Up at a very civilized 8 am this morning. We’ve been on so many international trips that have either begun or ended at ungodly hours that it’s hard to remember the last time that happened on a travel day.
We weren’t due to leave home for several hours, so that gave us plenty of time to finish packing and get the house ready for our departure. Going for only a week this time, which meant that we only needed to throw out some of the food in the fridge, rather than all of it. Another benefit of a shorter trip.
Still, no matter the trip we always end up travelling with a lot of stuff:
At least this time the roof box is empty
But the kids’ school demands are creeping up, so we’re not about to take another month off – least of all because we’ll be taking close to 3 months off later in the year, when we go visit Antarctica and then take a Cape-to-Cape cruise to South Africa.
We left roughly on time, stopping only to grab one last handful of Ziplock bags and our 407 transponder, which we’d use to access Ontario’s pay-to-use highway in the event of a slowdown on the 401.
The drive was mostly uneventful, save for a patch of intense wind and rain midway through. Our Honda HR-V’s roofbox effectively functioned like a sail, so there were some twitchy moments while driving. But nothing to complain about, given that Hurricane Milton is currently wreaking havoc in Florida.
We normally use the Park ‘n’ Fly valet service for extended stays, but due to our shorter trip the price gap between Park ‘n’ Fly and regular airport parking was modest enough to justify the upgrade.
It did take some hunting to find an available spot, but the parking lot’s use of signs that indicate the number of free spots per level was helpful – though we quickly learned to avoid any row that said it had only one spot free, as that was often inaccurate. Once we learned this lesson, we went down to level 2 and quickly found an open spot.
We had a brief walk to get to the elevator, and then another short walk to reach the departures level, and then one more walk to get to our domestic departure gate. Not entirely painless, but still a much easier option than dropping everyone off before heading to the valet lot to park.
Unfortunately, Air Canada had downgraded my son and I from extra-legroom economy to just regular economy. Boo. Hopefully the same doesn’t happen on our trip back.
We headed through security via the Nexus line, which blessedly does not require you to unpack liquids or electronics. Though everything so far had gone so quickly that some of us (names withheld to protect the guilty) had forgotten to empty our water bottles. So that prompted some last-minute shuffling.
With that dealt with, we finally headed off to the Plaza Lounge where we expected to again be met with the disappointing sight of a full lounge. But fortunately, there was room for us – and even room for seats together.
They have introduced a new policy that limits visits to 2 hours at a time, but this is fine by us if it means that we at least get to have some time in the lounge.
We had an impromptu lunch-dinner of pesto penne, rice, and Salisbury meatballs. All very good, as were the lone gin-and-tonics that my wife and I had to wash it all down before switching to coffee and tea, respectively.
There was just enough time to fire off some itinerary changes on our upcoming Namibia / South Africa trips, and then we headed down to the gate to await our boarding call.
This was a full flight, so they were already calling for passengers to gate-check their carry-on bags. Thankfully, my wife and daughter were still in Zone 3 so they took on both carry on bags – they had to put them a few rows back, but it was close enough for my son and I to make pick-up at the end.
Once we boarded, it became clear that no one had the extra legroom – Air Canada must have changed planes on us. Nor were there seatback monitors. Though they did give us free in-flight internet and complementary wine and beer, which was a good start – and better still, they didn’t even run out of pizza by the time they reached row 16.
It was not the most comfortable of flights, but we muddled through all right. 4 hours is much shorter than most of the flights we’ve taken over the past few years, and we appreciated getting in at a decent hour.
Hello, Calgary!
The time zone change worked in our favour, and we touched down not long after 7:30 pm. I dashed ahead to the rental car counter while my wife and kids waited for our luggage.
No line at the Avis counter. I was pleased to see they had upgraded us to an Audi, but was suspicious when I saw the vehicle was a Q3. I asked the Avis rep whether it was capable of holding as much as a Ford Escape, and he assured me that it was. (Spoiler: It wasn’t.)
But without my bags, I was blissfully unaware of what awaited me so instead I went back to help my wife and kids with the bags, which still hadn’t come off yet. But the conveyer belt sparked up 5 minutes later, and we soon had our two checked bags and were on our way.
Back past the Avis counter and then off to the parking garage where we discovered that the Q3 did not, in fact, hold as much as a Ford Escape – even with its parcel shelf removed. So back to the Avis desk, where they handed over the keys to a Jeep Grand Cherokee. Then we were indeed back in business.
Is this an artful night shot or a hedge against getting billed for previous damage to our rental car? I’ll let my critics decide
We then headed off through the myriad construction zones along Deerfoot trail to my mother’s house. The kids had a delicious bedtime snack of sandwiches and strawberries, and then we all went off for a much-deserved rest.
We’d need it – we’ll be up bright and early tomorrow morning to visit the Calgary Zoo and then head straight on to Banff.
Continue reading Calgary and Banff – Day 2.