family.

Today, we went on the Minnewanka Lake Cruise which we were originally made to think wasn’t so great, but we’re so happy we went. Minnewanka, which translates into ‘Water of the Spirits’ is largest lake in the Banff National Park and it’s just amazing. The water isn’t as much of an emerald color as Lake Louise was, but it was surrounded in every possible direction by some serious mountainous beauty.

I took over 1,000 pictures today, but I widdled that count down to the follow pictures that I like best. I hope they can convey even some of what we saw today.

This is one of the mountains down the street from the hotel.

This is how it looks going over the bridge that leads into the center of town.

We took a bus over to Minnewanka Lake around 11:30am.

Minnewanka Lake

At one end of Minnewanka Lake is what they call the ‘Devils Gap’.

So after the tour, we asked the tour bus to drop us off in the center of town. There was a fondue restaurant called the Grizzly House that we wanted to check out. They had a fairly adventureous menu selection including Wild Boar, Venison, Bear, Ostrich, Shark, Alligator, Frogs Legs and Buffalo, but we stuck with the surf and turf.

Why? We’re chicken? lol nah. I just wasn’t about to cook exotic food that I’ve never had before. Do I like Alligator rare? How the hell do I know?

As a side note, what’s the deal with fondue anyway? You go to a restaurant and pay a substantial amount of money for someone to give you food so you can cook it yourself? Seriously? Can’t I do that at home? lol

Anyways, overall the place was pretty good, but… I have to tell a story about some seriously bad customer service.

We ordered our food and we’re hanging out talking while another waitress (not ours) walks by with some food for someone else. As she does, I heard a clank right near our table followed by the waitress saying ‘oh damn’, but the waitress kept on walking towards her table to deliver the food so I thought maybe she bumped into something.

Meanwhile I look down and it appears that a 2 inch high small metal dish of garlic butter was laying upside down on the floor and a good portion of it was all over my sneaker and pants. I look back to the waitress at the table and she’s holding her tray of food, talking to her customers with what seemed zer0 concern for me. I watch her as she proceeds to put the food down on the table and chat away with her customers.

Finally, after 5 minutes she comes by our table, makes a poor attempt to make light of the situation through humor and eventually offers to have my clothes cleaned in what I thought was a sarcastic manner. After all, I was wearing jeans and sneakers, not a suit. In the end she walked away being aggitated which I don’t get. She didn’t have butter dumped on her while she was ignored.

Then I see her off to the side talking to OUR waitress explaining that she ‘had hot plates in her hand’ and I just had it. I got up and walked over to them both and said ‘I just want to make it clear. I’m not upset about getting butter on me. Shit happens. I am upset that you didn’t think to show concern for me and your mess before moving on to your customers.’ As I sit down the waitress comes over to my table and repeats ‘I’m sorry for my ignorance’ several times, but in a sarcastic annoyed way that got my hair up even more… but I dropped it of course.

You’ve got to be kidding me lol

Anyways, the food was good and OUR waitress was good. They offered us free desert which was appreciated.

Today has been a great day so far and tomorrow will probably be another. We’re going to go on the Glacier Trail Tour which is a full 9.5 hour day of various sites

• Lake Louise: A brief photo stop at the most famous lake in Canada
• Crowfoot Glacier: One of the day’s many up close glacier views.
• Peyto Lake: The classic emerald green jewel of the Canadian Rockies.
• Mistaya Canyon: A dramatic example of water’s sculpting power.
• Saskatchewan Crossing: A rest stop/coffee break and home to Canada’s largest postcard display.
• Mountain Picnic Lunch: Enjoy a hearty lunch with your choice of sandwich at a scenic stop along the Icefields Parkway. 
• Cirrus Mountain: Look at the steep climb from the weeping wall and scope the avalanche slopes for wildlife.
• Bridal Veil Falls: Fantastic view over the Icefields Parkway and the falls.
• Columbia Icefields: Venture onto the Athabasca Glacier on the Ice Explorer! and visit the interpretive centre.
• Bow Lake: The headwaters of the mighty Bow River.

I have to go buy more batteries for my camera! lol.

So today we went on the Banff Gondola and it was pretty awesome.

For all you non-Gondola riding people out there, it’s basically a cable car combined with a ski lift. This one in particular brings you up 2,292 ft to an area surrounded by the Candian Rockies. They have a resturant up there with some gift shops, but more importantly they have areas that allow you to look out over the valley and the mountains.

Well, here’s some pictures from the adventure.

On the way up the mountain I snapped a quick picture of the valley. If you look to the left side, what looks like a bunch of buildings is actually our hotel.

One thing that surprised me was the large population of Asians in Alberta. That goes for tourists AND residents. I can’t say why I was surprised, or whether or not I should have been, but for one reason or another I was. I guess I didn’t realize Banff was such a tourist town. I thought I’d see only French Canadians.

