Stampeding to Calgary - a bit late 23rd & 24th August Hometime & Highs/Lows

parisdisneyfan · 25 Aug 18, 01:15 PM

The day that most people on holiday dread, the day you go home. We got packed up, checked over all the drawers, wardrobe etc, binned the almost empty sunscreen, toiletries and foodstuffs we wouldn’t eat and checked the weight of our cases. We thought we would be ok but possibly slightly over our 23kg each, we decided to risk it and would use the “we had to buy extra as you lost our case” excuse.

We checked out just before 11 with no charges as we hadn’t used either films or the bbq. Now what should with do until we needed to be at the airport at 4.30 for our 6.30 flight? It was only about 1 ½ hours to Calgary airport so we had about 4 hours and lunch to get. A couple of friends had recommended Sunshine Village, admittedly both of them had been in the winter for skiing but a leaflet we found also said it was very pretty in the summer so we decided to head up to it as it was only just past Banff. We drove up and on the way we saw some rock climbers, barefoot! And some sheep!

Unfortunately you can’t drive up the Sunshine Village, you have to either catch the gondola at $42 each(although it didn’t seem to be operational), the free shuttle bus every 30 minutes or walk the 5km. We just couldn’t risk the time so just got a panini in the base station, not cheap at $11 each but they were very good. I had the tomato mozzarella and basil and dh had a chicken one. We also had some of the drinks and cookies left from our room. After this we drove up the Bow Valley Parkway for a few miles, stopping at one of the turnoffs we hadn’t used before where dh saw an osprey to add to our wildlife list!

It was a straight drive down to Calgary and we found a petrol station no problem to fill up, it was easy to find the drop off point for the car and no problems or extra charges. It was just a short walk straight over to the airport, very simple. This time there was someone at the auto check in which was good as my phone refused to open the boarding passes. She printed everything out and tagged our bags and we carried on to the auto bag drop, again it wouldn’t work as one bag was 23.1kg and the other was 23.6kg! We had to stand then in a long queue with people with lots of excess luggage, but nothing we could do unless we opened the cases and tried to move something to our hand luggage. When we got to the front all ready with our reason for being less than a kilo over the lady just waved them through! On to security, again very slow but very helpful and straight through for me but dh had to open his camera bag and prove it all worked and was real. I never complain about security being too fussy though as would rather that than let some thing dodgy on a plane that I’m on! Then on to the gate, which was quite close and we had about 40 minutes to boarding. I was a bit hungry and didn’t know when we would be fed on the plane so got a blueberry muffin and apple juice to keep me going (dh had a couple of bites) I also bought a Starbucks Canada christmas tree cup ornament to go with the UK ones I have. I would have bought a mug but we don’t have them or use them so I was strict with myself!

Finally we were called to board, can’t remember what time, we got settled and were on our way. Food wasn’t great, in fact I was glad I had had the muffin as the choices were either a creamy pasta or chicken and pasta! I chose the chicken but the pasta had the texture of tapioca, slimy and gluey and the chicken was in dry chunks. I didn’t eat more than a mouthful of each and then just settled down to sleep with an audio book. As everyone knows sleeping in economy isn’t the best but I think I managed to at least doze most of the trip. Breakfast was served about 1 ½ hours out from LHR, again not great, a yogurt with some cinnamon cake bread. Again I didn’t eat it.

We circled LHR for a couple of laps before landing and then with waiting for our gate to be free, we were 30 mins later than we were told but still 30 mins earlier than our original landing time. On to passport control where as usual I was rejected by the automated service, despite watching the instructions while in the queue and doing it all correctly! So I had to queue to be checked manually while dh went on to collect the luggage. Both cases had arrived with us this time so straight through customs and to get the car from Heathrow meet & greet. Dh had baulked at paying £140 for this but it was definitely so easy and at only about £20 more than the shuttle services I think it was worth it. We loaded up and were on the road before 11 again!

First thing we noticed was how much busier the roads are and also how clear the air and sky were! No smoke or mountains ☹! Busy with a few traffic queues but home around 12 after picking up a sandwich at Tesco, unpacking was easy as mostly clean clothes in packing cubes. We did end up having an afternoon nap before both kids got home from work! Pressies dished out and Dominoes for tea before dd left in the rain to camp for the weekend! We held out until about 9.30pm before heading to bed where we both stayed til 10.30am Saturday!

