The text precedes a 2nd new blog of photographs in the two new postings.

Sometimes the text gets distorted when I post so many pictures in one blog and so I hope you will read this block of text with a few photos and then look at the following pictures.

The first 2 pictures are VERY expensive bottles of wine that were in the silent auction. I explain more about that later in this text.

This third picture is Adam Vankooverden - Olympic kayaker.

Friday Night, February 20th/09

Banff Springs Fairmont Hotel

Gold Medal Plates Culinary Competition

Man oh man did we have a great time!!!

free wine - though Charley and I only sampled a very little and did not overindulge.

Six mini-meals.... guests then voted the evening's winner, Peoples Choice Award.

So what is the Gold Medal Culinary Championships - you may ask.

A weekend-long event held to raise money for Olympic athletes.

Adam Van Kooverden was very handsome and also very nice.

I said he could "butt" in line ahead of us and he replied, "Oh no preferential treatment for the athletes" and smiled. 

The chefs were given $350. dollars each and they had to make meals for the 240 guests and stay within budget. There were at least 3 dishes of pork, 1 fish dish, and 1 lamb and lastly my favourite...read on and find out what the main ingredient was.

Then they were given a mystery wine (so were we - as much as we wanted with the meals - to help us judge compatibility of wine & dinner)

There were a number of qualities we were to judge: taste, texture, WOW factor, etc

I have to say ( as you look through the pictures find the little round cabbage roll with the crinkly red garnish on top) my favourite!!!! which sadly did not win.

The cabbage roll had by far the most amazing and delicious taste - did not know at first it was elk meat (might have been put off if I had) but it was simply the best.

The chef from Ottawa, Charles Pabst won.

The silent auction was WAY out of our budget. (They had slashed the price for tickets to the event get people to attend so we could afford that).

A $9,000 dollar bottle of wine and the minimum opening bid was $1,800 dollars.

A trip to the Yorkshire Dales with Food Critic James Chatto, two Olympians and a walking tour with the athletes was $8,000 dollars & and opening bud of $2500.

Another trip with the amazing Gold & Silver Olympian Simon Whitfield (Triathlete) to the wineries of the Napa Valley and a bike tour (Yeah - just try and keep up to a gold medal winner on a bike - right - especially after a few glasses of wine). 

Well that was way out of $$$ sight too.

Still we had a grand time and met some people from Banff (people were from all over the place)

- one woman had just moved from Halifax at the end of January.

SO enjoy the next posting with all sorts of photos of the evening - beautiful setting!!!!! at the Banff Springs

 

ROAD TRIP

Some photos of the landscape between Banff and Calgary.

We had a lovely bright day with high cirrus clouds and blue sky.

This first picture shows the formation called hoodoos.

If you are wondering what and why the shot of the ketchup bottles on a table. We wanted to show you our view from our table at the restaurant in Canmore where we stopped on the way.

You can see the mountains at least an hour before you reach them coming from Calgary

Took 3 long walks yesterday - babysitting the dog, Santiago.

This little cat was very curious about the dog, fearless and inquisitive.

It came right up to Santi and tried to play with her wagging tail.

The other photos include scenes from a walk on the Fenland Loop, a 2km circle in the woods. A cougar has been seen there dawns and dusks for the past few weeks. And, a 600 pound elk was killed by a cougar near Canmore.

Glad that one is well fed for a few weeks - they close all trails near a cougar kill so the cat can feed for as long as it wants.

The woman in the photo with Santi is Martha, from Halifax. She has lived here 6 years. 

I think I was the happiest puppy at the dog park!

This Corgi's name is Charley

and the following photo shows a Saint Bernard puppy named Mojo.
What can I say?

I went with Kathy and Santiago (the dog we babysit sometimes) to the Canmore Off-Leash dog Park...with  the best dog park view in the world.

Dogs of every breed & non-breed, every size, every colour.

Running, chasing, playing, chewing,

slobbering, and having a wonderful time.