Alberta Bound

Vancouver was a nice easy slide into Canadian life, cold temperatures and all the extra layers that come with it. It was certainly colder once we arrived to Calgary but we were so excited to collect our Chevy Tahoe and make our own way that it didn’t slow us down.

Our first stop was BassPro to get fitted out in our winter boots. We were able to get all of our winter clothing at home before we left (more on that in our previous blog post An Open and Shut Suitcase) but decided to wait until we arrived in Alberta for suitable footwear. The BassPro store itself is a tourist attraction. The shop is fitted out with full sized taxidermied wildlife and a 2 storey fish tank.

Unfortunately, it was getting late when we arrived so we grabbed our boots and kept moving. By 4:30pm the sun had completely set so we were eager to get to our hotel for the night in Airdrie. Ad did a great job at navigating us from the Calgary International to the Airdrie Holiday Inn on the opposite side of the road. Airdrie really isn’t a destination but we had opted to stay there as it was a short and easy drive from the airport and was also close to BassPro. We could then travel onwards to Banff without going through Calgary and dealing with the city’s traffic so soon after collecting our rental and getting used to left hand drive. We called it an early night taking advantage of the hotel laundry after a dinner at a local steakhouse where Ad sampled some AAA Prime Alberta beef. Unfortunately going on holidays doesn’t eliminate the need for clean clothes.