Calgary Update

We MISSED THE PLANE yesterday!  :-o

When we went inside the terminal, there was a HUUUUUGE lineup.  A lady was going up and down the line calling out "Saskatoon?  Saskatoon?"  I even joked at one point, to the kids, "I'm going to put up my hand and say I'm going to Saskatoon just so I can get out of this line!"

Anyway, I didn't.

And by the time we got to the front, it was 8:45 for a 8:50 flight that was already fully-boarded. 

And the guy said they absolutely would NOT hold the flight so we could make a mad dash for it.

But here's what else he said:  "you should have come up when they said Saskatoon; that was your flight."

WHAT??!?

Gaaaah!

I told him, "they didn't say Calgary!"

He said, "well, they can't call out every place the plane is stopping!"

(um, like it's a bus and it has to make fifty stops on its meandering way across Canada???  It probably makes, at most, three stops!)

But they hadn't even said the flight number!  There was NO way to know, when they said Saskatoon, that they meant Calgary, too.  :-o

Yuck.

For a $47 upgrade fee, we got standby seats on the next flight out.  Baah.

 

HOWEVER... all went well from that point on.

We hung around the airport, took the monorail a bit, had Drumsticks for breakfast, bought books for the kiddies, and finally made our leisurely way to the gate.  Just for excitement, at 5 to 11 when that flight was supposed to board in 5 minutes, I asked the gate person if there was a Starbucks in the terminal.  She said, "it's down at Gate 42... so about 5 minutes away."  Mad dash with the baby in his carriage, and I made it back just in time for pre-boarding.  We even got an empty seat that Gavriel Zev used for about half the flight.  Yay!

 

Car rental went smoothly, setting up the food went smoothly.  No crib for the baby last night and he SCREAMED for 2 hours, from 2 to 4.  Also, a howling, scary thunder storm for half the night. 

 

But today dawned beautiful, if cool and wet, and, undaunted, we set off for the mountains.  Did the shopping-in-Banff thing.  Did the Gondola ride thing.  Did the forgetting-to-bring-diapers-so-having-to-buy-even-more-disposables thing.  Did the picnic by the river thing.  Took lots of pictures - yay!

 

Yawn.

 

Supper last night (Sunday):

Teriyaki salmon w/instant mashpo and stirfried red peppers and baby carrots.

 

Supper tonight (Monday):

Pizza quesadillas w/tomato and Noshers old Cheddar at $8.79 a package (Calgary price, as opposed to $4 or whatever in Toronto).

 

Tomorrow's activity depends on the weather.  The next 3 days' planned outings include (not sure yet which day will be which outing):

~ downtown Calgary - eau claire, Prince's Island, shopping, taking the c-train, whatever

~ Heritage Park and lunch at the café in the Calgary Jewish Centre.

~ Calgary Zoo

 

Weather is supposed to be yuck, yuck, yuck all three days.

And Friday will be a painfully early morning, but luckily, the packing won't be so hard to come back.

 

Oh, and the big kids' grandmother bought a brand new pack-n-play for Gavriel Zev today while we were in Banff... she thought we could bring it home, but I'm thinking maybe we won't need it so much?  I suggested she keep it for her neice, who's expecting soon.

Maybe I should take it?  But then we'll be over on the baggage?  Maybe the big kids should bring it back with them.

Hmm...

 

Anyway, today was relaxing - and I had FUN.

Real fun.  Only for a moment; the rest was SUCH hard work.  But at least it proves that it's possible.