Maritimes Trip Day 6: Kate’s Guest Post #1

Over the next week or so I’ll be posting highlights of my summer trip to Canada’s maritime provinces with my girlfriend Kate.  We had a blast, and love to have adventures and experiences in new places.  This is our story of the things we did and what we thought of them. Today is Day 6, and it’s the first of two guest posts from Kate! Race Day!  While Ryan and I were planning our roadtrip, I decided to look and see if there were any races on the east coast that worked well with our schedule.  With 8 days of...

Manitoulin Island Trip Blog

Earlier this month, my parents rented a cottage on Manitoulin Island, the largest fresh water island in the world.  On the great lake Huron, it’s a place I visited every year during my youth, as my grandparents had a cottage up there where we would come and visit each summer.  I was lucky to bring Kate up to enjoy a place she had never seen, and get away from the bustling sprawl of Toronto. We only had four days, so we had to cram it in to make the most of it.  This seems to be the story of our...

Maritimes Trip Day 5: Driving, Peggy’s Cove, Lobsters, Beer

Over the next week or so I’ll be posting highlights of my summer trip to Canada’s maritime provinces with my girlfriend Kate.  We had a blast, and love to have adventures and experiences in new places.  This is our story of the things we did and what we thought of them. Day 5 saw us leave Kejimkujik National Park, drive the South coast of NS, stop in the famous Peggy’s Cove, drive Gill to the airport, have our own lobster dinner, and visit my friend Blair for some local beers! We woke up to another lovely morning, this time in...

Maritimes Trip Day 4: Tidal Bore, Shubenacadie, Winding Roads, and Keji

Over the next week or so I’ll be posting highlights of my summer trip to Canada’s maritime provinces with my girlfriend Kate.  We had a blast, and love to have adventures and experiences in new places.  This is our story of the things we did and what we thought of them. Day 4 brought us the fun of Tidal Bore Rafting, and a long long drive to Kejimkujik National Park and Dark Sky Reserve! We woke up feeling refreshed, though Kate felt a bit tired. We said goodbye to Hank (tank) and drove up north toward Truro for tidal bore...

Maritimes Trip Day 3: COWS, Boats, and Halifax!

Over the next week or so I’ll be posting highlights of my summer trip to Canada’s maritime provinces with my girlfriend Kate.  We had a blast, and love to have adventures and experiences in new places.  This is our story of the things we did and what we thought of them. Next up is Day 3, after a long day of travelling we find ourselves on the ocean in PEI. Day 3: There is nothing quite like waking up on the ocean after a long day of travelling. Smelling the fresh and salty sea air, seeing the Sun low above...

Maritimes Trip Day 2: Magnetic Hill, Hopewell Rocks, and a tour of PEI

Over the next week or so I’ll be posting highlights of my summer trip to Canada’s maritime provinces with my girlfriend Kate.  We had a blast, and love to have adventures and experiences in new places.  This is our story of the things we did and what we thought of them. Today was day 2, which involved a long drive mixed with sightseeing and sunshine. Day 2: The Sun greeted us in the morning, and we had a lovely breakfast next to the coldest air conditioner ever, seriously I could see my breath, it was glorious.  Some other travelers enjoyed...

Maritimes Trip Day 1: The Long and Winding Road

Over the next week or so, I’ll be posting some highlights of my trip to the maritime provinces with my girlfriend Kate.  I’ll post a few photos, likes and dislikes, and talk about some of the really cool experiences we had.  I also did a fair bit of astrophotography, so I’ll post some of my first photos of the night sky with my new Canon Rebel T3i. First up… we had to get out of Toronto. Day 1: The first step was leaving at 6am to try and beat the Monday morning traffic rush out of Toronto, which is a...

1000 Things You Didn’t Know About the Universe #3: It’s Mostly Made of Nothing

Welcome to a new series of posts that will characterize 1000 amazing facts about the Universe.  There is so much out there that we have yet to learn, and every day, astronomers across the globe are using their research to reveal the deepest secrets of the cosmos.  This series will look at the strangest, coolest, most exciting facts that we have discovered in hundreds of years of modern science. Fact #3: The Universe is made of a ridiculous amount of nothing. What is everything made of? The answer will change depending on how much education you have.  For most of...

Surface Science from Philae – Finally!

A few weeks back, the Philae lander woke up and began transmitting the coveted science data it had been holding on to for the better part of 2015, waiting for the Sun to shine bright enough to wake it from its deep slumber.  As soon as it was able, it transmitted data back to the Rosetta orbiter, which then sent it on its long journey back home to Earth. Now that a few weeks have passed, we can finally see what the first science from the surface of 67P looks like, and determine its true fate. We can clearly see a...

Life on Comets? Or a Scientist who Cried Wolf

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase ‘extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.’ Such is the case with the search for life. Any scientist who finds direct evidence for the existence of extraterrestrial life had better be sure. And then once they are sure they had better find too much evidence because people will still not believe them.  It’s because alien life would be such a monumental, paradigm-shifting discovery, and our entire way of life and system of beliefs would be compromised. For this reason, I simply shake my head every time I see some sensationalized news article about the ‘potential for...