Recovering from the awe they call Canada.

Definitely the most epic trip (so far) of my life. Quick recap: Headed to Nelson with our neighbors at the apartment and my roommate. Drinking age in British Columbia? 19.

When we first got there, we headed to a grocery store parking lot and set up camp. Gilbert and crew headed up in his Westfalia (guy pictured here is not anyone of us) camper-van while Shea and I took the Pterry-mobile. Unfortunately only four of us were of age to get in the bars, so we went in and grabbed a few beers at Finley's, an Irish karaoke bar in Nelson. We met up with a couple locals and they showed us to Spirits, a younger-generation bar. We got there and grabbed a beer and took a few shots and stood at the bar facing the stage and watched live music. Kick ass live show; Safire Jones (listen to Simplicity, this is her personal MySpace, but she played with an electro-rock band at Spirit) was playing.

We closed down the bar after the show and headed to The New Grand Hotel/Hostel. After talking with the guy at the register forever (he was a nice guy but couldn't understand the processes of his computer and punched the same information into the system forty times, so we were a little irritated) we ended up paying $20 for the three of us (Jonas, Shea and I) to stay in this room. Pretty cheap rate for a bed, bathroom and community shower.

The next morning, we headed out to get some food, grabbed some bagels from the grocery store and made breakfast happen in the Westfalia. After breakfast: liquor store. Grabbed some booze and got this shot.

We then set out for the Ainsworth Hot Springs and Shea drove the van and Jay and I took the Pterry-mobile. Shea got ahead of us in town and set out before we did, so Jay and I took a scenic route.

Snapped this one of Jay, as he was literally saying, "What are we doing here? This is the best trip I've ever taken."

After this shot, we were headed to the orange bridge in the background, and on our way there we stopped at a second-hand store to get some shorts for the hot springs, and got probably the best shorts we could have ever gotten for such an occasion. Ranging from orange and white polka-dots to cut-off courdourys, we were set for hot springing. It's also apparent that the J-Spot presentation was so correct. The perception in America of sex is so flawed that we shelter the fact that sex exists so people refuse that safe and responsible sex can coexist. The point I'm getting at is that a thrift-store in Canada has a stand with free condoms and literature educating the right way about STDs and other negative effects sex can have.

Anyway, back to the trip. As we were heading out of the thrift-store, a lady had locked her keys in her '89 Honda. She had a coat hanger, but had no skills in opening a door with it. I asked if she needed help and after 5 or 6 minutes I had her car unlocked. She gave Jay a few ciggarettes (I don't smoke) for us helping out. We got back on the road and headed up to Ainsworth.

The hot springs were incredible. These springs have the highest lithium content, so we're told from some of the locals, so you have a natural body high that is unlike anything I have ever experienced. The caves were unbelieveable. Mineral crystal walls and a natural passage underground. One can't describe it correctly to do it justice.

We hung out at these hot springs for a bit, and for the CAN $7 student rate, it made it even more affordable than beer. We all dried off in the changing rooms and got back to the cars to warm them up. I threw the macro filter on and took this after I realized that I had no U.S. currency in my wallet - all Canadian.


We headed back to Nelson after Ainsworth, and Garret, Jay, Jonas and Gilbert decided to stay another night, and Shea and I headed back home. We got to the border and (of course) we got taken inside and our car was searched. Nothing to hide (obviously), because we expect to get searched; two snowboarder kids with a pterodactyl on the hood of the car automatically get searched.

It was the greatest trip ever, and I'm sure they'll just keep getting better. I love my car (excellent gas mileage) and the fact that only $80 was spent on the entire trip (gas, alcohol, hostel, food). After looking through Lightroom, I stumbled upon this picture in my Cybershot library. It's not a great photo, but this is the image I think of when I look back and remember the trip.


I'll have more pics up on MySpace and Facebook. These were the most important photographs I took, but there are plenty more snapshots to fill an album on Facebook.

Thanks for reading.

-Pterry