Counts, Highs and Lows

Counts

Mileage 3348 km (2080 miles)

Provinces - 2 Alberta and British Columbia

National Parks - 4 Banff, Jasper, Kootenay and Yoho

Highest points reached – breakfast at Lake Agnes at over 7000ft, Bow Summit second at 6900 ft

Biggest Hike 10km in Radium Springs, closely followed by almost reaching Plain of 6 Glaciers at Lake Louise!

Best Ice cream – tough one as both the Lake Minnewanka cherry cheesecake and Truffle Pig in Field were amazing!

Takeaways – I don’t think anything we picked up was bad but the onion rings from A&W were amazing as was our Boston Pizza Royal pizza!

Wildlife – 1 whole bear and dh spotted 1 bear bottom! Several deer, 1 elk, Bald Eagle (3 times or 3 different birds, who knows!) Possibly a Golden Eagle, but it may be an Albertan Ferruginous Hawk, Osprey, sheep!

Lows

Case being late – although silver lining is that Air Canada may pay for the bits I had to buy!

Smoke – but nothing that can be done about that

Car – very minor, just a bit old, scratched and wallowy

Highs

Glacier and being an ice road trucker!

Seeing a bear

Scenery even with the smoke haze

Hotel apartment lovely

Very friendly people everywhere including the airport and aircrew on board!

Thanks for reading, hope it was either helpful for your trip planning or just entertaining!

Cutiepie · 25 Aug 18, 03:20 PM

Thanks for sharing your trip with us. I have enjoyed reading along

**WileyCoyote** · 25 Aug 18, 11:02 PM

It’s been such a great read, really enjoyed it. Glad travel went as well as these days can . How’s the jet lag ?

Gunna · 26 Aug 18, 07:53 AM

Loved reading your report, brought back many memories.

Such a great place to visit, we’ll be going back for sure, enjoying planning your next one.

eleele · 26 Aug 18, 08:33 AM

Thanks for your trip report.

This area is a place I want to visit soon (after our next Orlando trip anyway!) and you have given me lots of insight into the sights and scenes (and smoke

)

**jocat** · 26 Aug 18, 11:38 AM

Welcome home! It’s been great following your trip Julia.

Sunshine Village was the day we ditched for a day around Banff. If I remember correctly, I don’t think the gondola runs on midweek days in the summer. It just seemed a bit of a faff to get there, hence the reason it became the day to drop.

Hope Air Canada stump up for your new clothes. Keep us updated.

**anji** · 26 Aug 18, 01:43 PM

Have really enjoyed reading your reports and love your counts too! All looked wonderful and definitely on my list of places to visit now

parisdisneyfan · 26 Aug 18, 04:23 PM

Originally Posted by WileyCoyote

It’s been such a great read, really enjoyed it. Glad travel went as well as these days can . How’s the jet lag ?

Thank you, thought i’d Got off lightly yesterday but feeling it today! Thanks for reading😉

