Thursday

Thursday, May 15th. Day 5.

This day was a 'down day' where we would be traveling from one location to another. We would be leaving Banff National Park and traveling to Jasper National Park, about a 3 hour journey plus 1 or 2 hours due to animal stops. This was the nicest day we've had so far weather wise. It was sunny and warm without a cloud in the sky. The day started off sweet too. We stopped a nice scenic stream with a mountain range in the backround and Mom happened to scare and Osprey out of a tree. Now, a short lesson on Ospreys. They are natures BAMF's (Bad Ass Mother F*$#ers) Before The USA had an official bird/symbol, many people wanted it to become the Osprey instead of the Bald Eagle. Bald Eagles are excellent hunters, but they are also big scavengers as well, often taking the pray of other animals. Now, they Osprey doesn't take no shit from no one. It kills every meal, meaning it never scavenges for food, meaning I want one when I'm older. So anyway, we were watching the Osprey and found its nest, which was on top of a bridge and was huge. With closer examination through binoculars and telephoto lens, we saw the next had some babies. Nice, good pictures.

The rest of the day we were on the road to Jasper, stopping here and there either for some sweet scenery shots or some random animal shots. We stopped for lunch at Num-Ti-Jah lodge which happened to have a piano and guitar that I took advantage of.

Two best parts about this day can be combined into one word, bearvalanches. We saw a bear, and we saw avalanches, and I got them both on tape (Sean = badass). We were driving through a mountain range (nothing knew) and Paul Dad and Mom woke me up from my beauty sleep claiming they saw a 'water fall.' So we pulled over to investigate. I said 'Dad look there it is" and he said "It looked like that just 10 times bigger." We thought we were all going crazy. Then, I said "Holy S#it look!" and we saw snow and rocks tumbling down the mountain. It turns out, since this was the first day the sun was out causing some serious UV rayage and heat, the snow was melting and falling off the mountains. Now when you picture avalanche, you probably picture something like Hurricane Katrina coming down a mountain side at 300MPH. This was nothing like that, but they were still awesome (check out the pictures). They were probably 2 or 3 miles away from us, but they were still loud as anything.

Once we made it to Jasper, we were faced with some of the most beautiful mountain scenery we've ever seen. The road literally wound and wound in a snake like pattern, slowly getting higher and higher as we passed huge peaks, each one taller and more beautiful than the last. Absolutely astonishing! (say with Australian accent for full effect). Here is where I caught the biggest avalanche we saw on tape. Totally worth it. As we got deeper into the park and light began to dwindle, Paul slammed on the brakes, snapping me out of my day dream of GTA4, Thrice concerts, and Godiva Chocolates, but for good reason. On the side of the road was drum roll, dummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, a Black Bear! We followed close instructions from Paul and spent about an hour photographing and following this bear. It was so cool. The only down side as the God Damn mosquitos. I swear if I could abolish anything from this earth besides AIDS, dandruff, or Larry the Cable Guy, it would be mosquitos.

After the bear shoot it was a quite routine drive to our next stop where we will be for the next two nights. The rides usually consist of us talking about something for a while followed by the usual silence. Paul is always driving, also looking out for wildlife and or potholes. Dad sits shotgun, usually just sitting there with his camera and underarmor shirts. Mom sits back right (right nut, pardon my french) either reading her books, reading my books, drinking a diet coke (shes up to 4 or 5 a day) eating a piece of Dentyne Ice, Intense flavor (also up to 4 or 5 a day), or passing out drinks and previsions to the rest of the car. I sit left back (left nut) and either read, sleep, listen to music, or sleep some more. Tomorrow were going to travel around Jasper and check out some cool shite. Word to ya motha!