Background: I had some great guests come and see me at the end of August - Craig and Leila. Craig took a fair number of pictures and I think he captured the feel of the city so I thought I would share a couple of his photos here.

You can also click on any of the photos to see a large one, which I recommend on some of them as the details within are much better when enlarged.

The Scar’s - this is at the site of the world trade center, I think it capture the feel of the area currently.

The Density - This is taken from the top of the Empire State Building, now NYC tallest build.

Lower Manhattan - where we would have seen the World Trade Center

Look North into Midtown Manhattan.

The Grandeur - stunning shot of Grand Central station.

Inside St. Peters on 5th Avenue

Sheep Meadow, Central Park - an reprieve from the concrete.

The Hudson - old pier looking out on to the Hudson river.

NYC Secrets - You often find me here in Central Park on a Saturday after a run. The Guitar Man has an amazing story and is a neat guy. On memorial day long weekend when i was listening, he took the previous weeks money and bought hot dogs for the entire crowd there on the follow Saturday unannounced. A street performer buying 200 hot-dogs for his guest, it’s a lot of fun to just hang out in the park and listen to him.

Fun - a fun little creature hanging out in front of Central Park.

I hope you enjoyed these (and Craig I hope you don’t mind that I posted them).

Well this sort of training thing seems to be working somewhat…. I say sort of training in that I have not run since the 30K run which was 11 days ago, so probably not what most would consider a marathon training schedule but I do; course I don’t ever expect to finish in any time in particular…. I just like to finish.

I just had a fairly frustrating day at the office and I definitely needed to get out for a run so I walked over to central park and figured I would do a couple laps (20 km) or 2 hours. The city planner here are amazing, the entire park is shut off to traffic at night so the residents of the city can use it, awesome!

The first lap felt really good and clocked in at about 47 minutes, the second lap also felt pretty good coming in around 48 minutes, I ran a little extra hoping to get closer to 21K than 20 as the mentally it feels good to know that half of the full marathon would be behind you at that point, I suspect the 21 K would have clocked in around 1:40 or 1:45… I don’t really know or care other than that is a quick time for a slug like me. My body minus the chaffing feels great!

I’ll try run another 30K or so this weekend and see how it feels, ideally I would like to probably get around 34 in, but I am NOT running more than 3 laps around that park! I will however go and purchase some new running shorts as I am now only 2/3 as chaffed as I was before but that is still plenty uncomfortable.

The other positive development here in The City, I may have found a climbing partner and our travels to getting a TV are one step closer… although I am sort of enjoying living without one.

I had some great visitors on the last weekend of August and I’ll post some of the shot taken by Craig, another human more talented behind the camera than I. He took almost 200 pictures…. I am only putting up 2 or 3, ask him for the rest if you like .

Little did I know our little buddy Geoff maintains a blog of his own. Not only that he also is a much more talented photographer than I - that won’t shock anyone; but it will provide you with better pictures to look at.

http://ggdubsbikesblogsndogz.blogs.com/

If you know Jungle check it out, if you don’t check it out anyway… he’s more interesting than I am.

Here is a photo from a great trip we did last year called the Rockwall Trail with his wonderful and stunning wife Maria.

I was back home in Calgary for a wedding at the begining of August, I generally don’t get too excited about weddings, but I was super stoked for this one. The wedding was on a Friday, which meant a high level of intoxication and a late night ending with some fine cigar smoking and more drinks. The evening finished off successfully at a little after 3am.

That is all well an good, the challenge with this situation is that a ‘reunion hike’ was planned with the boys that originally moved into the legendary house on 2544 Cherokee Drive. While many of us us (5 in total) don’t all talk a lot or often the friendships and bonds of the original residents is amazingly strong and Jungle’s wedding provided us with a chance to get out and bag a peak together. The university days were packed with the usual tom-foolery that 20 year old university guys do; drinking, chasing skirts, studying, cooking cheap food poorly, eating worse meals, and hopes of solving the worlds problems; but we also had a great habit of getting out to the mountains in all seasons and enjoying the outdoors around - whether it be hiking, mountain biking, snow-shoeing, skiing, backpacking etc.

Knowing that this is a fit group I knew without a hangover I would be dragging my ass, and with Neall and Dave cheating and staying sober on Friday night; Andy and I were in trouble. Jungle was the fifth member of the team but seeing as how the night prior was his wedding night we figured he might not want to drag his ass out of bed in the morning for the Puke and Hike.

The plan was to meet just outside of town at 9:30am; and that means 9:30 sharp - a couple minutes late and there would be no Dave and Neall… that is just how the group works. Andy and I were the hungover cigar smoking fools, so the only group that might not show up on time was us. We rolled/crawled out of bed at 8 packed what we thought we needed for a hike that we had no details on; we just knew that Neall was planning it so it would not be a stroll. To make matters more complicated for the hungover ones - we needed to take a 30 minute cab ride to get the car and from there the meeting location was another 30 minutes away… Well we made it with sometime to grab some breakfast. I grabbed a couple of Hogies, the breakfast of champions; Andy grabbed a couple of Krispy Kreme donuts and some other healthy food and we were off.

The hike was called The Fort and it turned out to be a pretty special day, even if I was horribly hung over.

The hike up was gentle for the first part and then a steep grade for several hundred meters with a steady grade to the top, enough to make me want to pass out and wish I still couldn’t taste the cigar from the previous evening. Once we got to the top we were able to hang out there for an hour or so; it was as sunny and warm as I have ever seen it on the top of a peak in the Rockies. I took a nap while the guys chatted, they clearly were not suffering quite as much as I, which is normal when I am out with them (unfortunately for me).

Here are some photo’s of the day with a few special friends:

Dave at the start of the hike.

Neall and Andy at the start of the day.

Checking the map (just for shits and giggles.. we won’t actually follow it)

A miserable climb for a hung over me… not so much for Neall.

Looking at Mount Assiniboine.

Another shot from the top.

Sprekende Deutsch - Dave does a great impression.

Andy.

Dave.

Neall.

Andy.

Andy.

Neall.

Neall - showoff .

Carving turns in August!

Great shot of Neall and Andy walking out in the meadow.

Going home..