A Stefan Klopp Weblog

From their website:

“Vectorial Elevation” was an interactive artwork that allowed you to direct powerful light beams and transform Vancouver’s skyline between February 4 – 28, 2010.

The light show was one of my favorite additions to the city during the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. It added a feeling of intrigue to our skies, and gave you a sense that the city was alive. Many nights walking home across the bridge from Downtown, I would stop to watch as the lights danced across the sky.

Despite being on the go for most of the Olympics I did find time to go out and photograph the lights on one occasion. The weather was wet and we were socked in by fog, but I think it added to the effect of the photos. Here are some shots from my photo walk. Also definite thanks to Jordan and Oliver for bearing with me, and helping me setup.

Most people who know me knew I wasn’t a big proponent of the Vancouver Olympics. The city of Vancouver has a laundry list of problems that the money spent on the games could have gone towards. Despite my opinion the games were going to go on, and I had the choice to make the most of them, or sit them out sulking. I decided since I would likely be paying for these games (along with the rest of Canada) for many years I would do my best to enjoy all they had to offer; and to be quiet honest, it was hard not to.

My Olympic experienced started off with the torch running through my neighborhood down 4th avenue. Chip Wilson of Lululemon fame was the torch bearer, and got to run it past his flagship store. I was blown away by how many people were on the streets. hundreds packed 4th avenue in both directions as far as the eye could see. The city was excited.

One of the things I was looking forward to during the Olympics was all the free concerts that were going on around town. I was able to catch a good number of great bands. The Arkells and Broken Social Scene at Ontario House, The Stanfields and Julie Doiron at Atlantic Canada House, Wilco at Livecity Yaletown, and Wintersleep at the Ozone in Richmond. The sheer musical talent that was in the city over the 2 weeks was outstanding, I just wish I was able to catch more of it.

I was also able to attend one event during the Olympics; a hockey game featuring Russia vs Latvia. It was a bit of a blowout by Russia what was expected. I got to go with Jason for free courtesy of our good friend Brian in Lethbridge.

In addition to the concerts and the events I tried to get out to many of the houses and pavilions after work. It was often tough to get into specific places as the lineups were just horrible. This is to be expected when over a million new people show up in your city.

Ultimately though the Olympics came down to experiencing the excitement of the games and the city with friends. The experience wouldn’t have been the same if it weren’t for my buddies.

It was also great to have visitors from out of town in the city. Joe and Kasie made the trip up from California, Sophie was in from London, Bryan from Lethbridge, and of course Mr Newfie Joe made it to town as well.

In the final few days of the Olympics I got more and more into watching the events, especially the hockey and the curling. Out of shear luck we were able to find a place to watch the semifinals game against Slovakia as we just happened to be watching the womens curling finals outside a fully booked bar that happened to have one table just come available.

Since finding a bar to watch the gold medal hockey game was near impossible, I invited friends over to my place for an impromptu brunch to watch the final game. It was an amazing finale to the Olympics, and a nail-biter of a game to watch. Eventually Canada pulled out the victory in overtime thus calming all of our nerves.

After the game we took to the street and marched down Granville Street to join the city wide party to cap off an amazing 2 weeks.

Despite my opposition to the games I did do my best to make the most of them. Now that the party is over, it will be interesting to see what happens with this city. Will it go the way of Barcelona and turn this city into an exciting, “fun” city? Or will we be the next Athens riddled in dept. Only time will tell. One thing is for certain, that 6 billion dollar price tag certainly won’t be going away anytime soon.

Can you believe the fine folks at Google drove through my hometown of Fauquier? You know that small little Kootenay town of 200 residence? Check it out:

Street View of Fauquier

As a bit of a last minute decision I took off for Maui midway through January. My brother Michael and his wife Angie had booked a trip out there, and after finding a flight for less than $600 I decided to jump at the opportunity. As you may know I started last year off in Hawaii as well. I spent an amazing 6 weeks there last year, so it was a no brainer to return. Every year should start in Hawaii!

Most of our time in Maui was spent on the beach, or in the water either surfing or paddle boarding. We would barbeque almost daily, and coconut ice cream or shave ice was our dessert. Life was definitely grand. On our last days we did the Hana Highway drive, followed by whale watching. It was a really great trip, and I am happy I got to spend it with Mike and Angie.

Here are a some photos from the trip Maui:

During my time on vacation in Maui my brother, his wife and I went up to Honolua Bay one day to checkout the surfing. The day we went we caught the tail end of some monster waves. Still got to see the occasional 20+ foot wave being surfed though. Also was some of the best surfing I have ever witnessed live before. Here are a few shots I took from the day.

Hawaii

2009 started with a trip to Hawaii to see my best friend Joern get married. I was the best man of the wedding, and wouldn’t miss the occasion for the world. It was a beautiful ceremony that took place in the garden of the Sheraton on the Big Island overlooking the ocean. A fun evening of drinks dancing, and other fun events took part after.

