Calgary Recap: Day One

Anyways, onward with Thursday!

Wednesday night I picked up Coby and went back to my place to shower and get every last minute detail sorted out. We headed over to Andrew’s place, watched some tv with his dad and then headed to bed. We were up early on Thursday morning. Up by 5, out the door by 5.45, at the airport by 6am.

It’s funny to see the airport at different times. That morning, there were no lines, no body really there… It was a breeze to get through security. Coby didn’t get stopped at all. He made it through the fastest. I made it through second fastest, even though they swabbed me for explosive powders/materials. And they opened my suitcase, but they had the wrong bag. Duh. Poor Thomas, he got searched and had to go in the giant tube where it x-rays you. He took the longest. They went through his luggage and stuff, and were on the walkie talkies and had like 4 security people around him. He was finally allowed to go through though, so that’s all the matters. Just a little bit of a wait until boarding, and then we were golden. Jetsetting our way across Canada.

The best thing about going West is the hours that you gain. We arrived in Calgary around 9am, and headed to Kyleigh’s house. We grabbed a quick lunch, and then headed out to Banff. It’s so gorgeous out there, it’s unbelievable. We made little pit stops at the side of the road to take pictures in front of mountains and lakes, and it was just a beautiful sunny day. We headed into the cute picturesque Banff a little bit late because I was being an epic fail on the navigation. We had to back track a couple times before I figured it out. But we got there, and ooh’d and ahh’d over the mountains and the cute town [ok maybe that part was just me]. We headed to the outskirts of the town to check in for a trail ride, and it was booked so we had to come back at four. We headed back into town, found parking and went to go find some foods.

After a delicious lunch at Earl’s [consisting of yummy tortilla soup, salad and bread] we headed back to the stables for the start of our trail ride. It was a pretty basic trail, just along the river beside Cascade mountain. Really pretty, even though the boys got eaten by mosquitoes! I will say, Calgary has bigger ones than here in Toronto. Or maybe, just more noticeable. Andrew and Thomas were up by the front with the trail guide, so they were chatting her up. She told them about another lake to go see, and where the path to climb up Cascade mountain was. Oh joy. We went to the lake first because it was a bit further away, Lake Minnewanka. Looked a lot smaller than it was. The boys were upset that we didn’t make it in time to rent a boat [not that we had the time anyways].

Cascade Mountain. Daunting from the ground, but still deceiving. It started off alright, although I was definitely wearing the best pair of shoes for this job. The guys were so much faster than me. I literally was dying. At one point I thought I was going to faint, but I kept going. Andrew was pushing me on, making me keep going. Although, mentally I was pushing myself forward because I wanted to get to the plateau, and I didn’t want to be the failure. I had a complete set of Pinterest inspiration going through my mind. It was totally worth it. The view was gorgeous, I felt like I mastered something, and the water was sooo good coming from the glacier tip. And so, so refreshing after the climb. It really showed me how unfit I still am [even though I knew that..] but it made me want to keep on working out.

We headed back to Calgary after that, Coby and I were going to meet up with family on my Mom’s side that we’d never met before. That was interesting. It was fun, and really good to meet them. We talked for about 2 hours before the guys came to pick us up.

There was a little bit of drama on the way home, Kyleigh was upset that we still weren’t home yet [it was about 10.30 by the time we made it back] but we got it sorted out and everything was fine. We stayed up for about as long as it takes to finish a beer, and then we all crashed. It was a long day, especially for the four of us that flew in that morning!

And that sums up day one of my trip. Hard to believe that amount of stuff we crammed into 4 days!