DawnO – Page 3 – robodawno.com

August 12, 2024

Mountain Glory

On a cold morning in January I was sitting with my phone, a stopwatch, and a calendar, ready to call in at the exact moment that reservations opened for the huts at Mount Assiniboine. My practice with timing paid off and I was rewarded with a reservation code for 2 nights at the Naiset huts.

I rallied a group of tennis friends and Thursday night we were driving to Canmore in anticipation of this adventure. 2 of the girls were backcountry first timers, so there was a lot of gear sharing and pack packing advice.

Friday morning we drove to the Mount Shark helipad south of Canmore. Pro tip: if you ever plan to do this get there early so that you aren’t rushed and can park your vehicle at the trailhead instead of 1.4kms away at the helipad. Your future hiking self will thank you!

We were on the 6th flight for the 6 minute chopper ride up to Assiniboine. I was in awe of the scenic helicopter views and our first glimpse of Assiniboine, which is the highest peak in the southern range of the Canadian Rockies.

We dropped our gear at our home for the next 2 nights and set out on our first hike: Niblet, Nublet, Nub peak, Cerulean Lake, Sunburst Lake Loop. We had 10.9kms of fields of wildflowers, turquoise lakes, and monster mountain views.

Day 2 morning a couple of us walked the 10 minutes to Lake Magog for sunrise. It did not disappoint.

After our hut breakfast we set off for the 14.5km Windy Ridge and Windy peak. We were diverted by a grizzly on the trail and watched it from a distance as it moved through the meadow. Yikes. The hike afforded us views of the scale of Mount Assiniboine beside the others in the range.

We were up and at’em early on a frosty morning on day 3 for our 27km hike out. This was our only day with full packs (though we had eaten most of our food) so our shoulders and hip bones were feeling it. We had an early encounter with a large black bear on the trail that put us on edge.

The sunshine views along Marvel Lake kept us motivated. Though I was anticipating the last 10km to be a slog we all felt pretty good at the end, albeit glad to be done.

As a spiritual but not religious person, I can truly say that I felt so close to ‘heaven’ up there that I was feeling very moved. I am so grateful that my body allows me to do these adventures and that I’ve found great friends who are keen to come along.

You’ve probably been wondering what RobO was up to when I was adventuring all weekend. Here’s a text I received when we got back to civilization:

July 9, 2024July 9, 2024

It’s All or Puffin

We enjoyed our wee road trip to Oban, stopping at a couple of castles and viewpoints along the way.

Oban is a lovely seaside town but we really only had the chance to visit it for the evening as we had plans on the Isle of Mull the next day. Unfortunately I didn’t realize that we should have booked our ferry in advance. They were sold out until 6pm, so we had to pivot! We ended up getting up really early to drive about 2 hours to another ferry crossing.

We arrived to Mull in good time and had a glorious bluebird day for our drive across the island. Remember how Rob improved his left hand stick shift driving on the left side of the road? Now he can add this to his driving resume: single track roads with blind corners and surprise sheep on the road!

We’re staying in the town of Dervaig, which is about 4 miles of winding hairpin turns from Calgary! Of course we had to go there and it is (of course) nothing like our Canadian sprawling city. This Scottish Calgary boasts one of Scotland’s best white sand beaches.

We spent an afternoon in Tobermory, browsing along its colourful waterfront shops.

Our main reason for coming to the Isle of Mull was for a special boat trip. It left from the Isle of Iona which is one of the oldest religious centres in Western Europe. Its abbey was built in 563 AD.

Our boat tour took us to the Isle of Staffa, which is well known for its basalt columns and the famous Fingal’s Cave. In 1829 the composer Mendelssohn visited the island and wrote The Hebrides after hearing the sound of the waves crashing deep in the cave.

The cave is spectacular and definitely reason to visit this island, but the main draw for us was to try to see some of the puffins that nest on the grassy side of the island. We were lucky enough to see hundreds of puffins, many as close as one metre away from us. Both Rob and I fell in love with these curious little guys. They aren’t very good at flying (they’re masters at swimming and diving) so watching and hearing them land on the grass was especially endearing. Sorry not sorry for the onslaught of puffin pictures.

Tomorrow we take a ferry back to the mainland and head toward the area of Loch Ness. Could Nessie be as puffin awesome?