The first week in Hawaii was spent on the Big Island. I was staying with Jason who I had convinced to come along, as well as Bernie and Andrew who were there for the wedding. We had a good balance of touring around the island and just lazing on the beach, and enjoying the warm Hawaiian waters. After our first week Bernie left us, while Andrew, Jason and myself headed off to the Island of Kauai for some more adventure.

Kauai was a bit of a fantasy land. Such an amazing island in terms of geography, so lush and green, and such an amazing place to photograph. We spent 2 weeks in Kauai, during which time I actually worked for days. I would wake up at 6am and work until around 1ish. This would still give me half the day to explore. Jason at the time was working on his book and kept to a similar schedule to me, while Andrew spent his mornings exploring around on his own. It worked out extremely well, and made me extend my trip by another 2 weeks.

The 2 weeks spent in Kauai went by quickly, and soon it was time to move again. Before leaving the island however we decided we would catch a benefit concert at a school on Kauai that featured Donavon Frankenreiter, and Jake Shimabukuro. Jake stole the show as expected, however seeing all the kids in the school singing/playing along with Donavon was also quiet fun.

We took off to Honolulu for a few days to celebrate Andrew’s birthday, after which we moved onto Maui for a few days. Maui we spent a lot of time our time driving around the island exploring. Our trip along the Hana Highway goes down as one of the most scenic drives I have done to date. It is also largely untouched by tourism, and still very remote.

Finally we ended up back on the Big Island for two more weeks. These last two weeks were spent mainly surfing. We had found a fantastic house to rent half a block from the beach, which allowed us to simply walk from our place, to the beach and go surfing. We did also manage to make it up to the top of Mauna Kea.

West Coast

Unfortunately my time in Hawaii had to end. Although it was nice to be back in Vancouver, and catch back up with life, and play some hockey! Started off playing back in Langley for my tema the Master Bladers, then as the winter started to turn to spring, I began to get some Burton Hockey sessions organized, slowly bringing in new recruits for the year.

It turned out to be a banner year for Burton Hockey, for both VRH and BUSH. I even managed to score my 1000 point, and Lee went on to destroy the record books.

Also during the spring Jordan, Oliver and myself after a night of many beers, started Urban Capture the Flag. We had an initial beta test, then got around to setting up matches every couple of weekends. It was a lot of fun to get going, unfortunately due to busy summers the wheels fell off. Hopefully in 2010 we can get the ball rolling again, especially so we can do another Capture the Beer.

As the spring rolled on I did my annual festival of the year, by attending the Sasquatch Music Festival. I was accompanied by Jason and Lester. It was a ridiculously fun weekend, which was made even better by the cool crew we met from Calgary/Canmore. If only everyone could experience a car party, or the flambongo.

As summer quickly approached, I hastily made a bunch of new travel plans, that would take me away from my beloved Vancouver for most of the summer. Before leaving however I still managed to plant my tomatoes, and get them started on my balcony.

Finally my last weekend in Vancouver before taking off was spent up at Whistler celebrating Joern’s 30th birthday. It was a fantastic weekend that saw the creation of the m-1000, some amazing stealthing, and a lovely barbeque on the lake.

Montreal and Europe for the Summer

It is becoming a bit of a tradition now for me to visit my brother in Montreal over the summer. Last year was no different. It was a lovely visit with Richard and Youki, and was great to see my ever growing nephew Mateo. Say what you will about bribery, but it works on kids, as I was able to get my nephew to cut his hair!

On my last week in Montreal after a visit to Ottawa I fell sick. Horribly sick. It was one of the worst times of my life, and could have been so much different had the medical system in Quebec treated me correctly. Unfortunately when it came time to fly to Europe I couldn’t go. I pushed back my flight 5 days in the hope I would recover. Luckily I did after seeing a new doctor. The only good thing that came of this, was that I was able to go on another search for the best poutine in Montreal.

I hadn’t planned on going to Europe last summer. However it was my cousin Johanna’s wedding, so I couldn’t not go. Building off the success of my time in Hawaii I decided while in Europe I would work for the majority of my time there to save on vacation days. I spent my first week before the wedding in Berlin, where I met up a few times with my cousin Christoph. It was really nice to spend time with him and get to know his family. Then it was time for the wedding. So I hoped a train and headed out for Oldenburg.

The wedding was absolutely wonderful, despite being completely confusing for me language wise. Johanna being German, and Regis French, made for a very bilingual wedding, in languages I am not exactly the best at. Regardless there were a few nice French girls who could speak English who helped me out. Johanna had asked me to take some photos of the ceremony. I had never shot a wedding before, so I was a little nervous to do so under the gun, however I was pretty happy with the result of the wedding photos I took.

After the wedding I was off to Berlin for a final two days before heading off on the rest of my adventure. Next stops, Croatia and Italy. I met up with Jason in Dubrovnik, where we started our adventure. We spent a wonderful two days in Dubrovnik, exploring the old city walls, enjoying the local cuisine, and partying in the back alleys.

