Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - August 6, 026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 39^th Birthday, Aunt Deborah!

Happy 11^th Birthday, Alex Byrd!

Happy 10^th Anniversary, Neil and Michelle Ryan!

We are missing out on some fun back at home today, but we did some short vid-chats; left gifts; and hope that family and friends will help with making the three celebrations awesome – whether at home or elsewhere!

Here in the Rocky Mountains, we’ve had a work-travel day as we’ve made our way from Salmon Arm to Whistler – our last stop in the Rockies before we head to the west coast tomorrow for our final few days in Canada.  Before we get to that part of our story, we did find out about the Salmon Arm city name; and it was not really all that exciting.  The city is on the south end of Shuswap Lake; that part of the lake is called the salmon arm; and the origin is related to salmon runs up into the lake that historically were so heavy that the settlers were able to use pitchforks to harvest the fish not just for food but for fertilizer on their fields.  We’ll choose our town legend for the naming win! ;^)

As for the work and driving, it is about two-hundred and fifty miles from Salmon Run to Whistler plus a few extra miles for the work and sightseeing stops we did along the way, so after another few hours of work at two meetings in and near Salmon Run, we headed west through more amazing mountain and valley terrain; enjoyed all of the work and play with Cassie, Michael, and our best friends; and had a great lunch at a small-town restaurant that felt a bit like home – if Witch Falls was surrounded by massive mountains.  Whistler is another world-famous resort town with the advantage of being relatively-close to major west coast cities; so it is a popular vacation destination year-round.  We are not here to buy any resorts or make deals for tourism-related businesses, but we can appreciate those operations, and while our family businesses have hotel and restaurant interests and investments; we aren’t involved in anything here or anywhere that the costs are too high compared to other opportunities elsewhere in the world.  We are interested in conservation, environment, and helping small communities to grow and prosper, though, and that’s what we’re working on while in the area.

It was close to dinner time when we got to Whistler, so we checked into our hotel; freshened up; and then we opted for a diner that is popular with the locals and offered an interesting menu; we went to a charity working meeting after that; and then did a hike that included a lookout point with an awesome view before eventually heeding back to our hotel.  Going for a swim was an option we were happy to enjoy – even though that meant extra time drying hair for the girls; and now we’re winding down in our rooms that aren’t a suite but are adjoining and meant to be family friendly.  We’re also winding down fast now after a long day, so let’s cover the world news; and then wrap this up and get to the co-ed cuddle and nap time fun!

The Middle East could be on the way to a worse mess tonight as Israel bombed Lebanon again and ignored that ceasefire; Saudi Arabia and Yemen could be on the verge of a new war front there; and Iran has hit some ‘hostile’ targets in the Strait of Hormuz.  There are also reports that the Hormuz deal being negotiated is only between Iran and Oman and would ban American and Israeli ships from using the strait at all.  Our leaders will never accept that, but it is obvious that Iran no longer cares what our leaders think; and they certainly don’t trust enough to even talk to our diplomats let alone believe that we’d honor any deal.  President Trump still claims full control over the situation and threatens destruction if Iran doesn’t capitulate; so more fighting and bombing seems inevitable.

In Ukraine, the situation is becoming dire for the people and armed forces; western backers seem to be having issues with actually being able to supply missiles either for air defense or for launching attacks into Russia; leaving them with drones as their only answer to the shortfall.  While their supply crises mount, Russia continues to push along the front lines; and the Ukrainian positions are starting to crumble in a handful of places.  From our perspective, fighting valiantly to the death is pointless if losing is inevitable at continually-rising costs to your own people and country.  At the rate their going, nobody will want what is left of the country; since it will cost trillions of dollars to rebuild!

Let’s also mention two reports related to conscripting Ukrainian men into the army.  There are reports of new press gang quotas of forty-thousand new ‘captures’ per month, and while we don’t think that can happen; the apparent need for a half-million new troops over the coming year strongly suggests that the Ukrainian army is in deep, deep trouble.  Beyond the Ukraine borders; European countries want to send young Ukrainian men back to Ukraine knowing that they’d be immediately press-ganged sent to the front, and killed.  Those leaders shouldn’t be able to look themselves in the mirror; since that goes against laws and basic human decency.  How far we’ve come from when leaders were lauded for protecting men from the draft back during the Vietnam War!

Here at home, there has been a political upset for the Michigan Senatorial primary; the billionaire and Israel lobby pick lost the Democratic primary despite blowing seventy million dollars on the contest; and the underdog managed to win.  Don’t take that the wrong way; since we actually don’t think that it matters anymore which candidate wins at any level of election when they all end up serving the elite instead of the ‘normal’ people.  It is also a distraction from the real crises in the world that continue to get worse every day.

