Whistler Biathlon Experience
Last weekend I was in Whistler for the Easter long weekend. After downhill skiing on Friday and Saturday we did something entirely different on Sunday. Eight of us headed to the Whistler Olympic Park in the Callaghan Valley to participate in their “Biathlon Experience.” The temperature was hovering around zero and there was wet snow falling when we arrived. We picked up our rental classic cross-country ski equipment and then skied out to the 2010 biathlon shooting range. Our instructor Raphael gave us a lesson on the history of biathlon and a tour of the shooting range. There were three 22 caliber rifles set up for us but they were locked down so they could only be shot from the prone position (i.e. lying down on a mat on the snow) and only directed within the shooting range.
We each got a brief lesson in using the rifles and took a practice round of five shots. For many of us this was our first time ever shooting a rifle. Because we were beginners we used the larger targets normally only used in competition when shooting from the standing position. Most of us were soaked through at this point so it was time to get moving and get the competition on. We elected to run a relay race with the boys facing off against the girls. Each person did a 500m ski, took their five shots and then did a short penalty lap for each target (if any) missed before handing off to the next team member. The challenge is to get your heart rate down after skiing to the point where you can effectively aim the rifle.
Matt and Cecilia face off in the second leg of the relay race
The relay race was a ridiculous amount of fun. The boys ended up beating the girls by about 30 seconds. When you consider that the race took about 30 minutes to complete that margin of victory is really small. It was a lot of fun cheering on our teams and smack talking our opponents. All in good nature of course. The quote of the day goes to Allison. After I shot a perfect round (I just had to get a mention of that in) Alli asked Mom “Why didn’t you ever put us in weapons sports when we were young?” Awesome. After the race several of us skied another lap and took another round of shots. Then we skied back to the lodge to warm up, dry out and eat lunch.
With our new found love of Biathlon we started searching for online biathlon videos after dinner that evening. If you want to see how the professionals do it check out this webpage. If you want a laugh, we quite enjoyed this video of Rick Mercer trying the biathlon with two Canadian national team members in Canmore, Alberta. Finally, if that wasn’t fun enough for you check out this one.
I have resisted the temptation to post every photo of the relay up here but they’re available in my Whistler Biathlon Experience on flickr.
“Team Biathlon Experience” at the end of the morning
Please excuse the mess
I’m making some changes to my blog. I’m sure there are lots of broken links and other problems. Please bear with me while I figure things out. Thanks!
Memorable Moments of 2008
My Christmas holidays are winding down and pretty soon I will have to acknowledge that 2009 is here and I have a lot to do this year! In the meantime I’ve assembled my annual (see 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004 and 2002) list of memorable moments of the year past.
| January | February |
| Kicking off the New Year cross country skiing in the Callaghan Valley | Running my first race of the year (it was a slow month) |
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| March | April |
| Passing my General Exam and going home for the CIS championships | Going to England and Scotland with Matt |
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| May | June |
| Going bike camping on Galiano Island | Enjoying a family weekend in Seattle including a hike, Mariners game and lots of good food |
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| July | August |
| Running 30km on my 30th birthday and the x2x celebration weekend in Vancouver | Going to Thunder Bay for Trish and Glenn’s wedding and watching the Olympics as much as possible |
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| September | October |
| Traveling to Spain, Gibraltar and Portugal with my mother | Thanksgiving in Victoria and Vancouver with family and friends |
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| November | December |
| Running the Seattle Marathon in a personal best time of 4:10:19 | Christmas in Ottawa (and everyone making it away from the West Coast before the snow hit!) |
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Wintery weekend
Over the weekend we had a winter storm blow through the Pacific Northwest brining high winds, cold temperatures and even snow. I took the Clipper up to Victoria on Saturday morning. Because of the winds we took a more sheltered “weather route” along the east side of Whidbey Island. This meant we got to travel through Deception Pass.
On Sunday morning there was 10cm of fresh snow on the ground in Victoria. This is the most snow I’ve ever seen out here. This is a picture taken along Dallas Road looking out on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. If you need a bit of perspective for how big the bit of driftwood is check out this version of the shot!