We then picked up our rental car from the airport and started our drive North towards Kastav, where our good friend Sid lives. when we picked up the rental car, we were told Avis wouldn’t honor our rate. We had rented with carrentals.com, who guaranteed us our booking, yet Avis said there was a problem, and we had to pay 10 times the price we were quoted. Here is more info on how we were screwed by avis and carrentals.com.

Despite that minor problem, we continued on our drive up the Croatian coast, finally making it to Kastav where we spent our weekend getting shown around town by Sid.

It was then off to Italy. I celebrated my 29th birthday in Venice with Jason. I then continued on alone south through Verona and Florence. I met back up with Jason in Florence and we continued on to Siena where we attended the Palio de Siena. We were lucky enough to be able to stay with our friend Berenice at her lovely Siena Villas.

Just like that the trip was coming to a close. One final stop in Manchester England to see some friends, and catch a Pearl Jam concert, and then it was back to North America for me.

Wisconsin, Wilderness, and a Trip to the East Coast

A few weeks after returning home to Vancouver I was off again. This time to Wisconsin. One last wedding, and another adventure with Jason. I arrived a week before the wedding of my friends Tom and Ingrid. Basically for the week leading up to the wedding I worked during the day, then in the afternoon went off on adventures exploring the state of Wisconsin. It was a fun time. Jason arrived a few days before the wedding, and the rest of our time was spent celebrating the wedding of some good friends.

When I got back to Vancouver it was time to do my annual hike of the year. This time it was up the Lions. It was a nice hike with a bunch of great friends, and probably the last opportunity we had before the weather started to turn ugly.

I made it home to visit my parents in the Kootenays for Thanksgiving. I spent some time with my mom pine mushroom picking. The rest of my time was spent in the kitchen helping her out baking pies and other nice treats.

My last trip of the year took me to Philadelphia and Washington DC. I finally got to see my first ever Flyers home game, and proceeded to catch two more games. Finally to close out my weekend I caught the last ever concert in the Spectrum (where the Flyers won their Stanley Cups) played by Pearl Jam.

Returning home it was time to finally ground myself for the rest of the year. I spent the final two months of 2009 reconnecting with friends, and baking up a storm. Christmas was spent with my parents and family feasting and playing games. A wonderful way to close out such a wonderful year. Here is to 2010 being as good to me as 2009 was, and perhaps a return to bearded Stefan.

Over the holidays while at my parents place I started a project. I wanted to mount a camera in their yard, have it take pictures, and upload them to the Internet. Basically I wanted to start a webcam.

Before heading back to my parents place, I did some last minute shopping on craigslist and was able to get an old Canon A75 camera. In it’s day it was a decent camera, but now at only 3mp not many people would want it. So I was able to get it for a cheap $20.

Next up I was able to get a mini Compaq computer that would control the camera. My friend Oliver helped me out with getting it, and I thank him profusely for it. With these two items, a network cable, and a bit of programing I was able to setup Fauquier Cam.

So how does it work? I will get into the technical details in another post, but here is the brief overview. The camera is mounted outside on one of our sheds. It is connected via USB to the Compaq computer which sits inside the shed, as well to an ac adapter cord. The computer sits inside the shed running Ubuntu Linux, and controls the camera via the usb cable, and the wonderful Linux application GPhoto 2. So I have a script setup that runs every 2 minutes from 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset. The script tells the camera to take a picture, then downloads the picture to the Compaq computer. After the image is downloaded to the Compaq it proceeds to upload the image to my webserver.

Once I have the image on my webserver, I resize it to multiple sizes, insert it into a database, then upload each size to Amazon S3 for storage and hosting. OK I can see your eyes glazing over, so I will leave the rest of this for the technical overview.

So what am I getting at? Well basically that if you browse to www.fauquiercam.com you will be able to see an up to date photo from my parents backyard. Greenhouse? check. Garden? check. New cabin my brother is building? check. Scenic pasture and mountains in the background? check. Yup you get it all. I have even included an archives section so you can go back and view photos from past days. Like January 2nd, when my parents made a snowman and a sign for the camera.

This is all just a start. Up next is compiling time lapse videos of every day and adding them to the site. Then as content gets built up (like lets say a years worth) I will do some time lapses of the seasons changing. Lets hope the Canon A75 stays reliable!

Well I hope you all enjoy this little glimpse into my parents backyard and a view of the weather in the small Kootenay town of Fauquier.

For Christmas I wanted to make a dessert. A quick look around my mom’s pantry and I found a couple jars of sour cherries; perfect for a black forest cake. I went off and found a decent recipe at allrecipes.com and wet about putting the cake together. I was actually amazed at how simple it was to make.

Despite how easy it was a made a few mistakes. Like after I made the cherry filling, and started to put the cake together, I didn’t cool the filling long enough and put it on the whip cream only to have the cream start to melt. That was bad. I had to scrape off all the cream and filling and cool things down a bit longer.

