Canada–Day 1

21 Sep started early. We got up at 3:30 AM and Karen drove us to the airport for Our early morning flight. We went from Jacksonville to Chicago on a relatively small plane. My backpack barely fit in the limited overhead. We had to go to a different terminal in Chicago to get our connecting flight and it involved a long hike. Both Penny and I managed fine with our heavy backpacks and considered this a warm-up for walking we would do in Canada.

We had the same model plane on the flight to Calgary. The instructions we had to get ground transportation at Calgary apt were not the best but we found our way with the help of one of the airport volunteers. Yes, the airport is full of uniformed volunteers that provide information and directions and may talk your ear off if you have the time and they are not too busy. It’s a great setup and worked well for us both times we were at the airport.

The bus to the hotel was the typical setup. We had to wait a half-hour or so for the bus to arrive but in the process we met some of the other couples that were on the same Caravan tour we were. Some had taken other Caravan tours and were very pleased with them.

Our Hotel was a Hilton Garden Inn and was nice. Our drive to the hotel gave us our first views of Calgary and it has traffic issues to be sure.

We had a 7 o’clock meeting ahead of us but we were on our own for dinner. Penny and I got a map from the front desk, selected a place to eat and set out on foot to find the place.

The place was called Moxie’s and is a Canadian chain upscale bar and grill. We had great service, good food that fit our diet and we even ordered wine – which we rarely do – but I didn’t have to drive and hey, we were on vacation! We even took pictures before the meal came/

Penny had a steak sandwich with a side salad . I had a Thai beef salad which had marinated steak, pineapple, tomatoes, red peppers and mint and what was left of the approximately 6 ounces of steak they served on Penny’s sandwich.

On our walk back from the restaurant we saw our first wildlife, a rabbit- or more properly a hare. We scared it up in a field behind the hotel.

At the meeting we were given an outline of our tour and the basic rules involved. Basically we stay 2 nights in each place. Our seats on the bus were assigned and rotated by 3 rows clockwise every day so we ended up sitting on both sides, front middle and back by the end of the trip. We got a list of names of everyone on the trip. We were told to have our bags outside our room by 7AM and that breakfast would be provided in the morning before we boarded the bus.

Next time I’ll do day 2.