14 September 2005

08:10:39
Quite unusually for North America the Ramada Inn has breakfast included in the price of the room. And what better way to start the day than to have breakfast under the watchful eye of President Bush as he addresses the United Nations.

That was sarcasm, by the way. It was awful! Listening to him drone away as I ate my Fruit Loops was like being in some weird Nazi indoctrination breakfast or something. I did, however, find myself agreeing with some of the things that President Bush was saying. I hate to admit it, but when he started in on the UN I found myself in full agreement with him.

I provide an excerpt of his address below, with some particularly relevant portions in bold:

President Addresses United Nations High-Level Plenary Meeting

"The advance of freedom and security is the calling of our time. It is the mission of the United Nations. The United Nations was created to spread the hope of liberty, and to fight poverty and disease, and to help secure human rights and human dignity for all the world's people. To help make these promises real, the United Nations must be strong and efficient, free of corruption, and accountable to the people it serves. The United Nations must stand for integrity, and live by the high standards it sets for others. And meaningful institutional reforms must include measures to improve internal oversight, identify cost savings, and ensure that precious resources are used for their intended purpose.

The United Nations has taken the first steps toward reform. The process will continue in the General Assembly this fall, and the United States will join with others to lead the effort. And the process of reform begins with members taking our responsibilities seriously. When this great institution's member states choose notorious abusers of human rights to sit on the U.N. Human Rights Commission, they discredit a noble effort, and undermine the credibility of the whole organization. If member countries want the United Nations to be respected -- respected and effective, they should begin by making sure it is worthy of respect.

At the start of a new century, the world needs the United Nations to live up to its ideals and fulfill its mission. The founding members of this organization knew that the security of the world would increasingly depend on advancing the rights of mankind, and this would require the work of many hands. After committing America to the idea of the U.N. in 1945, President Franklin Roosevelt declared: "The structure of world peace cannot be the work of one man, or one party, or one nation." Peace is the responsibility of every nation and every generation."

And speaking of President Bush... today we travel very nearly to the US-Canada border. I have marked in purple our projected route for this morning as we make our way South and West of Lethbridge to Waterton Lakes National Park.

09:11:05
For the final time on this trip we approach the Rocky Mountains. There's something really exciting about coming up on them across the wide open prairies and seeing them as they rise out of the horizon.

09:21:29
I wanted to capture the majesty of the prairies with the mountains in the distance across a field of wheat. I thought it would be a really great photo, but it's not that great, I guess.

09:22:04
This one isn't any better, although you can see the wheat a lot better... for those who like wheat.

09:32:26
Once again, the recent snowfall at high altitudes really makes for spectacular mountain scenery.

09:32:38
That's the same picture kind of twice in a row, isn't it? I wonder why I did that? Oh! But look at the right side in the ditch. There's been so much rain recently that ditches and low parts of fields are all covered in water. This is bad news for the farmers, unfortunately, as it will make some of their crop useless.

09:37:51
And so we reach the town of Cardston which is a major Mormon area. Actually, I think this is the largest Mormon concentration outside of Salt Lake City, but maybe I am wrong about that. There's lots of Mormons (and other religious wackos, for that matter) around here in these parts. It makes Lethbridge a little bit creepy, actually.

Oh... and this is the Mormon Temple at Cardston. I've known a few people who got married here. Some of them more than others....

09:51:29
We're almost in Waterton now... just a half hour or so more and we'll be inside those mountains up ahead.

In this zoomed in Satellite photo you can see the South-West corner of Alberta and Waterton Lakes National Park. You can also see a few of these weird round green areas that are formed by irrigation sprinklers that drive in circles and water a circular patch of land, leaving the corners dry and not suitable for growing. The climate isn't so dry here, but some crops do require more water than generally falls here, thus requiring irrigation. We'll see more of these later.

10:28:01
Our first stop of the day is the Alpine Stables in Waterton. It is from here that we shall depart on our horseback trip today.

Oh yah, and they have some cats around so I thought I'd take pictures of them for the weirdo cat lovers out there. I call this one "Cat With Mountains And Two Other Cats".

10:32:08
I can just imagine what all the psycho cat lovers are saying right now....

10:32:12
Stop! All of you! You're making me sick!

10:39:11
Maxi likes the cats.

10:40:15
I brought my shoes along on this trip specifically for today. As soon as we get back I'm tossing them in the garbage. I am through with wearing shoes.

10:48:04
And so, off we go! In the distance, on the hill, is the Prince of Wales hotel, one of the most photographed hotels in the world... the reason for which you shall see shortly, I think, once we get a bit higher up.

10:50:37

10:53:42
The Prince of Wales has an amazing view out across Waterton Lake, as you can kind of see here.

10:56:39
There's not a lot that needs to be said when you're out on the back of a horse, so I'll just keep the commentary to a minimum and let everyone enjoy the photos.

11:11:24

11:25:43

11:31:27

11:33:59
Notice the deer in the grass?

11:39:23
This bay down below is where I have often gone scuba diving. In fact, I did my certification dives here. The water is EXTREMELY cold and there is no fish or anything, usually. Just rocks and water.

11:43:32

11:45:51
A view back toward the Prince of Wales hotel. We started off our trip in the trees at the end of the water just to the right side of the hill where the Prince of Wales hotel is and have come this far in just under an hour of riding through the forest.

11:50:20
Now we go a bit deeper into the forest and up into the mountains.

11:52:16
A view out across Waterton Lake as seen from the back of a horse. The evil United States starts maybe halfway down the lake in this photo.

11:53:36

11:54:56

11:56:31

11:58:55

12:13:49
And so we arrive at our final destination: Bertha Falls.

12:15:35

12:15:44

12:18:11
I am fascinated by the waterfall coming off the mountain far above us.

12:18:19
These are our horses, waiting for us to finish looking around.

Another satellite image to show where we've gone to here up in the hills. We started out just a bit below where the "Waterton Lakes" arrow is pointing and are now up in the valley to the left of the "Bertha Falls" arrow.

12:19:53

12:24:12

12:32:35

12:41:08
Heading back down the mountain once again I decide that it's time for the obligatory terrible photo of myself.

12:43:20

12:44:53

12:46:51
The Prince of Wales hotel comes into view once again.