My next mistake was having to freeze the cake rather than put it in the fridge. We had no room in the fridge so we put it outside to cool. This didn’t allow for the cream and cherries to mix with the cake layers as much as they should have. Finally my last mistake was pointed out to me by our Bavarian neighbor, and was more of a mistake with the recipe. Traditional Black forest cake is made with Schwarzwaelder Kirschwasser, or if you don’t have access to that, needs at least some rum added to it. I had no booze, and the cake seemed to lack that little bit of zing alcohol seems to add to a dessert.

All in all I am happy with how the cake turned out for a first attempt. Next time though I expect perfection and will be sure to make a few modifications to my recipe.

Banana bread is probably one of the first things I baked when I moved out on my own. It is extremely easy to make, a great use of old over ripe bananas, and is a delicious snack to have around. I have made banana bread so many times now I really don’t need a recipe, and can usually just wing it.

So when I noticed a few of my bananas turning black I decided I would do something with them. Instead of sticking to making my standard loaf of banana bread, I thought I would give muffins a go. Generally when I make my loafs I stick to just banana walnut, but thought with muffins it might be nice to have a bit of chocolate in them. I have to say the muffins turned out fantastic, and I will definitely be making them again soon. Here is the recipe:

1/4 cup butter
3/4 cups sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 ripe bananas (mashed)

1 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt

3/4 cup walnuts
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a stand mixer cream together butter and sugar. Once the butter and sugar are nicely mixed together add the egg and continue beating and wet. Mix in yogurt and vanilla to create a nice wet batter. Finally with a spatula fold in the mashed bananas. In a separate bowl mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Then fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture 1/4 at a time, until fully integrated. The mixture should be pretty sticky at this point. Finally mix in the walnuts and chocolate chips into the batter.

Fill greased (or lined) muffin cups to the top. Bake for about 20-25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes before transferring muffins from the cups to a wire rack.

Give this recipe a shot, and let me know if you like it.

So after making two batches of Tiramisu I was left with 14 egg whites, and no idea what to do. My first thought was I could have omelets for the next week every day. However that didn’t really appeal to me. So the next thing that came to mind was how about making an Angel Food Cake? As a kid I loved angel food cake. My mom would often make it for my birthdays. I loved how fluffy and light it was, and how well it picks up the flavors you mix it with.

As far as cakes go, angel food cake is one of the easier ones to make. Basically you start with roughly 12 egg whites (about 1 1/2 cups) at room temperature, and beat them at high speed with a touch of salt, about 1 1/2 teaspoons of cream of tartar, 1 cup of sugar (add gradually as you mix the whites) and your choice of extracts (I used vanilla and almond). Once the egg whites have formed stiff peaks you will gradually fold in a sifted mixture of 1 cup of confectionery sugar, and 1 cup of flour. Once you have fully folded the flour mixture into the egg whites pour the batter into a angel food cake pan and cook at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes. See, easy.

Once you take the cake out of the oven you can invert it onto a plate and wait for the pan to cool. Once the pan is cooled you can remove the cake from the pan. If you like you can also cut off the browned top of the cake if you don’t want to have that chewy bit on your cake.

As I said earlier, one of the best attributes of an angel food cake is that it is a very light cake, but also that it acts as a sponge and takes on the flavors that you put on it. For my cake I went an easy route, and made some whipping cream, and a raspberry sauce. For the raspberry sauce I just heated some frozen raspberries in a small pot, added some rum, a touch of sugar, and a small cornstarch mixture to thicken.

So on the cake I just put on a dollop of whip cream, then added the warm sauce on top. It made the cake look a bit volcanic, and tasted great.

After making the angel food cake I still had egg whites left over. So I thought I would try my hand at making some French macarons. I have read horror stories from people online about making macarons, so I did a lot of research before hand so that I could get them right. Even so I still made a bunch of mistakes, and well they didn’t exactly turn out how I wanted them too.

My first big issue was that my piping skills were absolutely terrible. I hadn’t pipped anything since probably highschool, so I was really rusty. Also the circles I made for the cookies were way too big. I didn’t realize the batter would span out so much, which was too bad. Lastly I ended up making the chocolate ganache the day before and had it in the fridge. However that made the ganache extremely hard. So I heated it up over indirect heat, however when I did that it made the oils separate from the chocolate, which turned into a colossal mess. I would have been better off just making the ganache when I needed it.

Overall the flavor of the macarons was still good, but I was still disappointed with the result. Next time I should know better, and hopefully I can correct the mistakes I made on my first attempt.

