Day 5 - Calgary, AB

Sunday, June 12, 2011

by: Dot and Mel Bolton, Pacifica, California Rig #4

Today is Sunday, June 12, 2011 and day 5 of our trip to Alaska. We woke to bright sunshine and white puffy clouds, so much better than the rain we ran in almost all day yesterday.

The bus arrived at 10:30am, not 11:30am for our tour and we heard someone say, “Hey, we still have the wash to finish”.  Close to 11:15am the ladies gathered to pick the card to see where in the bus they were to sit. The men got to do it yesterday. 

We were introduced to Patrick, our driver and he told us this is only the 4^th time his new bus was used, and it even had seat belts.  Dick and Diane Hall, from Arizona were celebrating their 52^nd anniversary today and Gilbert Hall from Texas, no relative of Dicks, was celebrating his 21^st birthday again and again. Beautiful cards were presented to them from our leaders. As we drove, Patrick told us a lot about the area, how there are 1.2 million people living in Calgary and that people were moving out into other towns because of the traffic.  He showed us homes that cost around  $900,000 when built and are now a million  to 1.3 million dollars.   Patrick told us about the ranchers who feed their cattle the round bales of hay and the ranchers  who wanted their cows to have a square meal got the square bales.

 First stop was at the Olympic Park for a delicious lunch.  Gilbert Hall was presented a birthday hat and a cake just his size with a pink candle, thanks to Jill Spierre, and enjoyed all of us singing Happy Birthday to him. (he did turn a little red).

Next we all rode up in the ski lift to the top of the mountain where we enjoyed the beautiful view. The ski lift was also used by children and adults to carry their bikes up the mountain and then would ride them zigzagging down on the slopes of the mountain on paths made especially for that purpose. Because of lightening a few miles away the ski lift was shut down and we all had to walk down besides the bobsled run. It was a paved path and no problem to walk.

We then headed to the Calgary Tower Observation Deck where we went up the elevator to the top and walked around looking at the city below including where the Calgary Stampede is held.  Brave ones stood on the glass floor over the city, others stood close by. By now the rain started as we ran to our bus.

 We then traveled around the town of Calgary to see the highlights and when we returned to our campground we found our white, puffy clouds again. No more rain.!

We had our travel meeting for tomorrow and had our first encounter with mosquitoes. After our little walk down the mountain I think all will sleep well tonight.