Cottage with the homies.

Spent the past two weekends up at the cottage with a few friends. swam a bit, drank a bit, burned a bit. The first weekend was a last minute/night before planned trip with my friend Richard. Started the day driving up and throwing a ton of dirt on some dirt roads, then spent the rest of the day boating around the bays, and capped it off with some wine and beer by the fire. For a weekend that was doomed to be spent playing video games at home, it was definitely worth the trip.

throwin some dirt

Capt. Lavictoire

The second trip was planned for a few weeks, and had a bigger turnout and definitely better weather. It was blue skys & 35+C both days so we spent it almost exclusively in the water. I didn't take as many photos as I would have liked this past weekend, but I guess I was just too busy enjoying it. Thanks all for coming out! 

driving up at dusk

Campfire!

Kichesippi fueled Saturday

Chillin on the dock

Swimming

..more dock chilling. 

David!

Canadian Grand Prix 2015

        

        I was lucky enough to spend my weekend in MTL with my father watching the Canadian Grand Prix. Which if you know me, is a huge deal. I was basically stoked the whole weekend, and had highlights of briefly encountering Formula 1 legend Sir Jackie Stewart downtown, and watching Kimi lose it right in-front of me during the race. 

Walking up to the track on friday morning was surreal, as Mike and I were crossing the bridge to the circuit, the cars were just starting to get on track. I had never seen a live F1 car before, so hearing the cars carve around the track as we were waiting in line was just making me more and more anxious to finally stand beside the track. Mike and I weren't quite ready for how quick they actually are, on tv with tracing shots they seem fast, but its hard to really get a grasp on their speed. But when they drive by you five meters away, exceeding 340 km/hr it kinda sets in. Mike left after FP1, which was probably a good idea. As it soon down poured, and all the cars hid in the pits. The Merc's were brave enough to face the wet track, but quickly binned it in-front of us, and that basically ended the day.

My dad joined me on the Saturday and Sunday and it was his first time watching a race, so I had to teach him quite a bit. But by the end of the race, I think he understood that not every car is a Ferrari, and that they the red ones. Ill try to show him which ones are the McLaren's next year... The race was fantastic though, watching Vettel and Massa run up the grid, especially Vettels brief battle with Alonso right in-front of us at the Hairpin. It was an absolute blast of a weekend, and cant wait to go again next year.

Go Button.

Kimi 

Pastor of disaster

Mike sitting on some grass.

I don't want to talk about it. :(

Vettel entering the straight during his brief qualifying appearance

Ferrari 458 challenge

Father during dinner

Some concert at Crescent/St.Catherine

CF-18 fly by

Kimi losing it.

Victory lap

Costa Rica (3)- Story time+new images

My Week.
A lot of people have been asking me about how my week was, so I figured writing a larger than normal blog post would work just fine, and another way to throw in the last few images I had edited.


So about Thursday, my mom asked me if I was interested in joining my family on their trip to Costa Rica. I obviously told her I would love too, packed whatever I thought i'd need in a small carry-on suitcase (Clothes, two cameras, two lenses, ton of memory, laptop,etc) and took the VIA line to toronto 24 hours later where I would meet them on Saturday night when we fly out. (They were flying to Toronto then to Costa Rica)

Birdie

There were tons of dead fish on the shore the morning we left. 

When I got to Toronto I just kinda kicked it around downtown, took some photos (well, only 5) with a buddy and then lost my wallet. That kinda sucked, but oh well only had 10 bucks in the wallet since I dont like carrying money. I really liked that wallet though. Then I took off for Costa Rica.

Viktor dancing with Trisha. 

 At the resort, I mainly just hung out by the beach or the Muskoka chairs they had by the bar, drank a ton, and just relaxed with Steve, Trish, Susie and a few friends I had met that week.

Watching the Sens vs. Leafs

Last Morning, so Steve decided to drink at 930am. Got a few looks.

I went on two excursions, one was a sunset cruise and snorkelling trip, which was fun, the sunset was beautiful. Though as some people know, I hate swimming. And I hate fishies even more. So snorkelling was a big deal. Though I swam with the fishies (literally, not figuratively), and a few freak-outs later after a whole school swam under me and one even touched my leg, it wasn't so bad. Still though, fuck fishies. The other excursion was going on a river boat and seeing crocs, howler monkeys, white faced monkeys, lizards, and all those types of animals. Was some cool stuff.

Baby Bird.

Snap on the way to snorkelling.

Sail Boats in the sunset

The View.

Did a hike up a  mountain to catch the sunset. 

All in all the trip was really fun, and I would definitely love to back there, the staff was awesome, the food was awesome, (actually really great) and the bartenders were always having fun. I also met a lot of seemingly good people, who i'll hopefully run into sometime in the future. But thats about my week summed up in a few paragraphs.
 "Pura Vida!"

Costa Rica (2) River Cruise & Animals

Another excursion we went on was a river cruise. With a tour guide to point out animals that were actually ridiculously camouflaged, the lizards especially. It was really fun, but took two hours to get back to the resort, so that really sucked. Oh well, shit happens. Here are a few photos from it!

Angry Monkey.

White-Faced Monkey

View down the river.

Brass monkey junky, that funky monkey.

Saw a ton of gators, apparently they open their mouth like this to cool down.



Side note, probably the most i've used my 135mm f/2L since I bought it. I really need to sell this lens for a 4x5.

Costa Rica(1)

Ended up going on a very last minute trip to Costa Rica, here are a few pics I took when I went on a sailing/snorkelling trip.  

Sunset on the way back.

On the way to the snorkelling location/caves.

Jason

Jason and I had some free time so we hit up the studio-

http://jasonguo.com/

Road Trip with Abbas

As a last minute plan, we decided to do a road trip to my cottage for a night. Although we were both dead tired from not getting much sleep the night before (Abbas having none) we got a lot of shit done. Started both fires when we got there, hopped on the skidoos the first day and taught him how to use it, went on the "Mahoney Circuit" (a trail we make between the cottages, through a forest and across a bridge.) The next day we went hopped on the skidoos and headed to the un-maintained roads for about an hour, cleaned up a little then headed home. Overall a solid two day trip.

On the way.

Through the Forest.

Other Cottage in the "Circuit."

Small little jump.

Break time by the lake.