The first time I tried Tiramisu was in Germany when I was 16. My mom took me on a European adventure to visit my brother Robert in Italy, and my brother Richard in France. We arrived in Germany, and spent our first few days with some friends of the family living close to Frankfurt. The wife of the people we were staying with is a fantastic cook, and I knew from previous visits that we would likely be treated to a royal feast. So after stuffing myself on the delicious home made German cuisine that was made for us, out came the dessert. It was a home made Tiramisu, and boy did it blow my mind. The richness of flavors, the satiny smooth mascarpone cheese, the hit of expresso soaked lady fingers. Lets just say I was sold, and the week spent in Italy I would have a new tiramisu almost nightly.

After coming back from Italy this summer I was reminded of my love affair with tiramisu, and decided it was high time I learned how to make it. So off to the internet I went to find a good recipe. I decided to try this recipe as it appeared to be a pretty traditional tiramisu:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/tiramisu-italiano-recipe/index.html

I found it was actually relatively easy to make the Tiramisu, especially if you were prepared with all your ingredients before hand.

From the recipe I ended up using way less lady fingers, as the ones I had must have been bigger than the ones from the recipe. In addition I went with a little more rum to give it more of a kick. It was fun getting to use Marsala in this recipe as it created a lovely aroma in my apartment when making the zabaglione.

All in all I was very happy with the way my Tiramisu turned out. I think in the future I will get a little more adventurous and get a nice round dish to make it in, and experiment a bit with the recipe. For a first time though, I was quiet happy with the results and would fully recommend this recipe.

You could consider this post either really late, or very timely depending if you are Canadian or American. Well I am Canadian so I suppose it is just terribly late.

Over the Thanksgiving holidays this year I did what I love to do when visiting my parents, bake! I knew I wanted to bake an apple pie with my Mom’s deep dish pie pan, but also wanted to do something else. After seeing her massive stack of ripe lemons I knew a lemon meringue pie would be in my future!

I hadn’t made a lemon meringue pie in years. I would guess the last time I had was in home economics class in high school. So it was a bit of an adventure. Over the weekend I ended up making two pies. My first attempt turned out decent, however I was a little disappointed with the meringue and the crust. My issue with the meringue was that I added it to the pie before the filling was completely cool, which caused a separation later on. As for the crust, I used the recipes measurements but made the crust by hand. The problem was the recipes measurements were meant for a food processor. On my second try I fixed up those issues and I think I nailed it pretty perfectly. I used the following recipe to make the pie:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/gale-gand/lemon-meringue-pie-recipe/index.html

Here is how it turned out:

After making a couple lemon meringue pies I was still not done, as what would be Thanksgiving without the classic apple pie. When I was in Wisconsin I had tried the paper bag apple pie, and found it to be extremely delicious, albeit a little too sweet for my liking. I really thought the pie as a whole was pretty great though. So I found a recipe online that seemed pretty close to what I had in Wisconsin and went from there.

I used the following recipe for the pie:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/gale-gand/apple-pie-baked-in-a-bag-recipe/index.html

I didn’t bake it in a paper bag however, and used brown sugar instead of white. Other than that stuck to the recipe, and carefully watched the pie as it baked as to not over bake it. One thing I hate is an over baked pie crust, as it just gets way too dry. It is a fine line though, because you need to bake your pie long enough so that the juices mix with the sugars and binding agents so that you get a nice thick sauce.

I was a little worried with the apple pie that I might have over did it with the nutmeg, but I think it turned out right. There was just enough to get that feeling of ‘home’. So another successful pie!

I really loved cooking with my mom’s deep dish pie pan, so when I got home I ended up buying myself one. I contemplated getting one of the Emile Henry super expensive ones, but settled for a knock off at a 1/4 of the price. Maybe someday down the road I will get myself an Emile Henry.

Well to all my American friends out there, have a very happy Thanksgiving!

* Just a warning this is an extremely long post, and potentially boring *

Anyone who knows me, would be able to tell you two things about me. One, I am a huge Philadelphia Flyers fan and two, my favorite band is Pearl Jam. So when Pearl Jam announced they would play 4 concerts in Philadelphia to close out the Spectrum, the very arena the Flyers won back to back Stanley cups in, I had to make the trip. It also helped that several friends would also be going, the Flyers were playing 3 games during that time, and I have never been to Philadelphia before.

I arrived into Philadelphia in the early morning on a Sunday. Flying into the city as the sun rose up to kiss the vibrant coloured leaves of autumn was certainly a nice welcome. It was a quick train ride into downtown. My hotel was really close to the city hall where I got off the train, and was impressed that they had a room available for be at 10am. After having a shower and cleaning up after my red eye flight I took to the town to do a bit of touristy activities.

Philadelphia is a really great city to explore on foot, with it’s easy to navigate grid design. The city itself is busting with American history. Being the first capital of the US a lot of major historic events took place there. It was fun to wander the old cobblestone streets, and explore the old historic parts of town. During my walk I eventually made my way to Jim’s on South Street. Jim’s is one of the big name cheese steak places in town, which was evident by the lineup that looped around the block. The line moved pretty quickly, and before long I was chomping down on a hoagie filled with beef, cheese, onions and peppers. After lunch I headed back to the hotel for a nap to rest up for my first ever Flyers home game.

