R. and I spent the last week visiting friends and skiing in and around Banff-ff-ff. A great trip, with mostly amazing weather and great conditions, never mind what the locals think.
Driving Banff-ff-ff-wards.
The visitor of Banff-ff-ff.
Lake Louise, frozen.
R. wants you to notice the blue frozen waterfall. Shortly afterwards, she decided that the ice was getting thinner, and that we should turn back around.
Walking back towards the Fairmont Lake Louise... time to go ski.
Ski Lake Louise.
Look at that speed!
"Can we go now?"
XC at the Canmore Olympic Centre. There was also an international biathlon meet on this week, which resulted in us being lapped several times by some Baltic guy who was out training in the wee hours of the morning.
We didn't let him get us down though. It must have been all the extra wind-resistance we had, what with the lack of multi-coloured spandex and all.
A view of Canmore. The white patch at the base of the mountains is the Canmore Olympic Centre, where we XC'd.
Crowfoot Glacier. Third toe melted already.
Bow Lake.
Just before entering the Columbia Icefields.
R. getting stuck in the snow at Athabasca Glacier.
Snowtubing at Mt. Norquay.
Upper Hot Springs in Banff. Perfect post-tubing wind-down. Or un-winding. Spin in the other direction. Driving home, what came on the radio? Hello 80's! Did you know he's Canadian?
Ice-fishing on Lake Minnewonka. Looks warm.
The gondola at Sunshine Village.
R. discovering A&W's root beer float. Can I get that back now?
Downtown Canmore.
A quick stop at Canmore Wine Merchants, where we looked for some Canadian wines and tried a couple of non-Canadian things:2007 Bichot Bourgogne Vielle Vignes - light, pure fruit, clear, clean, good acidity. Very approachable.
2006 Mas du Soleilla Petit Mars (Languedoc) - a blend of syrah, grenache and carignan. Fairly extracted, peppery tannins, medium bodied. Big and ripe without tipping over to jammy, palatable stuff.
At the top of the Continental Divide. Criss-crossing between "Sunny Alberta" and "Beautiful British Columbia."
Slopeside sake, the universal refreshment.
"You want me to ski where?"
That wasn't so bad, was it?
No, but it could have been... that back there is Delirium Dive. Just like the K-2.Well, after a week of skiing, and 80's flashbacks, we just had to rent this teen-scene ski classic! I want my two dollars!
Finally, some Canadian culinary delicacies... Tim Horton's Timbits. The other Canadian highlight on this trip has to be Ontario's Creemore Springs Brewery's Premium Lager. Now owned by Molson, but still hand-crafting unpasteurised, unfiltered beer. I'm not usually a big lager drinker, but for this I can make an exception. If only I could find it closer to home!
A week of sensational weather comes to an end, but only as we head to the airport. A week full of sunny skies and warm-ish weather gets chased out by this snow storm. Stupendous timing!
The R-Factor was still high though.
The coastal road is sorely, and only recently, over-developed, but there remain some beautiful stretches
Valle de Guadalupe is just north of Ensenada, and only a few miles inland.
The valley is bordered by rolling hills to the west and the Sierra Blanca to the southeast.
On weekdays, not heavily touristed!
I was surprised to see so much water amongst the scrub - some standing water, and some shallow streams, easily swollen. But, even my poor little Mazda rental made it across this stream. (Another stream did prevent further explorations though.)
Use of oak is not unheard of. American, French and even Hungarian. To date, all his wines are named after the women in his life – wife, mother, daughters, and grandmothers. None are spared. However, a fortified wine is in the works, named after granddad.
Syrah on the vine. Other varietals grown in the Valle de Guadalupe include Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Zinfandel, Cabernet Franc, Chenin Blanc, Viognier, and in (only) one case, Chasselas.
On to the tasting:
See? Vinroy was here.
2006 
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