Days 18 & 19 - Goodbye Alberta!

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We awoke to find the rain had stopped, but that there was now new snow on the mountain tops - so pretty! We left Dead Man’s Flats and drove west back towards Calgary. Rather than drive down the Trans Canada Highway, we took the scenic route. I’d had a look on Google Maps, and found place called Ghost Lake which looked quite nice to visit. As we drove there I was looking into the trees lining the road with the hope of seeing a bear when Susan said, “Look! An animal!” I looked to the other side of the road where she was pointing but didn’t spot anything, and she told me it was a brown animal. Could it be the elusive bear, I wondered? No, when we got closer to it and could both see it, it was a largish brown dog. Oh well!

We had to do a quick U-turn in a driveway when Janice (we called Google Maps woman this; think Janice in Friends...) directed us to turn right which was a private road with several signs telling us that public access to the lake was 3km further along the road – it obviously happens a lot!

We arrived at the empty parking lot alongside the lake. It really wasn’t much of a summer village as it had been described, it actually looked like a reservoir. One side of the road had a small marina, the other the parking lot, a public slipway and a public loo (washroom). What there was however were a couple of hundred of very busy birds foraging alongside the cliff edge. Thank goodness I had the Merlin app; it was my first opportunity to use it here, and it told us they were Cliff Swallows. We guessed they were probably looking for food and possibly nesting material. We sat in the car to not disturb them, watching them flap around, land and peck at the ground and then fly upwards again. Then a camper van arrived and in the large empty carpark (apart from us, obvs!) parked two spaces away from us. A family decanted from the van and started throwing rubbish into the nearby garbage bins, then walking down onto the small beach area. The birds were even less keen on this disturbance than we were, and moved to grubbing on the cliff about 40m away. We stayed a few minutes longer then drove away.

We stopped for breakfast in Cochrane, one of the fastest growing communities in Canada, perfectly illustrated by the large number of homes being constructed as we drove into the new part of the town. The older part of the town houses very western (cowboy) style buildings selling cowboy boots, Stetson hats, plaid shirts, among other things, and on the other side of the road are shops selling aromatherapy oils, hand made soaps and creams, spiritual type rocks, like rose quartz, huge amethysts, and other pretty stones of various shapes, sizes and colours,which apparently will change your life if you own them. Quite a diverse town! We found a restaurant called Sunny Side Up which was very well reviewed and certainly lived up to the reviews. The waiting staff were really friendly and helpful, the food was delicious and they make a mean pot of tea! We both had a Benny (eggs Benedict) i had tthe Piggy Benny with bacon and sausage, Susan had the Royal with smoked salmon and cream cheese. Yum yum! I managed to grab a cache near here too :-)

Funnily, as we were approaching Cochrane, Susan said it reminded her of Tom Cochrane the Canadian musician. Wikipedia tells me that he has achieved a huge amount in his 50-year career, and I reckon it’s worth taking a look at the entey. I told Susan that I was reminded of the Cochrane Library, a massive collection of databases containing high-quality medical research papers, but I wouldn’t bother taking a look at that unless you work in healthcare!

We found where we’d parked Megan and headed off to Calgary. As we neared the city, we could smell the smoke from the fires still burning to the north west, and the city was shrouded in the grey smoke we’d seen as we left the city 4 days ago. The official website told us that despite the heavy rain over the last couple of days there are still 77 fires burning.

We arrived at our hotel a couple of hours before official check-in time, but our room was ready so we took our bags up, had a few minutes peace and quiet, and shared our last can of Mikes. The view from our window was over the airport with the city in the background, but the smoky air meant we could only see greyed-out planes as they came in to land, and the just the faint silhouettes of the city buildings.

Susan had spotted there was a pool and hot tub, so we cossied-up and headed back to the ground (main) floor to have some fun. And we did! We thought we were getting the swimming area to ourselves, but an elderly couple arrived at the same time and got into the hot tub. We left them to it and spent some time in the pleasantly warm water of the main pool. It’s been a long time since I’ve swum in a swimming pool, so I had some fun doing some forward rolls, seeing how far I could swim underwater and generally having a good time. Once the couple had exited the hot tub we moved into it. It was certainly warmer than the pool, but the jets weren’t working, so it was literally like sitting in a large warm bath.

After a while we went back to the main pool, which felt quite cool after the hot tub – lovely! Susan found a lost pool toy, a plastic ring about 15cm in diameter and we spent quite a time having great fun and giggles throwing it to each other over the length of the pool and diving to catch it. Susan asked me whether it would be going in the blog, and I said, “Absolutely!”, also pointing out the CCTV camera which probably has our jolly time recorded for the next few days. Ut really was fun! Another elderly gentleman appeared and sat in the hot tub for a while. We got back in and thankfully woke him up before he disappeared beneath the water!

After a shower and clean clothes we headed to the bar. Susan found a delicious beer and I had a not so delicious cocktail; it wasn’t too bad, but I chose sauvignon for my next drink. We sat in the lounge area and did some people watching before eating an early dinner and going to our room to watch a bit of TV before settling down for the night. This was the first TV I’ve watched since arriving in Canada, and I found it a bit confusing as to what was the program and what were the adverts. In the UK it’s a much clearer change between the two. Thankfully Susan kept me on track!

After a good night sleep, we woke to clearer air with a much better view of the city. We headed for the airport, only about 15 minutes away, delivered Megan back to the car rental place and headed for security in zone A of the terminal building. We were dismayed to see a rather long queue, but a very kind man directed us to zone D which was a good 15 minutes walk away. The queue there was only about 5 minutes, and rather than having to walk the anticipated 15+ minutes back to zone A for our gate we were delighted to find it was in zone C, right next to zone D. There was a place for breakfast right next to the gate, and we thought it would be rude not to. Susan had complained a couple of day ago that she hadn’t bought any apparel decorated with Alberta or Banff, and I pointed out that the breakfast place sells T-shirts with Albert printed on the front; she had a better look than me and pointed out it actually said Albeerta. “Well, you like a beer,” I said. We arrived at the gate with no new T-shirts.

The flight was pretty much on time, and apart from being a bit bumpy in places and the wings swinging up and down a little just before landing, it was fine. Susan was sitting next to a ‘giggler’ a few rows in front of me, but my two companions were quiet and pleasant. The crew were lovely and professional. I’ve since found out that WestJet is the number one airline in Canada and the third best in North America; I’d happily fly with them again.

Sarah picked us up from Kitchener airport and we arrived back in Cambridge to be greeted at the door by the rather excited doggies Sadie and Cash, and a bit later by the cats Albus and Smudge.

I think we’ll be having a quiet evening.

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