Leaving Calgary, flying home

September 5, 2012 - We had an early morning. We had scheduled our Hilton Garden Inn shuttle to the airport at 5:45am. They had one departing every 45 minutes. It was a bigger one than the van we had as a shuttle on arrival. That one held 9 passengers. This was like a small bus and probably held 15 passengers and had luggage racks behind the driver.

Since breakfast didn't start until 6am, they had out a table of coffee, hot tea and pastries by the elevator in the lobby. The driver was downstairs collecting people and luggage about 15 minutes early and as soon as he had collected everyone and their luggage, we left early. He took a different circuitous route to the airport, but even without any traffic at this hour it took close to 20 minutes to drive to the airport.

We went in and collected our customs forms and filled them out. There was a sign over the door to security/US Customs that announced when your flight could enter. Ours was pending when we arrived, so we had to sit a few minutes after filling out our forms. US Customs was not very busy though and they waved us up to enter early. We got through US Customs and YYC security fairly quickly even with some extra screening because they just weren't busy. We all had only carryon luggage so that speeded us on our way too. Once through security, we sat in the hall outside Tim Hortons while we waited for our departure gate to be posted. Clay wanted to buy a 40-piece box of TimBits to take into work tomorrow. He got some for himself and for Judy and Margie too. I ordered a Canadian Maple! Delicious! I filled my water bottles and we waited.

When we finally saw our departure gate get posted we made our way to it. Everything was pretty compact though, so it wasn't a problem.We said goodbye to Mom and Judy outside our departure gate at MSP, and they went on to theirs. Since it was lunch time, we grabbed a sandwich for Clay and a yogurt for me at a little deli outside our gate and ate while we waited to board.

Again, I think we had no problems with Delta. Flights were very full, but everything was on time and we all got home on schedule.

It was a good trip. Caravan does a good job overall and we think they provide a good value for our travel dollars. Uniformly, among our group the most popular and most recommended other Caravan Tour is what people called the Canadian Maritimes. I think it is this one, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. We are thinking about going on this one next fall. We'll see what happens. Sorry it has taken me so long to get this posted! I will blame it on Clay getting sick as it was time to come home and me catching it from him 5 days later. We both got laid low by whatever cold/flu-like thing it was and it took us a long time to recover and regain any energy. So, I'm sorry! I hope it was worth the wait. It was a good trip and I would recommend Caravan's Canadian Rockies tour.

To Calgary

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September 4, 2012 - Today is the last day of our vacation. Tomorrow morning early, we fly home from Calgary. We are a little sad that it is over. But, I guess that is a good thing. Leave before you get sick of it! Bags out at 7am. Clay was out even earlier. He was headed out to our cliffside overlook of the Athabasca River to look for the collared mother elk and her yearling. I fixed a cup of coffee and went out with him, but I spilled coffee down the front of my fleece hoodie and went back to the room to rinse the stains out and put our luggage outside the door. As I was putting out the bags, I heard something clip-clopping on the sidewalk right next to the building. It was a line of elk! I scooted over to Mom's door and started frantically tapping while trying not to scare the elk. The last one disappeared around the corner of the building in front of us just as Mom opened the door. I told her and she hustled up to follow them at a distance. It was still very dark and hard to see. The elk went across the center lawn of the compound and then crossed between 2 river fronting units and into the woods walking towards the cliffside trail on which I knew Clay was sitting and waiting for sunrise or me or elk! I ran across the other way to quietly get Clay off the trail before they came up behind him. I made it to him just seconds before the elk did. He was surprised! It was our collared mother and yearling from yesterday morning with another mother and yearling. They went down the hill at our viewpoint and down onto the beach below. The collared mother went straight across and onto the trail on the other side. The other mother lingered briefly with the 2 yearlings and they did their happy dance on the beach before disappearing into the woods behind their mothers. It was very dark, so this video may be hard to view. It was such a joy to watch. After they left, we turned and saw that Mom & Judy had been at the top of the hill and had the chance to see the youngsters go crazy playing with one another.

We went on to breakfast at the hotel restaurant at 7am. Today we had a choice between the same hot breakfast as yesterday and oatmeal. We all went with the hot breakfast again. The bus departed at 8am. As we loaded the bus, we had an opportunity to buy the group photo that was taken 2 days ago on the way up here.

Our first potty break/photo op stop was at Sunwapta Falls. They had a holographic bear here that was just a gas and completely mesmerising. Here is a video of the Sunwapta Falls.