That isn’t a very exciting note to wrap this up on; so we’re just going to stop there; work on some happy thoughts before we go to sleep; and help to get there with our best friends and some quality co-ed cuddle time!

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - August 5, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 3^rd Anniversary, Anna Marie and Calvin Jennings!

We are not missing out on any major adventures back at home today as they get a mix of sun and showers, but it was definitely warmer there compared to Glacier National Park – especially up in the mountains!  Our adventures were more-extreme too – though Cassie wouldn’t let us use time phasing for a climb to any of the mountain summits; so we had to settle for the more-normal day-trip tours and sightseeing.  We would have enjoyed the warmer weather in Revelstoke today, since we know that it reached the mid-eighties there while we were admiring the glaciers and mountains in the much-cooler park, but our experiences in the Rockies continue to amaze and impress us.

After Tai Chi and breakfast, we drove up to the park valley, and that sounds funny, but that was up from a lower valley to a higher one – by around eighteen-hundred feet from Revelstoke.  The tallest mountain in the park rises to over eleven-thousand feet; so the park valley at around thirty-three hundred feet feels low by comparison when there!

There isn’t really any way for us to write about the awesomeness of experiencing the majesty of the natural wonders we saw and walked around today, and the best part of everything was getting to share it all with Cassie, Michael, and our four best friends.  It is so much more than sight when you can touch the rocks and ice; feel the little changes in the weather that happen because of the interactions with the extreme terrain from valleys to mountain tops.  While we missed the warmer weather in Revelstoke, the much cooler highs in the park that only reached the sixties was balmy compared to the higher altitudes.  Yes, that is obvious, since glaciers – and snowmen – don’t do well very far above freezing, but we also got to see amazing icy-water flows from the summer melt cycle.  We stayed and explored the park until late-afternoon; and then we headed out for our next stop – the small city of Salmon Arm in the Columbia-Shuswap district.

Let’s not make fun of any names we write about on this trip; and we’ll try to get the story behind that name while in Salmon Arm – though we’ll be very surprised if that story is as good as the one for our home town!  We’re still on the way there; and this update is early because we have the time during the nearly two-hour drive from the park to our cabin rental.  We don’t have any specific plans beyond dinner once there, but we’re okay with playing that by ear – and maybe even going with an early bedtime.  We’ll let you know how that goes for us with the next update, but that’s enough for our own news of the day; so let’s cover a bit of world news and then wrap this up.

The western leaders and media pundits continue to yap about peace deals or destructive consequences if their ‘enemies’ don’t surrender; life on the ground in the Middle East and Ukraine continues to be horrific; and nobody can predict from hour-to-hour what President Trump will say next.  While ‘we’ waste resources on war and the drive for power; China, India, and other emerging countries are generally more-focused on building their own countries, people, and partnerships – which is why the news from China includes a lot of tech milestones ranging from space programs to nano-tech leadership.  There are only bad comparisons to our policies that are all about restricting trade and fear of competition.  One of the recent stories for our efforts to restrict trade was related to optical tech in data centers, and our leaders are now apparently terrified that China might use optical devices to spy on our data centers if we buy them from Chinese companies!  We’re not sure what exactly they are afraid of; since the zeros and ones inside storage drives are not visible to cameras! ;^)

On that silly note, we are going to end this; enjoy the rest of the drive to Salmon Arm that includes another drop in elevation of around two-thousand feet; and we’ll be back with our next update sometime tomorrow.

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - August 4, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 26^th Birthday, Denise Taylor!

Cassie and Michael did a vid-chat with their friends while we were on the road from Banff to Revelstoke; and timed it for the view from Kicking Horse Pass.  At a bit over a mile above sea level, it is the highest point we’ll reach at least for the highways part of our journey through Canada; and the mountain views from there are spectacular!  That’s true for pretty much everywhere we’ll be while in the Rockies.  It was a climb in elevation to get there from Banff, but then we are currently between mountains in Revelstoke, British Columbia; and dropped down to an elevation of ‘just’ fifteen-hundred and seventy feet!  That’s why it is warmer here tonight; and we really notice that, since it was just thirty-four degrees this morning in Banff when we woke up for Tai Chi!

That vid-chat was the extent of our birthday-related fun, but in addition to the drive time between overnight stops; we had fun with cameo sightseeing along the way that included that mountain pass on the border between Alberta and British Columbia; seeing several and stopping to visit one waterfall; and all of the amazing natural wonders to be seen in the Rocky Mountains.  We were in Revelstoke early-enough this afternoon for two work stops including a site visit for one of our partner projects; dinner was a minor charity event; and then we did both some work and sightseeing this evening.