Many Asians (probably around 5-10%) seem keen on wearing these germ masks for what seems to be a fear of the H1N1 Swine Flu. I say Asians were wearing them since I didn’t see a single non-Asian person wearing them and I’ve seen a lot of Asians wearing masks.

It’s freaky to be honest and I think it makes people paranoid. It makes me itchy. To add to that I found that the Toronto and Calgary airports were hopped up on Purell hand sanitizer stations. They were everywhere.

Here’s some more of the Canadian Rockies.

The restaurant had quite the view.

Hey you! Don’t feed the Mountain Goats!!

Today we went on a tour of Lake Louise and Lake Moraine. I can’t imagine I captured how unbelievable it was because even with a wide angle lens, I couldn’t get everything in to a shot. Hopefully these give you an idea of how beautiful it was.

Lake Louise is formed from a glacier you can see there in the top middle. The lake is formed between a set of mountains that surround it and there’s a small stream that runs away from the lake. As you can see, you can take a canoe out in the lake which must be great. Our only reason for not taking one was that we were on a tour so we had to make our way back to the bus in time.

Lake Moraine is fairly similar, but this one however, was even harder to take pictures of because the lake was at the bottom of several extremely high peaks. I couldn’t get far enough back to get it all in. Near the lake they had a path you could take that brought you to the top of a ‘pile of rocks’ (yes I know this is a bad description. I thought it was funny when the tour guide repeatedly talked about the ‘pile of rocks’, but that was until I saw it and realized…it was a pile of rocks lol)

Last but not least, I thought I’d toss this picture in here because it was interesting. All over town they these green boxes (look like mailboxes) without any descriptioin or instruction advising people what they are.

It turns out they’re bear-proof garbage cans. You put your hand in the slot and push a level attached to a spring-like mechanism and it opens the lid. Apparently the bear around Banff haven’t figured this out just yet! lol

Well, we had to take a later flight in which meant we needed to take connecting flights. It was Newark to Toronto (1.5 hours) and then Toronto to Calgary (4 hours) and then a shuttle to Banff (2 hours) so when we finally checked in at around 8pm mountain time. Needless to say coming from Eastern Time we were really tired.

We’re staying at the Fairmont Banff Springs hotel and I have to say the hotel is amazing. Faster internet service and bigger rooms would be nice, but otherwise I can’t say enough about it. Picture a castle-like hotel surrounded by the Canadian Rockies. For instance, here’s a picture of the lobby.

And here’s a picture outside the window of our room. The houses you see here aren’t residential, but simply the housing quarters for the people who work at the hotel.

We walked around the hotel today and in the back snapped a couple of pictures, but in no way does it do the place justice. It’s one of those things you can’t capture in a picture.

Later in the afternoon, we went on a rafting tour that meandered through the mountains behind the hotel and here’s a picture of the hotel from there.

Here’s another picture I snapped while rafting.

Then finally, after rafting we went into the center of town and I took this one from the middle of one of the roads.

Overall, the hotel and the surroundings are really amazing. The service is great, the people are nice and the scenery is nothing like I’ve ever seen before.

If I have time I’ll post more pictures over the next week. We’re going to be here until Monday.

Tomorrow we’re going on a tour over at Lake Louise which should be great and Thursday we’re going on the Gondola which should yeild some amazing pictures. We may also do the Columbia Icefield Glacier Tour too, but we’ll see how it goes.

For now, we’re heading over to the hottub so, catch ya later

The trip to Niagara Falls, Canada was a lot of fun. The falls were so amazing and the other places we hit were nice too. We went to the top of the Skylon Tower, ate at a place overlooking the falls, stopped at a butterfly exhibit and just walked around town. Check out some of the pictures I snapped below. Click on them to open the Canada gallery to see more.

I went to a New York Yankees game tonight and we had some great seats. Sandy’s Aunt Sharon was nice enough to give them to us so me, Sandy, Jonathan and Sandy’s sister went. Aside from the fact that we ran late not getting there until the 3rd inning, we spent $65 on food ($8 for a large fries with cheese!! hehe) and that I’m a New York Mets fan, it was a record setting night and a lot of fun!

The Yankees hit 8 home runs tying a franchise record and won 16-3 over the White Sox.

Anyways, I snapped a couple pictures from my cell at the end of the game. I wish I had my camera with me though. We were about 15 or 20 rows back so I could have taken some great pics.

Just before Christmas I took the day off to go into NYC with some friends. We went to the top of the Empire State Building, FAO Schwartz for some toy shopping, Central Park for a nice walk, Rockafeller Center to see the tree, Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, then Time’s Square and had some dinner at Bubba Gumps! It was a really kewl day and I posted a few pictures in the gallery. I wish I could have gotten pictures of all these places, but it’s just impossible to capture New York City. The majority of the pictures are from the top of the Empire State Building. Anyhow, enjoy.

When you launch the Gallery you’ll want to click on the New York City section. The new pictures are numbers 33-75.