Getting to Calgary, Alberta

 Getting to (and from) Calgary was probably the easiest part of the planning! Our first choice, Porter, either didn't fly there or it didn't work for what ever reason. We also like WestJet and since Calgary is their main base, flights were plentiful. We could have left at 6am or 8am, and I went with 8am. We had to be there 2 hours early, and it can be an hour trip, so 6am was too early LOL. We would be gaining two hours, so our four hour flight was only 2 hours on the clock. 

Megan came into the Billy Bishop (Toronto Island) airport late the night before and we tried to go to bed early, but....so much last minute laundry, fridge emptying, plant watering. 

Head out on July 3 at 5am. We took the 407. It's now free in our section, and even though the majority of the trip is not free, it's worth it.  We parked in the Viscount Value Park lot and headed towards the Terminal Train. As we got close, someone asked if we took note of where we parked. No, just that we were near the back of the lot under the train tracks.  This would come back to haunt us when we returned!

Here, I need to add a bit of a back story that will become important through out the week. On Monday, June 23, we had the first really hot/humid day here. I went to a school graduation in the evening and noticed I had some shortness of breath, like my chest was full of fluff. On Wednesday, a cough started. Not frequent, not productive, but horrible sounding. On Friday, it was worse, so I went to the doctor. She said it was likely viral and I'll be coughing for 6-8 weeks. No chest x-ray. She didn't even check my oxygen. I was only able to say a few words at a time. Between then and when we left, the coughing got worse, and I was getting easily tired. 

As we headed to the train, my family basically took off and forgot that I was struggling! They finally noticed, LOL. This would happen often. I felt terrible that I was spoiling the fun. Made it on the train and to Terminal 3.

We had done online check in, so headed directly to security. While we were making sure we were all together and ready, a lady angrily called out she needed someone from our group. What? We all went over to this table at the side and she re-stated that she needed ONLY one person from our group. We didn't want to separate. Lucy and I were closest to the table so the lady motioned to us, we couldn't tell which one but then she told Lucy to put her suitcase up and give her her boarding pass. I had printed all 5, so it took a moment to find hers. The lady started searching her stuff and swabbing. We were like, why? She was so abrupt and unfriendly. Random additional screening. She told the rest of us to go through the line but we weren't leaving Lucy there on her own!

Finally she said Lucy could close up her suitcase and she waved us to the proper security. It was busy, but not crazy. Megan's tray with her personal bag and my tray with my raincoat and liquids bag were both pulled for hand searching. Many people had their trays pulled, and we had to wait. It's interesting to see the things people think they can bring, and how much they try to stuff into the official liquids bag. There was an older Asian couple ahead of us, and they had 8 cell phones in one tray! Just the two of them!

Finally my coat was called up. I had a liquids bag, and a medicine bag with my nasal spray and an over the counter cough syrup. He looked at it, then said it was fine. Megan's agent was taking her time trying to find something in the bag. Megan had a ice pack belt for her low back pain, and it wasn't frozen. It hadn't been an issue before but we thought maybe this time it was (it wasn't frozen). She asked the agent what she was looking for, and she said a long metal spike. What? Oh, that's Megan's eyelash separator! LOL. She also uses it as a toothpick. Megan dug it out, it was fine, and off we went. 

We boarded on time; the three kids ahead of Rob and I.  After we had sat down, an elderly man was shown to the window seat by the attendant. She told him that at the end of the flight, he should wait in his seat and they'll bring the wheelchair after everyone gets off. 

The weather predictions had not been promising leading up to the trip.

We sat on the tarmac for awhile after being loaded. They announced our flight was going to be 20min shorter than expected, but then we sat on the tarmac for 20 min. We found out once we landed that there had been multiple bomb threats called in to air traffic towers across Canada at about this time. We don't know if that was the issue or not.

Mid-flight, we got offered a single LeClerc "Celebration" cookie or a small bag of pretzels, and a drink. At one point, the elderly man showed an attendant his ticket and asked "Saskatoon? 10:20?" She looked and said yes, and told him he'd have to find out what gate after we landed. Our expected arrival time was 10:20. We thought this was really strange. 

We got to Calgary and it was a long taxi in to the gate. I let my neighbour get up, but he had to go backwards on the plane to his wife, and of course, everyone is standing in the aisle already. I do not understand why they don't make an announcement that those with connections go first! The attendants could be informed of who that is, and help make it happen. I wonder if this couple made it. I mean, the  doors didn't even open until at least 10:30!

We headed towards the exit. There was a really nice lounge area with actual lounge chairs, and space for yoga. This is in the B wing area. I've only flown domestically twice before.  Once to Calgary in 1989, so we won't count that, and from Thunder Bay back in May. It's so much nicer than having to find your way to customs. I noticed that arrivals and departures were all together. In Toronto, you're funneled out separately. 

We easily found the car rental centre and got our "mid-size SUV", a Ford Escape. We were all hungry and although I had hoped we could make it to a place called Grumpy Daddy Grill, I was informed lunch was needed immediately. We put in the directions to the closest McDonald's.  Not my choice, but we could all find something and it was reasonably quick.

Next stop--The World Famous Gopher Hole Museum in Torrington, about an hour away.

