Hoops without snow

My Dinos are a few weeks into their regular season though I have not as yet made a game (two this weekend, though). It's cold and snowy in Calgary. Not in Maui, which among other things is the home to one of the premier pre-season NCAA basketball tournaments, the EA Sports Maui Invitational.

2,400 seats. 30% smaller than Calgary's gym, similar to Groningen

I don't follow the NCAA, but catch good basketball when I can, and so I asked my NCAA following friends and went to two tournament games.

First up: Michigan vs Memphis, both top 25 ranked teams.

#1 Jackson fires a long one for Memphis

Michigan took Memphis fairly easily by killing them in the transition game. Head to head, it was pretty even, but when Michigan went fast, Memphis couldn't get organized. Final 73-61. Tim Hardaway Jr. was a standout for Michigan (His dad was in the crowd; he played for Golden State, Miami Heat, Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets and the Indiana Pacers, and was the 2nd fastest player in NBA history to make 5,000 points).

Next: Duke vs Tennessee.

Tipoff

Tennessee's #34 Maymon & #0 Makanjuola rebound

Two Plumlees play for Duke, brothers #5 Mason & #21 Myles 

Duke had their hands full with Tennessee, but won in the end. Tennessee stayed with them or led the whole first half, and had Tennessee's shooting been better in the first half they would have taken it in a walk. But the first half shots didn't fall, and Duke finally won by 10, 77-67. Duke's Austin Rivers (son of NBA coach Doc Rivers of the Boston Celtics) was a player to watch. He doesn't pass it off enough, but he's got a great outside shot and a constant willingness to drive to the net. Mason Plumlee plays just like Ross Bekkering, who used to play for Calgary but now plays in Holland (or he would it he were not injured).

#0 Rivers with Mason Plumlee & #34 Kelly

But an absolute highlight for me was seeing Coach K. of Duke, as of last week the winningest coach in NCAA history with now 904 victories.

Mike Krzyzewski

The man is a legend.

I got to pet a turtle! I got to pet a turtle!

I always recommend visitors to Maui go to the Maui Ocean Centre. While not that large, it's a great aquarium and a nice place to spend the better part of a day. You get a chance to clearly see some of the critters you see in the oceans here, only in MUCH clearer water, and you even get to see nocturnal guys during the day.

My typical snorkeling view, with Tangs, Idols and Unicornfish

Banded Coral shrimp, a nocturnal dude

An Hawaiian Turkeyfish, another nocturnal dude

Amenemomees. Or something like that.

Seahorses are pretty common, though where I don't know

Frogfish. Masters of camouflage

Whitemouth Moray. I see a lot of these.

A napping octopus

I learned today that octopus only live 10-14 months, which I think makes seeing them all the more fun. So far this trip we've seen about 5.

Moon jellyfish.  The only jellies I see here are bad ones.

We lucked out at some of the things happening at the aquarium today. We watched 25 lbs of food being prepared for the big pelagic tank with all the rays, sharks and giant trevalleys, and got to see feeding time.

Stingrays, but not the kind I have seen here

But the best part of all was getting to spend time with and shake hands with young green sea turtles, who we swim with all the time (we saw 14 the other day, and at one point were swimming with 5 at once). The MOC is part of a breeding and release program for these guys. They get hatchlings, raise them until they're about 2 or so, then let them go. Today was "weigh day" for the 6 18 month old dudes they have, so they pull them out of the enclosure, and get checked over by a vet. You're also allowed (under a watchful vet's eye) to touch them.

Measure time 

An impatient patient 

"Look mom, I'm an albatross!"

"Can I go back in the water now?"

It was VERY cool to be able to touch these guys, and they are much softer than I thought they would be (OK, except for the shells). They're endangered, so it's illegal to touch them in the wild (and they're usually covered in algae anyway).

I think that petting a turtle is right up there as the high point of this vacation. Also good was the pass-by of a group of spinner dolphins earlier in the week. I tried valiantly to get some good shots, but this was the best I could do.

Two spinners at the surface

Birds and pigs

It's always fun to go birdwatching in Maui, especially to find native birds, most of whom are rare or endangered. They become endangered by habitat loss (the result of turning the islands into resorts, planting non-native trees that mean native bugs have no homes), and competition from non-native birds.


For the first time, we got to the Kealia Pond wetland, and saw the rare Hawaiian Stilt, or Ae'o (as he is known in Hawaii). They're rare (only about 1,800 left), but not in Kealia Pond.

About 50 of them hiding from the wind

We went birding upcountry on our favourite trail and found (but could not photograph) some 'Apapane (a red and black nectar feeder that likes trees that are very rare) and 'Alauahio (a high speed green tennis ball of a bird), but did get shots of 'Amakihi.

Hangin' in a mamane tree 

The curved beak is a giveaway

We hike this trail every time we are on Maui, and every time, there is more damage from the feral pigs and goats up there at the 6,000' level. This time, for the first time ever, we saw the pigs, and not just once, but we had two different sightings.

Not very big, and in a hurry

We were surprised at how small they are, being no more than about 12" tall and 24" long.

It's been REALLY busy on the island. Here's one of the beaches we were on.

People as far as the eye can see

Jam packed with tourists. Don't you just hate paradise?

Shades of Gilligan's Island

Last month, a 49' boat sailing from San Diego to Honolulu got into trouble 700 miles north east of Hilo on the Big Island. Too far away from land for the Coast Guard, a cruise ship went out of it's way to perform a rescue. The story and a cool video of the rescue is available here.


Once abandoned, the boat drifted, and it beached itself this week on Maui. We had to go find it. It ended up on a beach we haven't been to before (!) where it is quite the tourist attraction.

Beached 

Worse for wear 

The crowds

It was an interesting beach, complete with sand dunes ready for dune jumping...

