Panorama (Inveremere, Canada)

So I didn't actually get around to saying anything about New York. What an amazing city. The diversity again is a highlight. Being in Chinatown was perhaps like being in Hong Kong and I had the best Japanese food I've had since leaving Japan. The people were always friendly and helpful and in spite of my not leaving Manhattan Islands I always felt safe. The scar of 9/11 is an ever present hole in the skyline which although still below ground level is a massive construction site. The scale of almost everything is impressive, the Empire state building is testimony to that as is the theater district which feels as though it doesn't end as you stand on the corner of 42nd Street and Broadway. Perhaps the highlight is all the names of places which we know so well though the world permeating culture Americana. 42nd Street, 5th Ave, the Guggenheim, the Empire state building, Brooklyn Bridge, the State of Liberty, Central Park and the Great Lawn. All of these things which I held images of in my head which did not nearly match up to the reality of bring there in person.

Then it was onwards to Las Vegas, a city of such gross excess it is hard to distinguish beingimpressed from being disgusted at things like the $3 billion being spent on a new hotel/casino/shopping center. I really don't think that I knew the meaning of consumer culture until I saw that. Lets just build ourselves an Eiffel tower and Arc De Triumph why don't we.
That interesting experience aside.

This is a once in a lifetime experience which I hope to have more than once. The Grand Canyon. The shear scale of this most fantastic geological feature is beyond comprehension. Even looking back over my photos I can hardly believe I was there. It was a long drive in both directions, but the feeling o perspective that looking over a natural feature which makes you feel less like a person and more like an and clambering around it's edge, the billions of years of earths history exposed for the world to see as testimony to the minuscule moment in time which our own species has had to leave our disproportionate footprint.

I'm now in Panorama after a short stay in Calgary. I was staying with a really nice guy who lived about half an hour out of the city. It was a really beautiful to be somewhere so quiet. It made me think again that although I could now I think live in a city for some time now, I will always be drawn to these quieter places.
It's very cold up here though, approaching -20 C over nights.