What is that? Apparently it's a small museum that was seen on the series Heartland (which I don't watch). One of the kids saw something about it, and we thought it would be a fun, easy way to kill some time without tackling the city. It's to the north-east about an hour.  Inside the museum are dioramas using taxidermized gophers! It's by donation and has a lovely gift shop.

Every business in Torrington has a diorama! They were so well done!

I was actually surprised at how small the gophers are! I thought they were like ground hogs we have here. They're like, between a chipmunk and a squirrel.

Apparently black and albino gophers are rare. 

You can see that the museum is not all that large. This picture is the left half and is mirrored on the opposite wall. In the middle are some displays you can view from all sides. 

I loved all the attention to details in each diorama.

We didn't partake in the Hydrant Hunt, but if you put Torrington into Google Maps, there's an image of one of them.

Small towns are fun!!  The kids all got something from the giftshop. It was great that they can buy their own souvenirs!

Although I don't usually like to backtrack, we kept it simple. It was a lovely trip--until someone pulled out from a side road and turned right in front of us! Rob slammed on the brakes and it was a really close call. That would have sucked so bad!!

We stopped at a Costco before going to the Air BnB. We wanted something to cook on the BBQ without having to prepare anything, like chicken kebabs. There wasn't much so we got some steak bacon wrapped medallions and a salad. Headed over to the house.

It's in a very new development. Actually, I believe the first homes were built around 2008, but there is still a lot being built. More is done than the map shows. I was worried that there was really nothing, since we were on the edge of the city. We did find a commercial area that is really close.

It looks like we're so far from the downtown. I guess we were, but the train was about 20 min away and getting around was pretty easy, in theory. It always felt like we were getting on a highway, merging, and getting off again and merging...Limited Access Highways seem to be everywhere!  

It's a semi, with a rental in the basement as well. The other half of the building does seem to be a young family, judging by the Powerwheels car in the back yard. The room at the front, with the large window, is called a flex room on the floor plan, but was shown as being a bedroom. Fine, there's a blind...however, the door is a French door with a full window and there's no blind on it. I felt bad for Hugh. At least his headphones seem to be noise cancelling.

The kitchen has good bones, but was not well equipped. No toaster, no oven safe pans except two lasagna size disposable foil pans.  We got set to BBQ, but....there was no BBQ on the small back landing.  How hard can it be to find a BBQ? Oh, it's in a box, unassembled, in the closet, with no tank!!! Maddening. No problem, we'll cook the steak on the stove. There was a large fry pan....but no oil!!! While trying to cook, the smoke detector was set off multiple times. We weren't off to a good start! I sent a message to the host telling him about the smoke detectors, in case it was going to a security system, or the neighbours complained. Apparently he had to replace the BBQ and his handyman had been busy. He offered to pick it up and assemble and get a tank in a couple hours, but we had already cooked on the stove.

After dinner, Lucy, Rob and I headed out to a Real Canadian Superstore for the actual groceries. I had been saving my points to buy the groceries. The sky sort of looked like it might rain, but we weren't sure, so I didn't take my coat or umbrella. Of course, we get there and it started pouring, the hugest rain drops we'd ever seen. 

Shopping somewhere else is always fun! However, for some reason, I couldn't redeem the points on my Optimum card. They said it was an issue with my account and they couldn't do anything. I was upset, as I had saved those points just for the trip!

Everyone went to bed fairly early as it had been an early morning after a late night, and we had to be up early again. I couldn't sleep of course. I took this picture shortly after 10pm. So crazy! These houses reminded us of our first townhouse in Orangeville. It was also a rear lane community. This Mahogany development is a mixture of many styles. 

Review of Air BnB, "Serenity Snug":

This is a very new rental, about 5 months. The house is pretty basic--not overly decorated or styled. The front lower "flex" room is equipped with a double or queen bed, but the door is basically glass with no curtain. It uses the half bath located a few steps up the stairs. 

Kitchen is not well equipped yet. No meat thermometer, toaster, oven safe pans or trays. There were only a couple spices, no oil. There were two tins of coffee, organic cane sugar (which freaked out Lucy), Splenda w/Stevia, hot chocolate, a couple types of tea. There were some Pepsi and Fuze ice tea in the fridge and that was it.   There were only 4 dishwasher pods, 1 per day. We easily used up the dishes though, so once, we just ran them though a quick hot cycle.

The supplies in the bathroom are all dollar store items but worked fine. In the primary bathroom, there was some OGX Coconut Cream Conditioner which was awesome. The huge body of body lotion was also appreciated as my body was not liking the lack of humidity! 

Water pressure was fine. The water is hard and I did have some issue with getting my hair rinsed.

Laundry was fine, there were several options for detergent and even wool dryer balls. However, we found the dryer odd. It would say done but the clothes were wet and cold. 

It would have been nice if there were a couple chairs to sit on the small decks.

Other than the lack of toaster (there is a small air fryer), and pans, the biggest complaint were the decorative curtains. They were black out curtains, but the way they had been put on the rods meant they couldn't be closed all the way--there are brackets holding up the rod.

There was no covered parking and the rental agency said most insurance companies don't cover hail damage. We were a little concerned, but what can you do? We didn't know that before we got the car!

The host, Obi, was great at responding to questions. Next time, I'll pay attention more to how long a place has been rented, and look closer at details. Over all, it was fine, but if you like to cook anything that doesn't come in it's own tray, it might be a struggle. The pots and fry pans were good though.