2008 goes down in my books as one of those landmark years. There were many very good events and a few that still need to be sorted out.
For me the first big event was going to Banff, Canada, in February. I was there for a major conference on the biology of appetite and obesity. At the time, I was still working as a scientist for GlaxoSmithKline, but it was already evident that some big changes were coming. I went to Banff a couple of days before the meeting and rented a big pickup truck with 4 wheel drive. One morning I got up long before dawn and headed north along the Icefields Parkway that runs from Banff to Jasper. There were several inches of ice on the road, but since I basically had the road to myself for several hours, it wasn't a big problem. I drove for an hour or two and found a spot where the first light of dawn would strike distant mountain tops. I was able to set up my tripod in the middle of the road and get some nice shots. For breakfast and some hot coffee, I stopped at the Num-Ti-Jah Lodge at Bow Lake. After reaching Jasper, I gassed up and returned using the same route. It got quite warm that day, melting the road ice and kicking off many avalanches. Near Lake Louise, I spotted the moon rising over the mountains. On the next night there was a total lunar eclipse.
