MUNGO EATS Latin America

Its a good year for raspberries in the McLean yard.  The raspberry patch is crazy full of juicy red berries.  We can have berries everyday AND we have already made jam for the upcoming winter.  This bounty has not gone unnoticed by one hound member of the family…Sargon. 

Sargon has discovered that he likes raspberries.  Instead of waiting for one of us to feed him the odd berry, he has decided to pick them for himself.  So we often see parts of Sargon sticking out of the patch, a head

or a tail.

Sometimes you have to look closely to see the hound.

Trust me though, he’s there!  And if you continue to watch you will see the master at work, delicately plucking berries from the branches.

Ahhh, summer is great!  Help yourself to a nice snack!  Luckily for the humans in the family, Sargon can only reach the bottom branches, and there are plenty of nice plump berries up high!!

We went hiking yesterday, regardless of the number of chores that awaited us at home.  I will save the dusting for a rainy day, this evening perhaps. 

We decided to hike further north in the Ghost Wilderness Area than we usually do.  We decided to hike up Waiparous Creek.  This area is used by Off Highway Vehicles (OHV), so people on motorcycles, quads and 4 wheel drive vehicles are abundant.  You can actually drive the whole hike that we did, if you have the right vehicle.  We just had our little Subaru, so we could not have driven the whole way.  We did drive all the way to  the first creek crossing though.  You get some funny looks from people when you are taking your little 4 wheel drive vehicle onto roads that they think require a “big” truck.  As I mentioned, we abandoned the car at the first creek crossing, so we started the hike by crossing the creek.

This was the first of many crossings.  The hike follows the creek all along.  At times you are just walking along a gravel road.  Kind of boring, but the scenery is nice.

After an hour and a half, we arrived at an area where the creek winds its way through a large boulder field.  The kids thought this was a great place.  There are beautiful deep pools at the bases of boulders that are up to 3 storeys high.  It is easy to get to the top of these boulders and look down or climb around at the bottom at creek level.

Although this was a great place, it was not the intended end of the hike, so we kept walking, en route to “the chasm”.  We hiked this trail once before, when the kids were tiny (ages 2 and 4) and we never made it to the chasm, so this time we were determined to do so.  It took another hour or so to reach our destination. 

The chasm is a short canyon along the creek.  The water dives down a waterfall,

and then winds its way through tall walls.

It is kind of cool actually, although in my head, I thought it would be longer.  It was worth the hike, but I think next time I will stop at the boulder field!

Another great day in the mountains.  Its too bad that the end of summer is rapidly approaching and our hiking days are limited.  I hope everyone enjoys the work week!

Four years ago, I bought a scooter.  Maybe I was having a mid life crisis, maybe I finally decided to live a little.  Whatever the case, I took the leap and became a “scooter chick”.  I made the move cautiously.  I wanted to buy a Vespa.  I LOVE Vespas, but they are expensive.  Since I had never driven a scooter and was unsure if I would like driving one in Calgary, I decided to buy a slightly less “cadillac” scooter and bought a Yamaha Vino 125. 

Well, it turns out I love riding a scooter.  I can’t wait for the winter snow to melt so that I can hop onto that “beast” and ride.  I try to ride as long as there is no snow on the ground.  Sometimes I am wearing three layers of clothes, to fend off the morning chill.  Last Christmas, Kevin bought me battery operated gloves, because that was one part of me that got cold, no matter how many pairs of pants I pulled on.  I usually manage to ride for 6 months of the year, April to October. 

Besides being a heck of a lot of fun, riding a scooter is cheap, cheap, cheap!!  It costs me a wopping $4.00 to fill my tank, and I can generally ride for 2 weeks on a tank of gas. 

Even though I love my little Vino, it does have a short falling.  It is just a tad underpowered.  In most places it does great, but on hills, or against a strong wind, or (God forbid) going up hill against a strong wind, I find myself crossing my fingers and praying to the scooter Gods for a little more power.  It is especially bad when I have a passenger.  Besides, who wouldn’t want a Vespa!

So, the other day, I happened to see this little beauty for sale. 

AAHHHHH!!!  Isn’t she beautiful?!!  (Her name is Sophia).  She is a 2006, Piaggio Vespa LX150.  Also, she has a Malossi perfomance upgrade package, so she actually has almost as much power as a 250cc!!! (Is my inner nerd showing?)  I LOVE her!!!  Yesterday, I could only crawl up the 19th Street hill at 30 km/hr, today I had to be careful not to exceed the speed limit.  So cool!! 

So now my only question is…anyone wanna buy a Vino?