Our Flight
This was a very exciting trip, mostly planned by Maria. We were to fly to Calgary, Alberta, with a layover in St. Paul, Minnesota. We would pick up our rental car, stay one night in a hotel and then proceed to find the condo an hour’s drive away in Canmore..
When we landed in St. Paul, we were told that that our flight to Calgary was overbooked and the airline was asking for volunteers to be bumped to another flight. Since, we weren’t to be at our timeshare until the next day, we figured let’s see what is available. Maria talked with the ticket agent at the counter and asked what was being offered. They would trade our tickets in for tickets the next morning, plus hotel accommodations for the night, and a $500 ticket voucher each (for anywhere in the US and valid for up to a year). It turned out that the morning and afternoon flights were also booked. Maria has a motto, the worse anyone can say to you is no, so she asked if we could be bumped to first class. Since there was 5 of use, they checked availability and quickly agreed. It didn’t take a long discussion to take advantage of the deal. After checking into the hotel, we had a late meal, Sonny cancelled our hotel and we went to bed.
On our flight to St. Paul, we saw in the airline magazine an ad about a shuttle to the Mall of America. So, the next morning we had enough time to take a bus trip to the Mall of America, a site visited by many millions of people each year. The mall, when it was built, was the biggest one in America. It is a huge, multi-floor facility that actually houses an amusement park, including a roller-coaster. We walked around and window shopped mostly. Mary and the Goldsmith’s road the roller-coaster and then we sat and enjoyed lunch. This included Crispy Cream Doughnuts and watching the Sky drop ride. We convinced Jake to try the ride. When he got off, he was very shaken up and mad at us. He asked why we had him go on that terrible ride. We told him he use to like to get thrown in the air and fall back into our arms, so we thought he might enjoy it. Boy, were we wrong… Sorry Jake, . To this day, he will not go on any rides of this nature.
That afternoon, we boarded our plane and in no time at all we landed in Calgary. We quickly found the condo, located in the middle of wilderness in Canmore, with not much around at all. After settling in, we took a walk around the facility, found some place to eat, and before long it was getting dark. I marveled at the time: It was nearing ten o’clock and it was still light enough to see.
Many places visited
- Canmore Timeshare
- Banff National Park
- Hike where Jake almost walked off the side of the cliff
- Lake Louise
- Town of Banff
- Columbia Ice Fields
- Dead Mans Gultch
- US & Canadian Rockies
- Glacier National Park, Montana
- Montana no speed limit
- Flaming Gorge, Wyoming
- Grand Tetons – at night with fog
- Yellowstone National Park
- Badlands, South Dakota
- Mount Rushmore, South Dakota
- Beartooth highway (Wyoming/Montana)
- Boseman, Montana (leather store)
- Road to the Sun – pass was closed
- Encounter with Grizzley bear as we were leaving.
During our two-week-long stay we took day trips and a long loop trip through several Northern US states.
One trip we visited the site of the 1988 Winter Olympics just outside of Calgary. We saw a bobsled up close (Jake even sat in it) and marveled at the austere inside accommodations. There was not much padding at all, so you’d better not run into something hard.
We spent much time watching the training facility for ski jumping. Plastic mats with thick plastic fibers were kept moist while jumping, making them slippery enough to slide, as though on snow.
One of the days during the week we went to visit Banff National Park. The city of Banff was interesting because as we were driving through the city, the streets were filled with elk crossing in both directions. As we turned the corner, there was a beautiful stone building which was a hotel. The mass lawn beside it was covered with elk. We noticed that all the young trees were protected up to about 6 foot high with chicken wire, so the elk wouldn’t eat the bark.