July 3, 2024

The Open Book O’s

When we rented a car to get around Scotland I knew that there would be a few ‘speedbumps’: driving on the opposite side to what we’re used to, using the left hand for the stick shift, manoeuvring traffic circles in a clockwise direction, and, as my parents had warned us, the tendency to hug the shoulder because of the perceptual challenge. But I didn’t think it would be as stressful as it actually was. We were both white knuckling the trip: Rob at the wheel and me trying to navigate while seeing that we are perpetually centimetres from sideswiping vehicles, bridges, and guardrails.
At one point we were driving on a road not much wider than Fifi, our red Fiat, when we came up behind a tractor pulling a long flatbed. Without any warning the driver put the tractor is reverse and started backing his rig toward us, causing us to scramble to reverse into a cutout we had passed. As he straight-line backed the flatbed beside us there were moments where there was a millimeter between him and our side mirror!

Needless to say, we were thrilled when we arrived in Wigtown (pronounced Wigt’n), our home for the week.

I distinctly remember booking this holiday. It was 2021 in the heart of Covid. We were in a coffee shop dreaming about all of the travel experiences that we wanted to do. Not knowing what the future would hold we booked The Open Book on AirBnB for the next opening, 3 years away, for July 2024!
And here we are! This is an unusual AirBnB experience where we stay in the flat above the bookshop and run the bookshop during our time here. It is very relaxed. We set our own hours and decide on what type of advertising, events, and activities we fancy while we’re here.

We got an orientation from Joyce, a wonderful resident and fellow bookshop owner. Wigtown is Scotland’s National Book Town and has about 800 residents and 15 bookshops! We had some good omens right off the bat: a decorative pillow with GordO’s (our God-dog) face on it and a Canadian flag in the cupboard! We set up 2 window displays, one representing us (2 travel books, a tennis book, 1 Beatles book, Anne of Green Gables, and Chris Hadfield’s book… it is mostly second hand books, so selection is limited), and one of DawnO’s picks (fiction books I’ve read or would like to read). We also set up our display of branded pottery that I made and carried here in my backpack!

Our first day we had 41 shoppers and 1 dog (Billy, who knows exactly where to find the dog treats!). Most of the customers were book loving tourists, including a couple of Canadians, Americans, and caravaning Englanders. We’ve also met many Wigtown residents, who have welcomed us and given good tips about the area. In our flat there is a shelf of books written by local authors so it has felt scandalous to be reading the memoirs of the people that we are meeting!
This has been a wonderful time to slow down, chat with people, sit in our window seat to read, and really feel like we live in a Scottish town. Hopefully the sun comes out in the next few days and we’ll do some touring the area after ‘work’.

June 22, 2024June 23, 2024

Soul-stice

I have a friend who is embarking on a bicycle journey around North America where she is planning to rely on the kindness of others for her basic needs. Though I think that this is amazing and very realistic, the thought of it pulls me very far out of my comfort zone. I like to be self sufficient and don’t particularly like asking others, especially strangers, for help.

Cue the universe laughing as we arrived for our weekend in Whitehorse and our car rental had mysteriously been cancelled. Our AirBnB was located an 35 minute drive south of town and we had reservations at the hot springs 20 minutes north of town. After an hour or so of exhausting every other option from car shares to renting a U-Haul, I called our AirBnB hosts to let them know of our plight. Little did we know that Marion and Phil would be the first of many Yukon people who showed genuine hospitality and generosity, making this a weekend that exceeded our expectations.

Marion immediately volunteered to cancel her afternoon clients (she is a foot care nurse) to pick us up. We convinced her that we would be fine to enjoy our afternoon in Whitehorse and took the bus to the weekly farmer’s market and found a local brewery.

After work, Marion drove us to our home for the next 3 nights, which was located on the beautiful Marsh Lake. The next day we rode bikes to the trailhead of a hike that gave us a panoramic view of our neighbourhood.

Have I mentioned that RobO doesn’t love hiking as much as I do?

We had a siesta because we knew we would need some sleep to be able to do our main reason for coming North for June 21: enjoying the midnight sun during summer solstice! First we watched the Oilers historically force game 7 with new friends next door to our AirBnB. Next we set off for a 11:30pm kayak on the lake. Other than the overcast skies and mosquitos the size of hummingbirds, it was all that we hoped it would be.

