Sunday 5th October. Today was a pack up day ready for the Bus and Ferry trip back to Vancouver Airport as Kate had a very early flight to Portland on Monday morning. Chris and Kate did some souvenir shopping while Warwick waited at the bus station with a book. It was again a good crossing to the mainland, very calm and clear though quite chilly outside.
We booked into a small motel near to the airport and then went for a short walk to take in some for the area, called at IHOP (the pancake one) and then tried to have an early night.
Monday 6th October.
Our alarms went off at 4.30 am and we were on the the 5.00 am shuttle bus from the hotel to the airport for Kate’s flight at 7.20 am. We all went as Chris and Warwick had decided to fly to Calgary at 10.00am.
We had a great time with Kate had enjoyed her company for the six days and were sad to see her off on her plane. By now we are used to hanging around in airports so we were content to wait there for our flight to Calgary. We need to count up but we have made over 40 flights so far on this trip.
The plane took off in fine but cloudy weather and we landed in fine weather in Calgary’s ‘fall’ season. As we came in to land we could see the yellow of the autumn leaves on the trees, a pretty sight. We also caught some glimpses of the snow on the Rockies as we flew over. We found ourselves a Travelodge to stay in for the night and then walked to a nearby train/tram station and went into Calgary city about 20 minutes away. A young fellow on the train gave us directions about sights in Calgary city. We walked through the city and then along a beautiful river area and took many pictures, before going up the Calgary Tower for the views at sunset.
It was dark as we emerged from the tower. We had a meal in town and were served by a girl from New South Wales who had been travelling in South America. We returned by the tram that travels down the city streets and out to our hotel for a cold walk back to the hotel.
We contacted the airline and changed our itinery so that we flew to san Francisco from Calgary without returning to Vancouver.
Tuesday 7th October.
We were preparing for what seemed to be a fine day when a major storm approached and we watched from the hotel room as dust blew up and then the wind and rain hit the hotel. The storm lasted about an hour and was quite spectacular and as it cleared we left for the airport in the hotel shuttle to get a bus to Banff. The two hour bus ride was through the plains area around Calgary and after an hour we started to get closer to the Rockies. What a sight as we approached Banff ! We were dropped off in Banff on the footpath outside some budget motels and we took a room at the first one we went into called The Red Carpet Inn.
The air was cool as it was 4.00 pm and the sun had left the town. We donned our warmer clothes, more layers actually, and went for a walk through the shops enjoying, much like the other tourists, the grand scenery looming over the town. We found a supermarket and bought a few things for a scratch meal in our room and our staple nibbles which are dried apricots, cheddar cheese (which is orange in Canada) and some fruit. We had a collection of brochures to read in preparation for our stay in the Rockies but we never really got around to looking at most of them, we just went out and filled the days with wonderful views of the snow capped mountains.
haha just like old times dad…but instead of waiting in the car while we shop you were at a bus stop…and a book instead of the radio