I took the subway down Broad Street (hence the nickname Broad Street Bullies the Flyers were given in the 70’s) all the way to the end where all the stadium’s are. Literally every professional sports team has their stadium at this one location. I got there pretty early so I could wander around the complex and checkout the Wachovia Center. I have been to a lot of hockey arenas and I have to say this is one of the nicest ones I have been in. The building has really wide hallways making it easy to get around even with big crowds. I also really loved how many windows they had on the outside of the building letting a lot of natural light into the main aria. After wandering around I was able to find the Stanley Cup banners, which were hung up in the hallway (odd that they were not in the rafters).

I had great seats to the game. I sprung for lower bowl seats, and it was great to see all the players up close. I have to say Chris Pronger is absolutely massive. He towers over guys, even the ones who are suppose to be the same size as him. Anyway I really enjoyed my first game in Philly. The Flyers ended up losing the game to the San Jose Sharks, however for most of the game they outplayed the Sharks but couldn’t capitalize on their chances. It didn’t help either that Boucher who got the start in net played absolutely horrible. Regardless it was still a fantastic experience.

The next morning I got up at 6am and made my way to the train station. I was off to Washington DC to spend a few days and catch my next Flyers game against the Capitals. It was nice to be on a train, a nice change from the flight the day before. I got into DC in under 2 hours and found my way to my hotel. Again I was impressed that the hotel was able to accommodate me with a room despite arriving so early. After checking in, I jumped straight to work. This trip I planned to work most days as I have been running low on vacation days. During the day I found out that that night the Monday Night Football game was in Washington, and it was against the Philadelphia Eagles. So I decided to check craigslist if there was any tickets available. Sure enough I was able to find a really good lower bowl ticket for only $70. The best part was the guy who was selling it was only a few blocks from my hotel. So after work I ran down and picked up the ticket, got myself a coffee and jumped on the DC subway out to the football stadium.

Fedex Field was a long way out of the city, and took over half an hour on the subway to get out to it. Not only that, once you reached the subway station you had to walk a good 15 minutes to the actual stadium. Once I got to the stadium I was blown away at the sheer size of the building. Fedex Field is said to have a max capacity of over 91,000 people. That is practically the entire population of Kelowna to put things into perspective.

While not a huge football fan, this game was definitely an experience. I felt like I had gone back in time to the Roman ages and was watching a gladiator match. The fans in the stand were ruthless, and all very much drunk. There was fights breaking out left and right, not only between Eagles and Redskins fans, but also fights between fellow Redskins fans. The game was a complete blowout for the Eagles from the opening kickoff. I cheered outwardly for the Redskins, but inwardly was rooting on the Eagles, hoping the Flyers could follow in their footsteps the next day. As the forth quarter was coming to a close I left the game early so that I didn’t have to wait at the subway, and could get back to the hotel a little quicker.

The next day I decided to work a half day in DC. So I took the morning off and did a bit of exploring. My hotel was just a few blocks from the White House, and most of the site of DC, so I decided to walk around and explore. I had been to Washington once before when I was really young, yet don’t remember much from the trip (besides a visit to Ikea, and the Smithsonian). So it was nice to experience everything over again. While the weather wasn’t the best for a day of tourism, it did mean that most of the monuments were deserted, which was nice. I also found it really amazing how beautiful the fall colours were despite the dreary weather.

After checking out the major monuments in the city I decided to goto one of the museums. I decided to goto the Holocaust Memorial Museum, which I had heard good things of. Despite being very somber, I have to say, it told the history of the holocaust extremely well. One thing I found was really well done about the exhibit is that it really showed the human aspect of holocaust through use of photos, videos, and informational panels. I highly recommend going to the museum if ever in DC.

I made it back to my hotel after lunch to put in my half day of work. I was really excited about going to the hockey game that night as the Capitals are one of the most explosive offenses in the NHL right now. I was also extremely excited to get to watch Ovechkin play, and to see how the Flyers would stalk up against him.

So after work I made my way down to the Verizon Center. The nice thing about the arena in Washington is that it is right downtown. So it was a quick 15 minute walk from my hotel room. As I approach the arena, I couldn’t believe how many caps jerseys I saw. This team had really become a big thing in Washington, largely due of course to the personality (and of course incredible talent) of Ovechkin.

This was now my third game in three nights, but I was still energetic. Actually probably more so for this game than any other. I really had a great time at this game. While the fans in Washington are not the most knowledgeable, they made up for it with their enthusiasm. After tying the game 2 – 2 with the Flyers the arena exploded into cheers, and I hate to admit it, but was a more exciting, and loud venue than what I had experienced in Philadelphia.

As it turns out the Flyers lost again in Washington. The game was a lot of fun though, as the Flyers again outplayed their opponent but were shut down by solid goaltending, and missed opportunities. I have to admit, it was fun to watch Ovechkin score 2 goals!

