The other side

I spent Labour Day weekend a bit differently this year - camping in Waterton Lakes National Park with my friend Ally. Ally is going to have her ACL (knee) replaced next week and I was feeling a bit bummed about missing HYC's regatta so we decided to get outta dodge for a few days together and have some fun.

We had planned on getting up early on Saturday morning and riding our road bikes through Glacier National Park on the south side of the border along the Going to the Sun Road, but a severe wind storm on Friday night prevented any sleeping so when the alarm went off neither of us were motivated, to say the least.

Instead we drove up to Cameron Lake and had a picnic on the shore. We watched kids be super creative with sand and fed organic leftover sausages to a very happy dog. Then we hired a canoe and a fishing rod and paddled the lake for a couple of beautiful hours. Every time the wind picked up I wished the canoe had a sail.

The next morning we woke up to steady rain and low clouds. We made ourselves breakfast and planned the day around our pedicure appointments. I went and bought a rain jacket - the kind that doubles as a foul weather sailing jacket making sure it was big enough to fit over my foul weather pants. I kept trying to block out the desire to be racing sail boats across the country. I'd look out at the rain and think about how much more pleasant rain would be if I was sitting on a boat trimming sails.

But alas, I was sitting in a bar drinking beer. And drinking more beer. At least I was inside. And at least there was still beer. There are vast differences in the things I do depending on what side of the country I'm on, but a couple things remain the same - there's always a nice cold beer to solve my problems. And, I always miss the other side.