Shades of Oregon

...and low flying aircraft.

Under the runway

It was a "local's beach" not frequented by tourists. What this means is that there was lots of trash. Shame that. I always find it interesting that the locals treat their island very badly, then complain (in the paper, anyway) about the tourist wrecking the island. I've always found its the other way around.

Maui first days

After a typically long and uneventful trip we are ensconced once again in paradise. Yesterday was grocery/supplies day, so today was the first day to hang on the beach, our main activity here.

My home away from home for the next month

Our first snorkeling swim was a good one, with 7 turtles, 1 eel and an octopus to watch. I'd show you the photos, but...


As I wrote in this post, last year Karen bought me the Kodak Playsport waterproof camera, which leaked the third time I used it. I sent it back to Kodak after getting home, they allegedly fixed it and sent it back. I hated the thing so much I haven't used it since. I took it swimming today, took 2 pictures and it died. Why? It leaked. Again. But not just a bit. It was FULL of water this time.

Water fills the display

When I got out of the water and opened the two doors, water poured out. The battery is now shot. Which is fine, because when I got home, I threw the thing away. It's a piece of junk, and has been since the day Karen bought it for me.

Finishing the projects

We're off to Maui in a matter of days, and so our projects are coming to a close. Sadly, we will be a week short of being able to move into our new house, but it's getting so close we can taste it.


We finished building and hanging gates for the fence.

Yours truly building the gates

One built and hung, one waiting for a hangin'

Both hung, and both as straight as pumpkins...

...but with the boards hung, you can't tell how crooked things are

We are now totally finished the shed. Knowing we had squirrels living in my attic, we knew they would take up residence under the shed. Well, either them or Pine Martins. Or skunks. Or a bobcat. Or any one of the many other critters who live here (we keep finding coyote poop in our front yard). Accordingly, we had to seal the underside with wire fencing, which as to be sunk 6-10" into the ground.

Fencing installed

Finished. Totally.

The painting has progressed as far as it can. We initiated the construction of a closet last week that won't be built for a week or so, plus we found some cruddy wallboard that needed fixing. After those two projects are done, then the painting can finish. We have ordered the hardwood bits to fix the floor, and the tile for the front entryway. Today we finished selecting lights and ordered all of them; they should also arrive while we're gone.

So with luck, we will come back to a house we can live in. That only took 3½ months to get ready.

Welcome to Canmore time.

Festival of Eagles and Birds of Prey

A few weeks back, Canmore held it's annual Festival of Eagles. A lot of golden eagles migrate right past town, though they are up 4,000' in the air when they do so. However, if you know what you're looking for and have a good set of binoculars or a spotting scope, you can see them. At the downtown event, they had spotting scopes set up and we saw 4 in the space of a half hour; later that day I saw 3 more. On the peak day so far this year (about 2 weeks ago), they saw 553 at an official observation station not far from here. So far, some 2,400 have been sighted during this migration. I got no photos of them because they are mere pinpricks in the sky.


But the Alberta Birds of Prey Foundation always comes to the festival giving you an opportunity to get up close and personal with golden eagles and other raptors, all of whom are injured in some way and not releasable back to the wild.

Spirit, the blind golden eagle

Burrowing Owl 

Kes, the American Kestral

A barn owl

There's nothing wrong with the barn owl, but they're not native here, so his release isn't permitted.

At the Festival, we (and 78 others!) had an opportunity to go on a birding walk with Ben Gadd, who is a truly wonderful person and an exceptionally knowledgeable naturalist. We are the proud owners of several of his books, which he was kind enough to autograph for us. There weren't a lot of regular birds out, but we did see the rare Humanbird flying over town.

A paraglider coming in for a landing

The paragliders launch off Mt. Lady MacDondald where we hiked last week.

Late season hiking on Mt. Lady Macdonald

We have been frantically working to get outside chores done before the snow flies and we head to Maui. Accordingly, we have not had a chance to get out hiking for almost 3 weeks, so today, given the nice weather forecast, we decided to get up a mountain.


Mt. Lady Macdonald towers over Canmore on the north-east side of the valley. About a decade ago, someone built a teahouse and a helipad near the top with the hope of starting a business, but alas, the folks of Canmore didn't want a slew of helicopters flying up and down so the venture failed, leaving a bunch of parts on the mountain. Like a fire lookout, these things become magnets for hikers, and the trail up Lady Mac is very popular.


You start up the Cougar Creek and get a foreshortened view of the goal.

Straight up to the top

The trail basically grinds relentlessly upwards, but on the bright side, offers better and better views as you ascend.

Canmore below. Hal Ling across the valley

It's an interesting trail. At one point, it weaves through a boulder field.

KC weaves through the rocks

Suddenly you break out to stunning views up the valley.

The full length of Mt. Rundle

From this point, you can also see up the mountain to the peak and the destination.

The teahouse is on the bench in the centre ahead

Not far past this you get your first actual view of the structure.

The teahouse in advance disrepair

KC's final steps up

The patio on the roof

The gazebo below the teahouse

The views from this place are stunning. The coolest part of all is that we could see both of our houses.

Dead Man's Flats

Harvie Heights, in the trees on the lower left, this side of the highway

It was a pretty good wildlife day, with lots of birds. We saw chickadees and nuthatches, got dive bombed by a flock of waxwings, and saw a Townsend's Solitaire.

We saw him on the way up and he was still there on the way down

We saw plenty of squirrels and chipmunks...

Cheeks not full, for a change

...and although they would no pose for photos, we saw two pikas, which made my day.

Mt. Lady Mac is a better trail than Ha Ling, a trail I would never do again. Lady Mac's trail is more interesting, and while it's a bit longer, it seems less strenuous to get to a very similar view of the Bow Valley. I'd do this one again.