This man just purchased a Tornado Potato.

I’d be skeptical of any food named after a natural disaster as well. I’m thinking of rolling out more devastation based food treats, for example: Cyclone Carrots, Tsunami Salami or Hot Beef Sundaes (while not specifically named after a natural disaster, eat one and you’ll see why they fit in this category).

Vancouver’s English Bay is a beautiful area, I took this one from Jericho Beach looking towards downtown

the older dolls are really the scariest ones

This weekend in Western North Carolina I found an old abandoned car in the township of Balsam. Someone likely saved up for this vehicle and for whatever reason, it has been left abandoned for a while because now grass has surrounded it. A story that will be left untold for those that spot the automobile among the weeds.

How many other cities have a landfill open house? I don’t know… but Vancouver does. And people were certainly obsessed with it. Children and everyone were everywhere, even on the machinery. Kids were getting their faces painted and all other sorts of craziness was occurring.

Vancouver has a nice landfill. One of the better ones I’ve seen. The people of the metro area should be proud that we only dump 500kg/person/year… which if assume that involves 1.5 million people that is only 750 million kg per year. Way to go!

Sarcasm aside, Vancouver does have   of the smallest ecological footprints of any world city. This city only requires a little over 300X its footprint to sustain itself. NYC needs around 1000X.

Clearly, I had a lot of fun at the landfill open house. Thanks @robynchirps for the invite!

I’ll break from my photo posting tradition a little bit by including myself in a shot. However, the only way you can gain an idea of the scale and the contrast of the brutal landscape around the South Dakotan badlands is in relation to a person amongst their craggy peaks.

I hiked only about a mile through the landscape and despite chugging water most of the way (as signs everywhere tell you to) I still experienced deep heat exhaustion and a headache the rest of the day. The area radiates heat from all around and will drain you quickly!

Because of the Horizon Deepwater oil gusher, the Louisiana marshes will never be the same again. I still remember my time there and hope I can return someday to a restored habitat although I highly doubt we’ll ever find a way to replace the delicate balance of this marine ecosystem. The above silhouette of a fisherman is off Pecan Island in the southwest part of the state, one of the areas that will be hit by the oil slick.

The Black Hills of South Dakota are an interesting formation, it reminds me of a prehistoric landscape, half expecting to see brontosauri wandering around. I took this one from Harney Peak.

The otherworldly textures of Yellowstone National Park are truly something to behold

“Believe it or not, somewhere between the cigarettes and the philosophy, this is where culture is born” captured @ Emily Carr on Granville Island. I found this sign particularly relevant because it demonstrates some of the local angst around the Olympics.