Tomorrow is going to mostly be a sightseeing day in Glacier National Park – B.C. edition; and we only mention that because we do have our America national park of the same name in Montana.  For the record; we do know that Canada’s park was established before ours – by more than twenty years; and we do not feel the need to try and re-write history to change any of the actual facts!  The rest of that story can wait for after we actually experience those adventures; so stay tuned for that and we’ll wrap up this report with the latest in world news.

Our politicians and media hyped imminent peace again today without a shred of evidence to back those claims – and that was for both of the ‘top’ wars.  The reality is that ‘we’ are not actually negotiating anything; our demands that are essentially for Iran and Russia to surrender are being ignored; and the reality on the ground in Ukraine and the Middle East continues to be horrific for the people living in those regions.  President Trump continues to claim that the Strait of Hormuz is open and under American control; there is no reason to believe that; and Iran is flat-out stating that they are working on a deal for joint control of the strait with Oman but that they will not accept any involvement from the United States – except that they insist that our navy and armed forces need to leave the region.  That won’t happen either; so we are expecting the missiles and drones to fly again sooner instead of later; and we can only hope that our leaders won’t escalate as they keep threatening to do.

In Ukraine, the Ukrainian drones continue to target civilians in Russia and the Russian forces continue to systematically destroy targets at will in Ukraine with focuses on Black Sea ports and ships and energy infrastructure and industrial capacity throughout the country.  The front lines are a horror for Ukrainian soldiers; and that is just going to get worse as they start being affected by the lack of everything from ammunition and fuel to food and fresh water.  We can report that the Russian people are truly angry now; and President Putin’s drop in popularity is only happening at all because they want him to hit Ukraine harder – not sue for peace when nobody believes that any deals can be trusted with Ukraine or any of their western European and American backers.

I’m going to stop there.  We could cover a lot of other stories, but the co-ed cuddle and nap time sounds better to me right now; and we definitely want to be ready for our adventures in Glacier National Park.  Stay tuned for those stories; and we’ll get back to the real world and resume living hose stories that we will – or won’t – write about tomorrow; since Ethan will definitely want to exclude his overnight time with Naomi! ;^)

That’s a much-happier note to end with; so we are out of here starting right now.

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - August 3, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 16^th Birthday, Samantha Norton!

Naomi wishes that she could be with her best same-grade friend for her special day, but Samantha is happiest about getting her next-level driver’s license and now she can drive on her own!  No, she isn’t the first of Naomi and Aaron’s classmates to reach that next level, but this one is important to us – and not just because Samantha could take her younger girlfriends on drives to the city for shopping or other fun!  We did leave gifts and did a vid-chat with her live from Banff, Alberta; so that little cameo birthday moment was fun and we are sure she’ll still have an amazing day without us.

Here in Alberta, we’re definitely getting to experience the Rocky Mountains in summer and the difference between elevations.  While we had a comparatively-cool Sunday in and around Calgary, the high today in Banff didn’t reach the mid-sixties; and the low tonight is expected to be in the high-thirties!  For the Canadians around us who won’t read our journals, that’s around four degrees Celsius.  It really isn’t that far from Calgary to Banff, but it is still a different world climbing up into the Rockies, and while Banff is ‘only’ about eleven-hundred feet higher in elevation than Calgary; the mountains in Banff National Park tower around the town to heights of over eleven-thousand feet.  That made the scenery around us fairly-awesome for that vid-chat with Samantha earlier today; and we really love it here a lot.

No, our work did not include real estate inquiries into vacation homes in the area, but coming back here for a winter holiday would be awesome!  As for Cassie and Michael’s actual work, you will not be surprised to learn that environment and conservation projects top the list for the area – though we did joke about the possibility of partnering on a ski resort!  We’ve done a bit of sightseeing too, but will only be doing a bit of driving into Banff National Park because our major mountain sightseeing is booked for the British Columbia version of Glacier National Park and we’ll do that part of the trip on Wednesday.  In addition to the work that included two site visits, our favorite parts of the day have included the lunch and dinner meals; the cameo sightseeing while driving between work meetings and sites; and the evening lakeside hike and hot springs visit before we returned to our hotel for the night.

