Thanks for the smile to start my day John ... from an active civil engineer (but wishing I was retired ... or fishing ... or able to make a living with my camera). Now back to trying to jam together two interchanges without enough separation between them so I look busy when the boss shows up for work :(

Around the office I find a number of things that make me shake my head and wonder ... our "quality management" people regularly put out bulletins trying to get us to jump on the "quality is critical" bandwagon, yet their bulletins often contain spelling errors and things that would make my old high school English teacher scowl.

Was also doing some internal online "training" the other day. At various spots along the way the system pops up a couple of quiz questions to see if you are actually paying attention. The very last quiz question was a true or false question and I have to admit I had drifted a bit by that point and incorrectly guessed "false" ... the system told me that I should retry, and that I was on attempt 2 of 5. Hmmm, let me think carefully about that one!

Looking forward to seeing some pics when you get back :)

:)

Photo opps galore ... a matter of personal preference though, depending on what type of scenery you like. I am a fan of old boats (old wooden boats that creak as they rock in the waves ... loads of character, and plenty of stories to tell if they could) and found lots of great little fishing villages all along our trip.

Peggy's Cove is iconic but tough to get any pictures without droves of people wandering around, especially if the weather is nice ... we were there on a cool drizzly day, and, fairly early in the morning so not too many people out yet (several tour buses pulled in just as we were leaving though). Lots of other scenery at Peggy's Cove as well (e.g., old boats :)) if you just park and wander. North shore (coast?) up around Digby was also great esp. if you like fresh scallops! (and old fishing boats). Excellent whale watching opportunities out of that area - we took a tour out from Brier Island which is a fun drive west from Digby along a long skinny peninsula (?) that I think is called the Digby Neck (or something like that) ... just have to time your drive to make sure you connect with the two ferries you need to catch along the way. If my arms had been about 6 ft. longer I could have given a big female humpback whale a little pat on the back off the stern of our boat.

We enjoyed the Cabot Trail but found it tough (as noted by another above) to stop for good photo opps. We were also on a bit of a tight schedule (had a lot to cover in only 1 week) which did not help. Next time I head out that way I think I would plan for a minimum of two weeks. I definitely want to see the bridge over to PEI, and want to also check out Newfoundland when I can.

Last but not least, if you are a fan of "east coast music" there are plenty of little pubs along the way all through Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island, often with live music ... one of my main reasons for going out there, and all the photo opps were a welcome bonus :)

Thanks Jerry ... something I'll have to stash away for future trivia questions :) Having raised three sons, I was pretty sure the difference between hardwood and softwood was determined by the amount of pain/noise generated when brother A whacks brother B over the head with a piece of wood.

My understanding is that the fire is still far from being under control despite the vast number of people on the ground and aircraft fighting it ... last I heard they were mostly focusing on protecting people and assets, and that without some significant rainfall it will be very hard to actually control this.

A lot of people here in Calgary have friends or relatives that live/work up there and so far it sounds like everybody is making it out safely.What remains to be seen is how much of the city is left when it is all over, and how long it will take to rebuild. Last count I heard was 1600+ structures destroyed with some neighbourhoods completely wiped out.

OK, you got me there ... I was expecting that maybe you were a contractor and wanted to show us some pics of your trusty old friend the skid-steer loader! Nice pictures of a very elusive animal :)

Very nice ... I love these old homesteads that the prairies are littered with. Wish I had more time to go out shooting.

Saw your note/reply to another person about maybe including a bit more of the prairie ... it does seem like a bit more context would be good, especially to the left side of the frame given your vantage point, but not so much that you lose the wonderful detail of the structure. A "delicate balance" for lack of a better term :)

Very interesting Jerry. I particularly like the part about 4 minutes in where the guy on the right points with his hand and says "why don't you drive it up to around here and see what happens" ... the confidence in the construction technique just oozes out of it! :)

In all seriousness, as a traffic engineer, this would make for some really quick construction ... interchanges, etc. ... if only the traffic would be able to drive through it at more than maybe 1 km/h (sorry, 0.62 mph :) ) Sorry, back to being serious: would be great for things like pedestrian/cycling tunnels but you would have to run power through it for lighting, and put a floor in it.

Much appreciated!
:thumbup:

Well, from the perspective of a traffic engineer, I have to say that was disappointing ... don't get me wrong, the photos were great, but where are the pictures of highways? Just sitting down at my desk to start my day and could have used a couple of nice road pics to get my brain into gear :)

Advice? Hmmm ... how about "take me with you"? :)

Did a 7 day Alaska cruise a couple of summers back and loved it. My profile pic is at Icy Strait Point, which was the only port at which they had to use the lifeboats to ferry people ashore. Great halibut fishing out of that port.

What sort of excursions have you planned? Any time there before or after the cruise? (a lot of the cruise-based excursions are limited in time, so you don't get to go as far abroad). We spent a couple of days in Denali ahead of the cruise and that was excellent ... needed some decent reach lens-wise to get pics of bears/moose as they were often some distance away from the road, but then there was also a time when we encountered a grizzly with two cubs walking down the road right in front of our bus before they headed off into the brush right beside the bus.

I think all of the AK cruises should include a few hours looking at some glaciers ... that was a rather chilly time on deck for us as it was somewhat wet/foggy. Made for some dreary looking pictures, but likely a once in a lifetime trip for us so you have to make do with what you get!

We did a train ride up into the Yukon (on the "White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad" out of Skagway) which offered some great scenery though it was, again, wet and foggy for a good part of the trip. Still worth it.

Photography wise I really like old weathered boats and such ... lots of opportunities in each of the ports for that stuff. Also lots of old buildings with loads of character if you are into that.

Also spotted some killer whales from the deck as we got further south ... was really tough to get pictures of them either because of distance or the short time they were up and visible (tough to predict where they were going to pop up).

Have fun!

Ah yes, "Winter-peg" as many Canadians call Winnipeg :)

Thanks Graham ... needed a good laugh this morning!