The next day I was once again up at 6am to catch a train back to Philadelphia. Once again I was impressed by another hotel for having a room ready for me so early in the day. After putting in a full day of work I was really excited, as I was going to meet up with my two favorite Californians, Joe and Kasie. They had arrived into town the day before and would be around for the rest of my stay. I hadn’t seen them in close to a year so it was nice to be able to get together with them. That night we went out for dinner with their friend Susan from Philadelphia who they were staying with. Wednesday was the first game World Series of Baseball game being played in New York against the Philadelphia Phillies, so everyone was dressed in red, and ready to watch the game. I really wanted to experiencing seeing a game in Philly, while Joe and Kasie were more interested in seeing Pearl Jam. So we parted ways, they went off to the show, and I stuck with their friend and who I accompanied to a sports bar to catch the game.

I have to say I am not really a baseball fan, in the very least. With that said, watching the game in a packed bar of 300 people, all rooting on the Phillies was sure fun. Everyone was cheering, and chanting, and clapping, and just overall having a great (albeit suspenseful) time. It helped that the Phillies won the game. The next day after work, I met up with Joe, Kasie and Susan again to catch game 2 of the world series, unfortunately, the Phillies weren’t so lucky and lost the game.

As Friday rolled around it marked the arrival of a lot more friends coming in for the remaining 2 Pearl Jam shows. I had taken the day off so that I could hang out with those who were arriving, and spent some more time with Joe and Kasie. I had a fun day exploring the market in Philadelphia with Vanessa and Tatiana, before meeting up with Jason and the rest of the gang. It became evident very quickly that our hotel room wasn’t going to fit all those who were suppose to stay in it, so I jumped ship to stay with Joe and Kasie. The rest of the day was spent hanging out with everyone and doing some more touristy things.

That night I got to see my first Pearl Jam show at the Spectrum with Vanessa. We had really awesome seats, and it was a lot of fun to rock out with her. The show that night was really excellent, and Pearl Jam played a large number of my favorite songs. It was really exciting too knowing that in that arena the Flyers had won their Stanley Cups. It was sad to think they are going to destroy the building in a few short months.

After the show we partied it up until the wee hours. Despite my urge the next morning to sleep in until the afternoon, I had to get up early once again, as the Flyers were playing an afternoon game. It was also Halloween so I had to get my costume ready. Jason and myself decided to go as Wayne and Garth from Wayne’s World. I was Garth.

We met up at the Wachovia Center at Noon, and were shocked to find so few people dressed up for Halloween. I didn’t let it get my down though. This was my last Flyers game of my trip and I wanted to enjoy it. As the arena filled up we did manage to see a bunch more people dressed up, which made us a little more happy.

So the last Flyers game I caught was a complete blowout by the Flyers. They won 6-2 and completely dominated the game from start to finish. The game was also full of fights which made the Australian Hinn, and Brazilian Tatiana happy. After the game we parted ways, and I met back up with Joe and Kasie. We had a really lovely dinner at this restaurant called Pumpkin, before heading back down to the last ever concert at the Spectrum.

For this show I was sitting with Jason. Our seats were really similar to the seats I had the night before, which was nice. After we got settled we sneaked his friend Sophia down into our section as well. The final show by Pearl Jam was one crazy show. Pearl Jam played for close to 4 hours, and played some songs they hadn’t played in 10-15 years. It was truly a memorable night, and a lovely way to end such a fantastic trip.

The next day I left early for my flight back home and my week long recovery from my week of no sleep. While busy, I really had an amazing time on this trip, and look forward to the next time I can visit Philadelphia and Washington again.

Here are a few final images from my trip.

Wild mushroom picking, specifically the pine mushroom (Matsutake) is something of an event back in the Kootenays. Since pine mushrooms are such a lucrative crop, you will find many different people out picking. Whether it is someone with a job just out to get a bit of extra spending money, or a student trying to save up for his first car, or even a retiree, you are likely to find them out in the bush come September. For as long as I can remember my mom has been one of the most religious pickers in the area. So this Thanksgiving at the tail end of the pine mushroom season, I went out in the bush with my mom for a short picking session.

My mom has been picking in the same location for the last 20+ years. Actually I think most of the Fauquier community picks at this one location. So during the pine mushroom season, you are almost more likely to run into your neighbor in the bush, than you are on the streets of Fauquier!

So what makes pine mushrooms so special? Well they are a bit a delicacy in Japan, and are sold at extremely high prices. They are also a mushroom that is near impossible to farm. Pine mushrooms form a symbiotic relationship with the trees in the forest through a network of mycelia in the forest floor. So it is very important when picking that when you pick the mushroom you take care not to damage the ground of the mycelia when you dig out the mushroom. Pine mushrooms are also a difficult mushroom to find. Largely because they often grow below the forest floor. Often times you might only seem a glimmer of white, or even just a bump. Really good pickers like my mother, almost have a sixth sense when it comes to picking.

