Saturday, February 10, 2007

Tiger Tiger Tiger Woods Y'all

Well the award for best Christmas present of all time was handed out in 2006 to Lauren Boutilier. The event was held at a small gathering in Pigott Lake Nova Scotia. I opened two four day passes to the Buick Invitational golf tournament in La Jolla California to go watch Tiger play golf. And with that the award was won. The trip surpassed the hype.



We flew into Palm Springs and then drove to the coast. These grass covered hills were along the way.






We stayed the first night in Surf City USA. Huntington Beach California. I was there once as an eleven year old and then again five years ago with Davey. It's an awesome place to hang out.





This pic is for my fam. We have an Uncle Jimmy who used to eat at this restaurant twice a day, every day. He paid by the month instead of by the meal. He took us here twenty years ago and Lauren and I went for breakfast. It hasn't changed one bit.



We went to Newport Beach on the way to San Diego. Didn't see Racheal Bilson. Very disappointing.


Welcome to Torrey Pines. We luckily went on Wednesday night for an hour just to check it out and we're so glad we did as it was the only time we were allowed to have a camera. These were our seats for Sunday on the 18th green. We had a great view of Tiger tapping in for the win.



Me and Vijay.



First tee. What a tease.


The whole golf course is built along the cliffs of Torrey Pines State Park. Some of the holes are just unbelievable.


The grandstand on 18.


Sun going down on Wednesday. We were back at the course before the sun came up on Thursday.



The player golf carts to get from putting green to driving range. Hilarious.



This is where we camped just north of La Jolla for two of the nights.


This was the view from the campsite. There were at least 20 surfers in
the water until the sun disappeared.



La Jolla California. Oh by the way that's pronounced La Hoya. Bit embarassing when you pronounce it how it reads. I would imagine.


This is the billboard outside the Zoo. Hilarious. We went for a few hours and saw the polar bears and gorillas and pandas.


We went downtown San Diego for a day and night and there was a huge protest of the war right down the middle of the main street. Easily 5000 people in the demonstration.


The architecture of San Diego reminds me of Montreal or Quebec City. Old buildings they've restored and turned into restaurants and shops. Very cool area to hang out.

Christmas 2006


Club 2324. Christmas 2006. Looks like business as usual at the cottage. Keiths on the table and board game out.


Great photo of Lauren's parents (Brian and Debbie) Christmas 2006.


Our vote for best lookiing kid. Brianna Webster enjoying her first Christmas with mom (Anne, Lauren's sister).

My sister Mary has the unfortunate birthday of Christmas Eve. This year we went all out celebrating a "Mary"thon. Her husband Pete is a creative genius and had a full itenerary for us to celebrate Mary's 28 birthday. The true gift of the holidays was their announcnement that they're going to be parents. The first Brennan grandchild is on it's way.




The Move to Firebag

In the fall of 2006 while both Lauren and I were working for Suncor we made the choice to start working at site. Site being the Firebag Plant located two hours north and east of Fort McMurray. We work 10 days on and four days off which gave our blog the name. Here a few pics of life at Firebag.




Ladies and Gentleman! Welcome to Firebag, AB. This is the operating plant with the construction trailers in the foreground. The large stacks are part of the steam generation units. Steam is used to heat the bitumen under the surface so that pipes can transport it back to the plant.



A pic of Lauren's Construction Trailer



The Firedome. I play shinny here at least once a shift and we both play Beginner Hockey twice a shift. The rink is great and even has a zamboni known as the SAGD-Icer.

Home of a thousand. These are the residential trailers, there would be at least fifty of these trailers on site. The hallway is down the middle with rooms on either side.

This is our meal hall/gym.


We do this walk four times a day from home to work, over to the meal hall for lunch, and home at the end of the day. For all of you who went to X it's the tundra all over again.
Speaking of lunch, what do we have today? Braised Beef Tips, Chicken Fingers, Fries, oh and sliced carrots. Mmmm, and don't forget to cover it all in Beef Gravy.

Grab a chair, to enjoy that beef gravy.
Only one place to go after a meal like that.
A pic of the Sunjet taking us back to Calgary from Fort McMurray after a shift.

The Brennans are Losing It


Mom and Dad pulled the shute on the office and joined to retired crowd in 2006. We had a couple of parties for them in Toronto in the summer to celebrate. Mom's on night one was all to the theme of Dr. Suess as she was an elementary school teacher and could also easily be a character in one of his stories. Dad's was set back in the sixties and carried the theme of let the good times roll. With a little more time on their hands they came out for a week to visit Lauren and I and the craziness started in wig shop. We also took them out skating in Lake Louise.



Waterton Trip


We spent a weekend in the summer of 2005 travelling to Waterton National Park with Colleen and Ja'net. We travelled in Bob. Bob is a bright orange VW van. The van rule is you must have a hat on at all times while in Bob. Lauren and I took a turn up front in the first pic. The second was a huge hike we did to Wall Lake. The third is of Lauren on top of the hills overlooking Waterton.
































Wriggles Bachelor in Vegas

I spent an awesome weekend in Vegas in 2005 with the Guelph crew on a bachelor party for Mr. Guelph, Mike Wrigglesworth. The first picture in 10 minutes after leaving the airport, the second pic is 10 hours later, third, 12 hours after that. No sleep between any of these photos.




Lauren's First Trip West



May 2005-After spending seven months travelling, Lauren stopped in on her way home to visit me for a couple of weeks in Edmonton. We spent the time travelling from Jasper to Banff to Calgary and back. We had an excellent trip, camping, golfing, and learning the true definition of a la carte.