While our day has been amazing; the world news has been bipolar and chaotic.  Political and media reports for the Iran war continue to be all over the place, and President Trump keeps flopping between claims of an imminent peace deal to threats of total destruction for Iran.  Today he again added in the ‘old’ decapitation threats; and we have no doubt that Iran’s leaders will not be interested in any meetings that could lead to their own demise.  For the history books; let’s remind our future Magi readers that the attacks on Iran at the end of February this year happened when the Ayatollah was meeting at his home with advisors and other leaders to discuss the proposed peace deal with the United States and ‘we’ took advantage of that meeting to kill him – and most of his family down to the grandchild level.  Claiming that new, similar attacks are planned and ready to be implemented just proves that our enemies cannot trust anything we say or any deals we make with them.

That’s as-true for Russia and their war with Ukraine; and they seem to understand that now; so they are changing tactics to work toward winning the conflict on the ground.  Take that as meant; since we don’t think that anyone wins when it comes to most wars.  The low-lights out of Ukraine include a Ukrainian drone strike on a beach that killed six people including three children, and while the Ukrainians are fighting for media sound bytes; Russia continues to encircle troops in multiple places along the front lines; they’ve pretty much shut down all Ukrainian ports; and they are also going after transportation infrastructure for everything from gas stations to railways and key bridges.  All of that is in response to Ukrainian attacks of all kinds into Russia; and they are definitely trying to starve the Ukrainian armed forces of everything from ammunition and fuel to food and basic human supplies.  The impact for ‘normal’ people is going to be horrific; and we haven’t even got into writing about costs that include mass unemployment as jobs are lost due to port and factory closures.  The Ukrainian economy is already dependant on foreign aid; and now more will be needed just to survive daily life – if that support can get to the people at all.  At some point, inflation is irrelevant if there is nothing left in the stores to buy.

Let’s stop there.  We’ve had an awesome day here in and around Banff; we’re ready to wrap up with a last bit of co-ed cuddle and chat time with our best friends and favorite cuddle buddies; and then we’ll get some sleep so we’ll be ready for our continuing adventures in the Rocky Mountains.

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - August 2, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 13^th Birthday, Drew Spencer!

Happy 1^st Anniversary, Allen and Marcie White!

Along with the parties and buffet dinner at the Inn, we’ve missed out on a beautiful, sunny day at home; we might have gone out to Quarry Lake with the cousins that went out their either for Drew’s party or because there was already a gang going out there anyway; and we definitely would have gone to the buffet dinner because Mom and Dad were there with family and friends.

No complaints will be filed here, since while it was cooler with the high barely hitting seventy, it was also sunny; and we spent quite a bit of the day at an amusement park.  Calaway Park isn’t quite on the same scale as Canada’s Wonderland, but it is comparable to our favorite near-home amusement park; there were more than enough thrill rides; and we had a lot of fun there.  Cassie and Michael still had some work to do today too and we even multi-tasked a bit of that at the amusement park – and no, they did not scare anyone by trying to get contracts signed on any thrill rides!  That would be funny if possible, but I digress; so let’s move on.  The thrill rides and shows were the entertainment highlight of our day, but we had a couple of good meals too; and a last bit of walking time in Calgary before we head for Banff tomorrow.  We’re going to be up early for that departure; so let’s just wrap this up with the world news report.

The Iran war bombings are or aren’t off again today and the Ukraine war news included another major Ukrainian drone wave into Russia and another major Russian missile and drone attack across Ukraine; so nothing has really changed for either war.  Closer to here – and to where we’re heading – are the stories about the wildfires in the Spokane, Washington area that is massive and causing a lot of damage and evacuations.  Every major wildfire is serious, and we hope that the firefighters will get it under control sooner instead of later; and pray that everyone will also stay safe and well despite all of the property damage.

There has been another shooting in our country – this time in Twin Falls, Idaho, where at least two people were killed and others injured in an attack that happened at an EV charging station and an apparently just-opened restaurant.  We do not want to get into the details, but there may have been an armed civilian that stopped the gunman that initiated the attack, but details are being held back by police; so we’ll wait to get more info before offering more.  This is another example of violence spreading in our country and around the world; and that will not get better as long as the social and economic stresses continue to build.  The migrant crisis in Europe through that Spanish enclave continues to be a top story, and we still think that nobody should be surprised when life in most of the Middle East is so horrible for ‘normal’ people that the rich and powerful don’t care about at all.  If our world leaders do not want migration crises; stop making countries unlivable for everyone but the extremely wealthy!

That’s enough for today and this first weekend of August.  We’re about to start our last full week of this trip; we’ll spend most of that week in British Columbia; and we are really looking forward to the trip across the Rocky Mountains that should be amazing for both the scenery and the weather that could change intra-day as we deal with a wide variety of elevations and environmental conditions.  Stay tuned for all of those stories while we go and get some sleep so we’ll be ready for all of the fun!

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!