Today Marion and Phil continued their kindness by driving us to the hot springs to enjoy a relaxing morning, then dropping us for more exploring in downtown Whitehorse. A definite highlight was a stop at Miles Canyon on the way home.

The scenery of Whitehorse is beautiful, but it is definitely the people that make us want to return one day. We have an early morning trip to the airport tomorrow, then only 1 week of work before we head out on our next adventure… running a bookshop in Scotland!

April 9, 2024April 9, 2024

Fiji Time

To get to our next destination we took a loooong boat ride up to the Yasawa Islands. As we dropped off excited tourists at exotic looking resorts with white sand beaches, I couldn’t help but feel some anxious thoughts about the homestay accommodation that I had booked for us. The reviews said that it was quite rustic, with spotty solar electricity, cold water showers, and an estuary rather than a white sand beach.

It didn’t take long for me to remember why we like these types of travel experiences and give some reinforcement for me to trust my gut when booking. We had a variety of adventures and experiences, many of which we would not have had if we had chosen the resort accommodations.

We arrived at the same time as a NZ/Fijian couple and met other travellers from Denmark, Argentina, and Belgium. On the first night we sat in our homestay family’s living area to watch a Fijian rugby match on TV (go Drua, although they lost). We drank Kava, which is a drink that tastes a bit like earth. Fijians drink it during ceremonies and with friends and it has a calming effect. RobO said he felt a bit of a tongue tingle but we had minimal effects as our servings were ‘low tide’, meaning that the coconut bowl was only about half full.

We hiked up to the rock at the top the hill behind our house to see the views. It was the third time in our travels that a dog has led us along a hike.

We kayaked across the bay and found our own private white sand beach.

During low tide we could walk out hundreds of meters and we learned how to dig for qeqe (pronounced ghinghy), which is a type of clam.

The best part was eating our catch with coconut cream, lime, and chilies.

We boated over to the Blue Lagoon for an afternoon of snorkeling and beach time. Our rating was that the snorkeling was second only to the Maldives. I was even lucky enough to see an octopus.

For dinner one night we had a Lovo, which is a Fijian feast that is cooked via hot stones underground. We learned how to husk coconuts, scrape out the meat, and squeeze it out to get the coconut cream. That, mixed with a little onion and type of spinach and put in a half a coconut was my favourite dish.

My favourite activity was learning to spearfish. We boated to a beautiful snorkeling location and watched 2 Fijians free dive down and use a kind of slingshot spear to catch the fish. None of the tourists were successful in the hunt. It was a little bit sad to see them spearing all of the beautiful colourful fish that we enjoy watching when snorkeling.

We then went back to the Blue Lagoon for a fish fry on the beach. The fish were cooked over the fire and served in a broth of salt water, lime, and chilies.

One of the major benefits of the homestay was getting to know our Fijian family. We definitely will never forget Nancy, the 1 year old who looks like she is straight out of a Pixar film. She would stagger around, always barefoot, wreaking havoc on the 3 cats and Beast the dog. She was always sandy, sticky, or wet and always wanting a hug or snuggle.

One other adventure of the homestay were the critters! Every night on our way to our little house we would have to navigate groupings of large toads that were really creepy to walk through in the dark. On the first night there were 11 gathered outside our front step!

We liked the geckos that we saw in our house, but we needed help to deal with Steve, the biggest spider that I’ve ever seen in my bedroom.

The photo does not show the true scale of Steve!

We took the boat back to the main island and wheeled up to our final accommodation in a local minibus! Here are some parting shots from the Yasawas.

March 23, 2024September 24, 2025

Mudder and Daughter

How lucky am I to be able to spend a week travelling with my mom (Dixie).

We started off with a couple of days in the US capital of Washington DC. Neither of us know very much about US politics and history, so I was glad that we bought an audio walking tour to tell us what was what. In fact, at one point we had a rather hilarious debate with me thinking that the Lincoln memorial was the White House and Dixie thinking that it wasn’t because the White House has a dome on the top (it doesn’t).

