This is the 12th of a series of posts dealing with my 2023 trip to Calgary, Edmonton, and vicinity. I’ve made minor corrections to these reports (typos, bits I don’t feel like making public). Also, I’ve added additional thoughts with the hindsight of a year later or to add further clarification. These are indicated by “NOW”.
Doing a morning edition so as to have less to type later (and to prevent myself from getting too sweaty doing another walk).
Forgot to mention yesterday: smoky all day. Just before getting back to the Calgary Hub hostel I saw a cat. I think it was only the second cat I had seen the entire trip, the first being the store cat in the 82nd Ave branch of Wee Book Inn, Edmonton.I think I interrupted a dispute between it and a couple magpies.
Leaving the Calgary Hub hostel today, I saw another large rabbit/hare. I walked north along Centre St then east along 64 Ave to the Deerfoot City shopping area. I made note of a couple opening times. I walked to the McDonald's from Day 2, at Aviation and McKnight. I might have been able to go to one at Deerfoot, but I had time to kill. Heading back to Deerfoot a somewhat different way, I took some plane photos my dad would have liked if he was still around. I got turned around a bit (multiple streets named Aviation in the same area). A territorial magpie started following me and scolding me. Back at Deerfoot I visited Walmart to kill time and then after it opened I bought some comic trades at Dollarama.
Leaving the mall, after a short hike west, I went south down 4th St SE and then checked out gas stations and a 7-11 at the corner of McKnight and Centre. For future notes for my photos I wanted to get a map book. I had passed on a larger one once earlier, at the other Walmart, but now I felt it would be nice to have. No luck but maybe at the airport. This concludes the exploratory part of the trip other than the Calgary Airport. I might stop off at Elk Lake on the way home from the Victoria Airport, weather and energy level depending. Have a great day everyone!
[NOW: I did have a map book but it’s outdated and got a bit damaged during the trip. I didn’t make it to Elk Lake. As noted, the above was written in the morning, the next part in the afternoon.]
Wasn't going to do an afternoon edition but bored.
The owner of the hostel was kind enough to offer me a ride to the bus stop, thus saving me a tiring hike, albeit not that far. The 300 bus (Calgary Transit) arrived soon after. At Calgary International Airport I realized that the bag that was going to be my carry on bad was a little too big so I shuffled things around to put that bag in my suitcase and use my backpack as carry on. The woman at reception recommended moving a few things to carry on and said that while my gate was C, Gate B was faster for going through security. As opposed to Gate C being about 30 minutes, I was through in less than 5. I beeped going through the metal detector but that resulted in a minor check.
I didn't like the dining options in Gate C so I checked the other gates. Burger King in Gate B's menu was hard to read (white lettering in black background) so I found an A&W in a Food Court in Gate A. I think it was the place I ate at in a layover from my second last flight home from Toronto. Returning to Gate C, I learned my flight was delayed 30 minutes. Hopefully that's it.
[NOW: The rest was written in the evening.]
The plane was pretty packed so I decided I'd better doublecheck my backpack before boarding to make sure it still fit in carry on. It didn't so I agreed to have it moved to check in because it would probably prove mandatory anyway. I still had to keep my laptop with me. The plastic bag I had in my backpack quickly started to tear so I arranged to get a tougher plastic bag. The flight itself was cloudy most of the way, though I did get decent take-off and landing photos. It was interesting seeing downtown Calgary from above after seeing it below so often lately. I think the flight was about an hour late getting into Victoria. It was warm but overcast at the Victoria International Airport, North Saanich so while I decided to hike to McTavish Exchange instead of spending the extra bus ticket there, I decided to pass on going to Elk Lake. I arrived at the exchange around the same time as people taking the 88 bus (Victoria Regional Transit) did.
I look the 72 bus (also Victoria Regional Transit) to the Legislature and walked home; en route I saw that Ricky's Grill had clearly had a fire earlier today.
[NOW: The restaurant proved to be unsalvageable and has since been demolished.]
In terms of the CTrain, it appears that the delays two days ago were due to a man wielding a hatchet, though a stabbing the day before might also have been part of it.
This ends the trip reports.
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