I guess all the snow and cold temperatures will ease the transition when I go back home to Ontario for Christmas!
Good Times in Thunder Bay
Last weekend my family went to Thunder Bay to attend my cousin’s wedding. My Dad spent the majority of his childhood growing up in Thunder Bay. I think the last time we were there as a family was in 1986 on the way back to Ottawa from Burma. I was up twice during my undergrad to play basketball against Lakehead University in 1998 and 1999. That’s where the fans sang “Cecilia” while I tried to shoot a foul shot during a game. I missed.
The journey started on Wednesday afternoon when Dad and I drove up to Vancouver from Seattle. On Thursday morning we conveened with Alli, Nic and Matt in the Vancouver airport for the trip to Thunder Bay. Our routing was geographically inefficient since we first flew to Toronto and then flew back westward to Thunder Bay. As I recall we couldn’t get a good connection through Winnipeg which would have made more geographical sense. We arrived in Thunder Bay and headed strait to my uncle’s house to join the rehearsal dinner. Things were winding down by the time we arrived but we still managed to take the largest Cotton Cousins photo ever taken. It includes all 6 cousins with the surname Cotton and a couple of significant others but it still missing one branch of the family. Maybe someday we’ll find a really large staircase and get everyone together!
The wedding was on Friday afternoon and it was lovely. As often happens, we had some time to kill between the wedding ceremony and the wedding reception. First we took a bunch of family photos at the church. Then we went to a local sporting goods store in downtown Thunder Bay to buy Alli a new softball glove. The store was probably 90% full of hockey equipment but did have a good selection of gloves. The salesperson who helped us seemed surprisingly unphased by us showing up in all our finery. In the end Alli did get a glove (that matched her dress) so the trip was a success.
After the softball glove shopping we drove through town to see the houses where Dad lived when he was a kid. Then after some down town (and Olympic watching) it was off to the reception. One of my favourite moments was when Trish thanked her Dad for coming out of the Bush for her wedding (see: The Wabakimi Project). Cindy, Alli and I also managed to not catch the bouquet. That’s a tradition I’m just not all that into. Cake, however, is a tradition that I’m into and it was delicious.
On Saturday morning I went on a 14 mile run. After a nap (and more Olympic watching) we headed over to Trish and Glenn’s place for an open house. I don’t know how they had the energy to have 100 people over the day after their wedding but it was great to have more time to visit! On Sunday we began the long trek back home. The rest of the photos from the weekend are here.
Congratulations Trish and Glenn!
Vancouver x2x
This is almost 2 weeks late but I feel like I need to do a post about the weekend my family spent in Vancouver before Dad and my birthday. This was titled the “x2x” weekend because we were celebrating the birthday when I turned x years old and Dad turned 2x years old.
The first weekend event was Bard on the Beach on Friday Night. Bard is a very cool experience. We had tickets but there are no assigned seats so we got there early to line up. While we were in line we had a delicious picnic packed by Allison and Michelle. While waiting we given a brightly coloured pieces of paper on which to write our names. Then when the doors we went into the tent and taped our names onto our seats of choice. Then we had time to enjoy a glass of wine and the view. On Friday night we saw Titus Andronicus (a play none of us had seen before). It was, um, a very good presentation of the play. The truth is that it’s not really a happy story and there are a lot of deaths. I’m more for the use of a red handkerchief to represent blood than actual fake blood so I spent a good part of certain scenes looking away from the stage!
Saturday morning started with watching the Individual Time Trial in the Tour de France. We had a lazy morning and then in the afternoon we did birthday presents. Normally birthday presents would take about 10 minutes but not this year. My family went way overboard! Inspired by my “30 on 30″ theme they got me 30 presents! On top of that, all the presents had something to do with the number 30. The full list is here. Some of my favourites were: a fleece blanket that was 30 square feet, 3 pairs of toe socks for running (for 30 toes), an SPF 30 bucket hat and 30 Lindt chocolate eggs. It was so much fun. Apparently my they’d been working on this for months and it involved many emails, cross-country shopping and I can only assume a spreadsheet. Here I am very excited about getting to open 30 presents!