Audio tour nerds

Washington Monument

Lincoln Memorial and the reflecting pool

Jefferson Memorial

The Secret Service were in high gear right beside the White House with a whole street blocked off. Someone special must have been in town.

Capital building

We knew there was a chance that the cherry blossoms would be in bloom, but we really lucked out by being there on the day the media announced it to be ‘peak bloom’.

The tulip trees were magnificent

Tidal Basin

We popped in to the Renwick Gallery, one of the Smithsonian Museums and enjoyed some art that foreshadowed some of the artists whose work we would see again later in the trip.

Day 2 we started out with a great free tour of the JFK Performing Arts Centre.

There are tons of incredible art donated from different countries, including this chandelier in the opera house.

We meandered around the historic Georgetown neighbourhood and stopped at a coffee shop to taste the ‘limited time’ Cherry Blossom Latte!

Church at Georgetown University

I’d never seen a Weeping Cherry Blossom before

We capped off our DC adventure with Southern food at the Union market. Étoufeé is a spicy shrimp and rice dish that was delicious!

After a train ride to Richmond, Virginia we started the main event! We spent the next 4 days at the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, which is the largest clay conference in the world! At the opening ceremonies they said that over 6000 people were registered. We listened to clay talks, watched demos, visited galleries, and got lots of free glaze samples from the huge Resource Hall. Our heads are exploding with inspiration!

The resource fair where we could see and buy everything clay!

Last year I had done a workshop at our local pottery studio about body mechanics and injury prevention/management during pottery. A great pottery friend had encouraged me to bring it to a larger audience, so I applied to do it at NCECA. Never in a million years did I think I would be accepted, but in August I found out that I was! Friday morning I did my session, called ‘Can My Body Do This Forever?’. There were at least 500 people in attendance and so many questions at the end that the sound tech had to get the hook to get me off the stage! I am very proud of this experience.

Some of my favourite parts of the conference were the little things:

There was a gum-ball machine filled with tiny clay toys made by 50 different artists.

There was a fundraiser cup sale where all registrants of the conference were encouraged to bring a cup to sell. There were 1550 cups, which resulted in over $67,000 towards scholarships. I could have spent hours looking at all of the different submissions.

Can you spot the Dawn and Dixie cups?

Having dinner with a pottery friend who used to work at Medalta and has now moved to Calgary.

We didn’t have much time for tourist stuff outside of the conference, but enjoyed learning the *free* Richmond bus system and eating good food.

I’m wishing I had some days to get muddy at the studio with my new ideas and glaze samples, but next weekend Rob and I are jumping on another plane, this time to Fiji. I guess my ideas will have the chance to percolate while I enjoy some sun and beach time.

August 5, 2023August 5, 2023

Birthday Bucket

Anyone who knows me well will know that I love being on an adventure for my birthday and this year was no exception.

I took the whole week off and started out with a 3 day ‘Hike our Brains Out’ trip to Canmore with a friend. We lucked out with 3 blue sky days. We chose 1 hike in Kananaskis, 1 in Banff, and 1 in Yoho, so the terrains were different and all beautiful. After a couple of almost 10 hour days on trail I would say we succeeded in our goal!

After a car day to pick up RobO in Medicine Hat it was back to Calgary again to fly to San Francisco. I used the Turo car share app to rent us a Mini Cooper we named Timmy and we hit the road to Napa.

We have had ‘Go to a Chris Isaak concert’ on the bucket list for upwards of 10 years. When I saw he was playing Napa on my birthday I took it as a sign. After a morning run we started the day with a wine and chocolate tasting (yum!) followed by paella for 2 for dinner.

In the lineup to get into the concert the security guard told RobO that signs were not allowed. Good thing I could fold them up to fit into my pockets! The result: a birthday shoutout during a song. The concert was definitely worth a bucket list check!

The next morning I had set us up for a ‘Drills and Play’ tennis session at the fancy Napa club. It was great. We polished off some chilequiles for post tennis carbs and headed back over the Bay bridge for the trip home.

Last event of this birthday week is a wedding in Calgary. 1 week, 3 different adventures = success!