It is important when picking pine mushrooms to know what they look like. There are many different mushrooms in the forest, many of which that are highly poisonous. Several of these mushrooms tend to resemble the pine mushroom to the untrained eye. So how do you tell a pine mushroom? Well a young pine mushroom, called a button, will be fully contained without a detached “hat”. Somewhat resembling a lightbulb.

Pine mushrooms are creamy white in color, and generally found barely above the surface of the forest floor. As a pine mushroom grows older the outside of the hat begins to detach from the mushroom stem, and eventually when fully matured the mushroom will look like a table top.

It is important when picking the mushroom to be very gentle. Pine mushrooms are very fragile, and especially if you wish to sell the mushrooms, you will want to make sure the mushroom stays in excellent condition. So to begin, start by slowly uncovering the dirt that is on top of the mushroom.

After the mushroom is uncovered, then you can use your fingers to gently dig around the stem of the mushroom until you reach the bottom of the stem. Then very gently rock the mushroom back and forth with your fingers until the mushroom becomes loose enough that it will come out of the ground.

Once you have picked the mushroom it is extremely important to cover up the hole it came out of, to protect the mycelia, and promote future growth. If the mushroom’s “hat” is already open, before closing the hole you can tap the top of the mushroom to knock the spores back into the hole. This is said to also promote future growth of mushrooms. Once the whole is closed you are done and can continue to look for more mushrooms. Be sure to look around where you found the mushroom as well, as pine mushrooms often grow in bunches. To protect your mushrooms it is best to carry them in a cloth bag, as plastic bags tend to make the mushrooms age quicker after they have been picked.

It was really nice to get out into the bush with my mom this Thanksgiving and take part in a bit of tradition. The excitement of the hunt, and getting to explore the forest makes mushroom picking a fun activity, and getting paid at the end of the day is icing on the cake.

Here are a few additional photos I took out in the forest of some other mushrooms. Be sure to leave these ones alone, as I am pretty sure none of them are edible.

A few weeks ago I went with a few friends and hiked up the Lions. We got up bright and early (a good 5:15am rising), and were ready to leave the city a little after 6am, except we had to wait on the organizer of the hike. As it turns out he was out partying until 4am the night before and wasn’t go to join us. So we trooped on.

We arrived at an empty parking lot in Lions Bay around 7:45am and began our hike. For the most part the trail up was well marked. The only place we really had to question was in the first 20 minutes of hiking when we arrived at a fork in the road. One of the guys in our group had downloaded the hike info onto his iPhone, so after checking the info, we knew to continue on to our right. After that the rest of the trail was either marked by signs or ribbon.

After a few hours we reached the lower ridge that sits off to the left of the West Lions. Here we waited for our group to reconvene so we could take on the final assault of the mountain. Waiting around for the other group members I started to get a bit of a chill. Since we were on the west side of the mountain, the sun was being blocked. In addition due to the altitude gain the temperature where we were at was near freezing (the puddles where turning to ice). While we waited Oliver and Myself did a little huckleberry picking. Having near frozen extremely ripe huckleberries was definitely a thirst quencher.

Once our group assembled we trooped on. At this point the trail goes from a bush trail to a rocky trail as you start to climb up an old rock slide. soon there after we started to hit snow and ice. This definitely slowed us down as we had to be extremely careful as we climbed up. The higher we climbed the more amazing our view got, as a clear view into Howe Sound emerged.

We eventually got to a point on the rock trail where things began to get a bit steeper. The old tracks of the last hikers lead up a section, that didn’t look overly safe, and we questioned whether we wanted to continue on. Eventually I lead the way doing scouting out an alternate route up the rock slide. It proved to be a good route, and within 15 minutes I was standing in the glorious sunshine. It is amazing how much difference the temperature was standing the sun, compared to when I was down on the ridge earlier in the shade.

We continue up this route and shortly there after found our way onto of the ridge between the Lions. We made our way to the highest point we felt safe climbing, and found a nice spot to break for lunch. Having lunch with a 360 degrees view of Howe Sound, the Coastal Mountains, and Vancouver in the distance was a little magical.

Soon after breaking for lunch another group of hikers made their way up. As we continued to eat our lunch, more groups began to emerge making their way up to the top. It appeared as if others wanted to take advantage of one of the last nice weekends as well. We headed out off the top of the mountain around 1pm. The decent was much quicker than I had thought it would be, even with the snow.

As we continued down the mountain, we passed more and more groups going up the mountain. I am glad now that we got the early start we did, as we got to have the top literally all to ourselves, as well as the trails early in the morning.

After a couple hours we had made it back to the parking lot and we were all feeling really good about the hike. The total time was a little over 7 hours return, however if we weren’t slowed down so much by the snow, and didn’t take it as leisurely as we did, I am sure we could have done it in a much quicker time. Then again, what is the fun in that?

It was a really nice hike, one that I would be sure to do again. Happy I was able to get one good hike in this year, especially with being away for most of the summer.