On Saturday evening we went back to Bard on the Beach to see The Tempest. Things were a bit different this time around because it was one of the “Bard-B-Q & Fireworks” night. At intermission we were treated to a salmon barbecue dinner and then after the performance we had coffee, dessert and a prime private seating area to view the Celebration of Light fireworks. It was such a cool night. We also managed to take a nice family picture before the show.
On Sunday morning (after watching the last stage of the Tour) Mom, Dad, Matt and I headed to Granville Island. Matt and I did a nice easy 5 mile run while Mom and Dad went for a walk. Then we poked around some toy stores, a seafood store and stopped for a morning coffee. We ended up sitting around long enough that it was time for lunch. So we headed over to our favourite Granville lunch spot for sandwiches and yam fries. The afternoon was pretty low-key as everyone was in need of a rest.
Sunday evening was Dad and my “official” birthday dinner. We went to the Watermark Restaurant on Kits beach. We had a nice meal with a lovely view of the sunset. It was a wonderful wonderful weekend. The full set of photos are here and of course it couldn’t end without taking another Cotton Cousins (and friends) photo.
My quasi Canada Day
One of the annoying parts of living in another country is not getting the holidays you’re used to. I like to say that I celebrate all Canadian and American holidays. Usually I take both Thanksgivings and any long weekends that I can. Canada Day is a tough one though. Because is falls so close to Independence Day I don’t really have time to take two days off in a week. Plus I have a meeting with my advisor tomorrow. So while I was physically at work today my heart was really in Ottawa.
I did however celebrate Canada Day yesterday by going to the Blue Jays vs Mariners game. There were a lot of Jays fans at the game. Presumably many of them had taken Monday and travelled down from BC. It was nice to get to hear the national anthem live even if the performer sang “With glorious hearts” instead of “With glowing hearts”. Oops. The Jays won 2-0 and as we slowly made out way out of the stadium there were many jubilant “Go Jays” and even a few “Go Leafs” cheers going on! Good times.
Solstice Parade
Saturday afternoon I went to the annual Fremont Solstice Parade. It’s an event unlike anything else I’ve ever seen and it is truly wonderful. There are no motorized vehicles and no printed words or recognizable logos allowed in the parade. The whole thing is just a colourful free-for-all celebration of summer. This year the naked cyclists were followed by belly dancers, pirates, monkeys jumping on the bed, African dancers with a drum corps and lots other groups. Despite having had a long, cold, wet spring I feel as though summer has finally arrived in Seattle and there was no better way to celebrate than this parade.
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Cotton Family Seattle Weekend
Last weekend the Cotton family and several associated members convened in Seattle for the weekend. We started on Friday night with dinner at Wild Ginger where we tried to leave no gastronomical void unfilled. On Saturday we went hiking at Rattlesnake Ridge (and had a picnic lunch looking down at flying birds), shopping downtown and then went to a Mariners game. On Sunday summer finally arrived in Seattle and while some people slept in others walked or ran around Green Lake. We went out to brunch in Wallingford and then had a low-key afternoon. Finally Mom, Dad, Matt and I wrapped up the weekend with dinner at Rays. It was really a treat to have everyone together for the weekend!
Here are a few of my pictures from the weekend. More were taken and I hope to get my hands on those soon. (Nudge Nudge)
CIS Final 8
The Cotton family had a great weekend in Ottawa for the Men’s CIS Final 8. We watched a tonne of basketball including an amazing semi-final game between Carleton and Acadia. It ended with a double overtime victory for Acadia who eventually lost to Brock in the final the next day. I also got to see a number of my former basketball coaches and teammates at the games.
In my last post I mentioned that there was a lot of snow in Ottawa. Here’s a picture of me at the end of our driveway. To be honest this doesn’t even capture the true volume of snow or the narrowness of the street. To add insult to injury when we got back to Seattle this afternoon Dad and I did a loop around Green Lake and the daffodils are out in bloom here!