May 12, 2023May 14, 2023

Desert Life

When we arrived to Tunisia we really didn’t have much booked – just our first couple of nights of accommodation and a couple of nights near the end. We were the most excited about the end one because it was in a cave at the top of a mountain!
The Berber people from long ago built these dwellings to help protect themselves and their grain from raiders. Most of them are crumbling but a few have been restored, including ours which has been converted into a little hotel.

We were shown to our room, which amazingly stays cool in the heat and warm in the cold. I’m surprised that RockyB didn’t roast me more in her blog (https://www.delafrijoles.com/2023/05/from-stormy-seas-to-magical-mountains/) because I still give her a hard time over Rock-Awn 4.0 when she booked a hotel room that didn’t have a bathroom door. This cave room took it to another level because it had a shower at the foot of our beds! One night we laughed so hard because RockyB was showering while I was laying in my bed reading my book.

When we arrived it was a little weird and I was disappointed by some poor communication, so we weren’t sure that we were going to stay the full time. Our host made some adjustments, but I think the true turning point was meeting the only 2 other guests staying there. This Argentinian and Kazakhstan couple who live in the US had a car and were also touring the area. I was really proud of myself for getting the courage to step outside of my comfort zone and ask them if we could hang with them the next day. They were very welcoming and we all had a great time exploring the nearby sights.

We drove to Tatouine (the name inspired the Tatooine from Star Wars) and from there our friend drove this tiny rental car up a very rustic road to our first sight.

From afar Ksar Tounket didn’t look like much, but as we walked up to it our jaws dropped.

We then drove to Chenini village, which is a much larger village built into the side of a mountain, including a striking white mosque.

On our 2nd day at the cave hotel we hired a local villager to take us on a sunset hike. I think this was one of my highlights of the whole trip. Aymen taught us about all of the different herbs and spices along the trail. We hiked to some of the oldest Berber villages in the area and watched the sunset from the top vantage point.

I’ll leave you with more of the views from our epic ksar accommodation. We’ve now made our way back to Tunis and this Rock-Awn 6.0 adventure will come to an end. It definitely won’t be the last Rock-Awn instalment!!! Tomorrow I fly to Venice to meet RobO and family, so stay tuned for some robodawno adventures.

May 10, 2023May 10, 2023

In a galaxy far, far away

Before coming to Tunisia one of the only things that I knew about it is that it was used for many filming locations for the Star Wars films. Even though I am not a Star Wars geek, it was obvious that we would try to see some of the sites. It surprised me how genuinely excited I felt to be at them. I think especially because there is zero fanfare about them by the Tunisian people. These crumbling, garbage collecting sites are just places that the people walk by each day but with some upkeep and tourism marketing they could be goldmines!

The first that we visited was the Mos Eisley cantina from Episode IV. Can’t you just hear the music playing?

We walked about 3kms up the coast to Amghar Mosque, which was Obi-Wan’s house in Episode IV.

When we got off the bus in Medenine we were only about 1 block away from Anakin’s hovel from Episode I.

We found that right around the times that we were at these sites something special happened, like we walked to the road and the exact bus that we needed was just driving by, or that we were standing right by a perfect little coffee shop with wifi. I have to think the force was strong with us at these places.

We’ve moved to the mountains now. Spoiler alert… the next post is going to be a gooder!

May 9, 2023May 10, 2023

In the Djerbahood

Our first Rock-Awn all inclusive experience was (not surprisingly) not our favourite accommodation experience. In defence of the Hari Club Beach Resort, we didn’t have very nice weather, so we took a pass on appreciating the pools and amenities in gale force winds. I think for us there is a lot of travel joy in trying local foods from local restaurants, which is quite different than the resort buffet experience. This morning we did have our very best activity there, which was a hammam and gommage. Picture the Rock-Awns enjoying a sauna and then a scrub down.

During our days on the island we learned the island bus system and one day took it to a community with one of Tunisia’s oldest synagogues. When we met the government representative the other day he was proud to tell us that Djerba is very accepting of all religions and thus has quite a few Jewish people on the island. He said that this synagogue is a place that many people visit as a pilgrimage.

We enjoyed wandering around an area called Djerbahood, where numerous mural artists painted works throughout the small alleyways in the area.

We also visited a couple of famous film sites, but stay tuned for a future blog for those pics. Today we’re moving to the desert, to an accommodation with a lot of anticipation. May the force be with us!