25 Aug 18, 01:15 PM	#1
	25 Aug 18, 01:15 PM parisdisneyfan Imagineer
parisdisneyfan Imagineer Join Date: Feb 08	Stampeding to Calgary - a bit late 23rd & 24th August Hometime & Highs/Lows The day that most people on holiday dread, the day you go home. We got packed up, checked over all the drawers, wardrobe etc, binned the almost empty sunscreen, toiletries and foodstuffs we wouldn’t eat and checked the weight of our cases. We thought we would be ok but possibly slightly over our 23kg each, we decided to risk it and would use the “we had to buy extra as you lost our case” excuse. We checked out just before 11 with no charges as we hadn’t used either films or the bbq. Now what should with do until we needed to be at the airport at 4.30 for our 6.30 flight? It was only about 1 ½ hours to Calgary airport so we had about 4 hours and lunch to get. A couple of friends had recommended Sunshine Village, admittedly both of them had been in the winter for skiing but a leaflet we found also said it was very pretty in the summer so we decided to head up to it as it was only just past Banff. We drove up and on the way we saw some rock climbers, barefoot! And some sheep! Unfortunately you can’t drive up the Sunshine Village, you have to either catch the gondola at $42 each(although it didn’t seem to be operational), the free shuttle bus every 30 minutes or walk the 5km. We just couldn’t risk the time so just got a panini in the base station, not cheap at $11 each but they were very good. I had the tomato mozzarella and basil and dh had a chicken one. We also had some of the drinks and cookies left from our room. After this we drove up the Bow Valley Parkway for a few miles, stopping at one of the turnoffs we hadn’t used before where dh saw an osprey to add to our wildlife list! It was a straight drive down to Calgary and we found a petrol station no problem to fill up, it was easy to find the drop off point for the car and no problems or extra charges. It was just a short walk straight over to the airport, very simple. This time there was someone at the auto check in which was good as my phone refused to open the boarding passes. She printed everything out and tagged our bags and we carried on to the auto bag drop, again it wouldn’t work as one bag was 23.1kg and the other was 23.6kg! We had to stand then in a long queue with people with lots of excess luggage, but nothing we could do unless we opened the cases and tried to move something to our hand luggage. When we got to the front all ready with our reason for being less than a kilo over the lady just waved them through! On to security, again very slow but very helpful and straight through for me but dh had to open his camera bag and prove it all worked and was real. I never complain about security being too fussy though as would rather that than let some thing dodgy on a plane that I’m on! Then on to the gate, which was quite close and we had about 40 minutes to boarding. I was a bit hungry and didn’t know when we would be fed on the plane so got a blueberry muffin and apple juice to keep me going (dh had a couple of bites) I also bought a Starbucks Canada christmas tree cup ornament to go with the UK ones I have. I would have bought a mug but we don’t have them or use them so I was strict with myself! Finally we were called to board, can’t remember what time, we got settled and were on our way. Food wasn’t great, in fact I was glad I had had the muffin as the choices were either a creamy pasta or chicken and pasta! I chose the chicken but the pasta had the texture of tapioca, slimy and gluey and the chicken was in dry chunks. I didn’t eat more than a mouthful of each and then just settled down to sleep with an audio book. As everyone knows sleeping in economy isn’t the best but I think I managed to at least doze most of the trip. Breakfast was served about 1 ½ hours out from LHR, again not great, a yogurt with some cinnamon cake bread. Again I didn’t eat it. We circled LHR for a couple of laps before landing and then with waiting for our gate to be free, we were 30 mins later than we were told but still 30 mins earlier than our original landing time. On to passport control where as usual I was rejected by the automated service, despite watching the instructions while in the queue and doing it all correctly! So I had to queue to be checked manually while dh went on to collect the luggage. Both cases had arrived with us this time so straight through customs and to get the car from Heathrow meet & greet. Dh had baulked at paying £140 for this but it was definitely so easy and at only about £20 more than the shuttle services I think it was worth it. We loaded up and were on the road before 11 again! First thing we noticed was how much busier the roads are and also how clear the air and sky were! No smoke or mountains ☹! Busy with a few traffic queues but home around 12 after picking up a sandwich at Tesco, unpacking was easy as mostly clean clothes in packing cubes. We did end up having an afternoon nap before both kids got home from work! Pressies dished out and Dominoes for tea before dd left in the rain to camp for the weekend! We held out until about 9.30pm before heading to bed where we both stayed til 10.30am Saturday! Counts, Highs and Lows Counts Mileage 3348 km (2080 miles) Provinces - 2 Alberta and British Columbia National Parks - 4 Banff, Jasper, Kootenay and Yoho Highest points reached – breakfast at Lake Agnes at over 7000ft, Bow Summit second at 6900 ft Biggest Hike 10km in Radium Springs, closely followed by almost reaching Plain of 6 Glaciers at Lake Louise! Best Ice cream – tough one as both the Lake Minnewanka cherry cheesecake and Truffle Pig in Field were amazing! Takeaways – I don’t think anything we picked up was bad but the onion rings from A&W were amazing as was our Boston Pizza Royal pizza! Wildlife – 1 whole bear and dh spotted 1 bear bottom! Several deer, 1 elk, Bald Eagle (3 times or 3 different birds, who knows!) Possibly a Golden Eagle, but it may be an Albertan Ferruginous Hawk, Osprey, sheep! Lows Case being late – although silver lining is that Air Canada may pay for the bits I had to buy! Smoke – but nothing that can be done about that Car – very minor, just a bit old, scratched and wallowy Highs Glacier and being an ice road trucker! Seeing a bear Scenery even with the smoke haze Hotel apartment lovely Very friendly people everywhere including the airport and aircrew on board! Thanks for reading, hope it was either helpful for your trip planning or just entertaining! __________________ Edited at 04:48 PM.