Amy really showed how little she likes us here. After telling us how long we had here, she mentioned that Sunwapta Falls was about a mile down the road to our left as we exited the bus. She said if we thought we were fast, we could walk down there and back as well as use the restrooms inside the building next to the bus. Then, when a lot of people wanted to see the falls, she added a few minutes to our departure time. After we got down there and found a great big parking lot where the bus could have dropped us and turned around, we asked Brian why he didn't. He said that he wanted to and does it all the time, so people only have to walk one way, but had to follow Amy's orders as the Tour Director and she had told him No, they're all healthy, let them walk down there if they want. Really? I am sure that everyone of us who were at least 30 years older than her are grateful for our health. But when the average age is probably over 65, is it really a good idea not to provide the convenience for which we are paying a premium to Caravan? I mean at our ages and at that altitude, was it a good idea to set us up to race back and forth down a mile or so of road in traffic. It is not like there were any sidewalks built there for the purpose. No, there was a big parking lot built right at the rather steep and difficult trail to and from the actual falls. That moment seemed to crystallize for me, and I am sure a few others, what Amy thought about us at the end of our week together. It was not a nice feeling to be so little regarded. I think we all think in hindsight that overall Caravan provided value and a mostly well-thought out tour of the area with nice hotels and acceptable meals. The bus and driver were fantastic, no complaints whatsoever. But, the real disappointment was Amy, our Tour Director.

At lunchtime, we stopped at the Columbia Icefield Centre. Here we found the world's most extensive women's restrooms. No waiting ever! It was like a maze from a ladies room in heaven! We had a meeting time outside the Gift Shop to take our Icefield Explorer Glacier Adventure. This was included in our Caravan fare and was worth about $50. We loaded up our massive Ice Explorer and drove across the Icefields Parkway to drive and walk upon the Athabasca Glacier. They told us it is over 1000 feet thick! That was crazy to think about and you'd have expected it to feel even colder than it did atop that much ice. Judy had been here before in (I hope I am remembering right!) 1983 on her way to move to Florida. She had a snapshot of herself at the Athabasca Glacier at the time which was down by the road. There is a lake there now! The Icefield Explorer Glacier Adventure lasted an hour or less. Then, we had time for lunch there. There was a restaurant and a cafeteria. We snacked again and bought drinks. Mom and I had hot chocolate again, but it wasn't as good as at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. I think the price was about the same. We sat outside on a balcony-type patio in the sun and had our drinks and protein bars and Nabs.

This afternoon as we were driving, I was scanning the mountain tops for mountain goats. I finally saw a little cluster of white shapes moving in the distance and told Clay there are some mountain goats. He didn't believe me. I said it again and pointed to them. Mom heard me and hollered mountain goats. I was still pointed up there and Brian looked in his rearview mirror and saw and slammed on his brakes and pulled over to the side of the road so Amy could point them out and announce it and people on that side of the bus could try to take quick photos. Still never saw a moose in a week in Canada!

An interesting thing about Icefields Parkway is the number of animal overpasses. They build these so that animals could cross the highway safely at regular intervals and they look so nice. They are landscaped down to fallen trees so they blend in visually to the animals. The animals do use them. They know this because of radio tracking and because they have cameras on the overpasses. Very interesting.

In the afternoon, we stopped at the Lake Louise Visitor's Center for a potty break. There was an adjoining shopping center, so you could also get a snack if you wanted. There was a candy store there and Amy had told us this afternoon about things invented by Canadians and one of the was M&Ms, called Smarties here. Clay wanted to get some. Boy, was he disappointed. I mean I guess they are similar by definition to M&Ms but they did not taste anywhere near as good. I ate most of them, because he did like the Smarties, of course he doesn't like plain M&Ms either and I do.

We got back to the Airport Hilton Garden Inn outside Calgary in the afternoon. We were advised to sign up for a shuttle slot asap on arrival to be sure we could get a complimentary ride to the airport in the morning. They had times available at 45 minute intervals, so we signed up for 5:45am departure for our 8:30am flights. Amy had warned us to plan to arrive at least 2 hours before our flight time because leaving YYC for the USA, you clear US customs at the YYC airport before you go through airport security. It is one long, giant security maze! The good news is that makes a short layover in MSP possible!

Our rooms were ready and they handed out our keys in the lobby. We drew room 209 this time, so we had the same warehouse/parking lot view again, but lower. Mom & Judy were right next door to us, so they missed their downtown skyline view, but they said there first room here last week was missing the blackout curtain. They will be glad for one tonight, because there are bright lights by those loading dock doors back there that flash on and off all night long! Dinner was included tonight and was at 7pm in a curtained off area of the hotel lobby. It was a buffet. There were salads and bread and a carving station of roast beef, but I don't remember what else. There was a strawberry mousse cake and a chocolate mousse cake for dessert. Coffee was provided. You could also order and pay extra for beer and wine if you wanted. Amy ate with us for this last meal. It was uncomfortable and a little bit anticlimactic as an ending to a very good trip otherwise. Amy had collected peoples' email address during the bus rides and those who wanted to share, she provided a sheet with all that information at dinner tonight.

We did not linger over the meal. We have to be up very early tomorrow. Breakfast starts at 6am here, so we'll miss it by departing at 5:45am. We all went up to our rooms early to pack up one final time and go to bed early.

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