and i thought i studied for this trip!!

i am a map geek.  total map GEEK.  i have aeronautical maps, outdated AAA travel books, i swear i buy a map EVERY time i go to santa cruz, which is at least 2 x’s a year!  i love maps, i love directions, i love knowing where i am going and how i am going to get back.  i actually love to know 3 ways out of a place.  most of the time i don’t need a map for around town stuff.  i know that the second time i drive somewhere (except apparently santa cruz.  i ALWAYS get lost or miss a turn there.  whatever.  get me on 101 and i’ll just stop on the beach and live there until Anna comes and rescues me.)  italian cities -  the roads were crazy!  however i did love getting lost in italian cities.  i always stumbled upon something new and then never to be found again.

anway, maps.  being a map geek, it probably comes as no surprise that i studied maps of our road trip religiously in the weeks leading up to going.  i borrowed mom’s GPS.  i bought the road map book with both countries included.  i traveled the whole route via google sattelite images one night.  i noticed we were going to be in the vincinity of canada’s glacier national park.  i thought, “now there is some photographic opportunity!”.

now, the thing about canada is that it is big.  really big.  really really big.  it’s not a trip to the chemist’s down the street.  the provinces are much bugger than our punny little california, and glacier national park ended up being about 2 1/2 hours away.  i said vicinity.  not neighborhood.  i gave up the dream to see the park because i knew a day trip involving 5 hours in the car and 2 toddlers was not going to be a fun day trip.

remember that mountain i said we went up to the top of?  it was a ridge used by Kicking Horse Resort outside of Golden, BC.  they have skiing in the winter and downhill mountain biking in the summer.  (and a bear named Boo.)  anyway, here i am, a week and a half after i get home, and i am geeking out on my “where have i been?” map on facebook, and i realize something.

this is the view down into the valley on the other side of the mountain we went up.  it told you we were ON THE TOP.

this is part of Glacier National Park.

i can’t WAIT to develop my film from there!!  thankfully i had my 35mm with me too!

want to see where i took this picture from?  the west side of the red building.  let’s see if i can post the google image.  then zoom out and look to the west.  if you toggle between “map” and “sat”  you can see the boundaries of the park.

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