Noah builds the Ark

Opps sorry my mistake it was just the pictures of Chris building our deck over the summer! For those who haven't experienced either the deck itself or any of it's pictures here's some delights for you.....

The frame work - its fair to say it shocked me and Lesley by the size of it (I don't get to say that often!)

Gizmo's helping hand - he quite liked 'exploring' the wood work.

The weatherproofing - it can get fairly wet in Scotland espcially at the top of a hill!

Gizmo supervised

Benji helped drill a few screws (or just wanted to try out the new scratching post)

Nearly there..

The end result (in the rain again)

J

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Its Christmas!!

By some miracle of fate it's snowed all of December so far - OK OK so it's only the 2nd day but hey I feel christmassy so I'm sitting here listening to christmas songs on Magic TV! and just for you mum there's been two Cliff classics already! Anyway here's a few picks to prove it really has been snowing.

My christmas cheer can't quite spread to putting up the tree yet as we're waiting for the lounge carpet to be fitted at the end of the week so I've put up a few lights which hopefully won't get in the way!

The cats of course have declined from going outside at the mo!

Benji wondered what I was doing taking pictures of everything.

Gizmo decided to sleep through his picture being taken.

Jen

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Wedding Photo's

The wedding photo's are now available at:

http://sc.theimagefile.co.uk/?skin=8412&Action=FL&id=11777290&setpwd=

password is griffiths

You can go direct to the site by clicking on this blogs title. We have ordered a cd of all the photo's if anyone wants us to email any specific shots, I'm not sure when we'll receive it though.

Wed 10th – Cruising Tracey Arm, Alaska

Hotel: Golden Princess

Today was another full day at sea or rather a cruising day up Tracey Arm, the fiord for glacier viewing and scenic photo’s. Unfortunately for us there’s low lying cloud and it’s raining so now glacier views for us. We did have lots of waterfalls though so anyone who’s seen our photo’s of Doubtful sound will know we can take lots of pictures of waterfalls! This time round we weren’t close enough for Chris to get drenched! We also got to hear the boat crunching few a few icebergs which was kinda eerie.





“Iceberg ahead!”


We had this naturalist guy broadcasting our the tannoy while we cruised the arm which was a tad annoying, don’t get me wrong we like to learn new things and if you ever get Chris talking about glaciers you’ll know he has a strong geography background, but this guy didn’t just talk facts he embellished it with pompous crap. Anyway apparently Princess are the only ships to navigate the arm due to its tight bends and curves – which I guess is true because from Juneau we were following/being followed by 3 other boats yet in this place we haven’t seen any.



Yep we went through that gap



Chris taking in the atmosphere, it was getting lighter by this point as we were nearing the end of the open sea.


Once back on open sea we headed up to the Skywalkers lounge to catch the last glimpses of the fiords unfortunately all the good seats were taken so this was the best I could do. Naturally we had a couple of cocktails to pass the time while we were there.




Yeah I guess this didn't resize to well its looks kind of psychedelic now!

Mon 8th - Juneau, Alaska

Hotel: Golden Princess

Today we docked in Juneau, home of the Mendenhall Glacier. Before we headed up to the glacier we took the Mount Roberts Tramway (a gondola) up the hill to catch a glimpse of the view between the clouds. Unfortunately it didn’t clear enough to get a decent view but we did get some atmospheric shots between the cloud cover. We also said hello to the bald eagle that was being cared for up there as it only had one eye.

We were booked on a trip in the afternoon to go to the glacier and the rainforest gardens so we had a bit of time to explore Juneau. We had a look around the jewellery shops and sat in a local café for lunch and to use their wifi. We were told by the tour guides that before the cruise ships came there were only 4 jewellery shops in town and now there are over 20. They are mainly the same shops you find in the Caribbean ports as they seem to follow the cruise ships around trying to get all the American’s money. Chris was lucky as they don’t really do platinum in Alaska and Canada (too expensive apparently) so I couldn’t get what I was looking for!

The rainforest trip involved getting in golf buggies through the forest and steep incline. At the top there was a short boarded walkway areas which led out to a fantastic look out around the port and neighbouring island. The cloud had started to clear by this point and the sun even tried to poke through a couple of times.

Up at the glacier it was slightly chilly we had been warned to look out for bears and a couple of the tracks were closed due to ‘bear activity’ unfortunately we didn’t see any. The glacier was impressive and we had quite a bit of time to glaze and take pictures. There was also a visitors centre that we escaped to when it got too cold.

Back on ship we shared dinner with an Australian couple and had a fab time.

Sun 7th - Cruising to Juneau, Alaska

Hotel: Golden Princess

Today was non stop at sea until we hit Juneau tomorrow. We were quite lazy and didn’t get up til late so consequently missed the breakfast buffet so hit the lunch buffet instead! We had a bit of a walk around the decks but it’s fairly cold and a bit rocky so I left Chris watching tv. To help fill in my time I went along to the port guide’s talk on jewellery and what we can expect to buy at each port. All very aimed at American’s and plugging which ever shops have paid to be mentioned. After that I stayed for the bingo but didn’t win anything.

It was the first formal night tonight, there’s another one on Friday. We past quite a few people who made no effort at all but most people were all glammed up and making the most of the free cocktails. The captain also did a speech welcoming everyone on the ship. We had our photo’s taken on the stairs so it’ll be interesting to see what they come out like. We shared a table for dinner with two other English couples and a nice American couple. We got caught out by not ordering all the five courses like the rest at the table and felt a bit like loose parts whilst everyone else was munching away. I have to say it worked to our advantage as everyone else left before the free chocolates were brought round! We managed to also catch one of the shows doing songs from Broadway, it was good but not the musicals we tend to know.

Sat 6th - Seattle

Hotel: Golden Princess

Well today we headed for the ship full of anticipation and excitement. The trip down to the border was only 40 mins but the wait for the coaches to get through customs was about 3 hours. For each coach ahead of you, you should allocate about 30 mins for them to get through. Luckily for us we got away from Vancouver quite speedily and so only had 2 big coaches and a wee coach in front of us. In the immigration office we had 2 lots of fingerprints and our photo taken. My fingertips must be a bit battered from all the creams and moisturisers I use as it took ages to get mine done. Chris on the other hand went through after me to another desk and was though the x-ray before I was done! We weren’t expecting such a long transfer from the border into Seattle but we think it took another 2 and ¾ hours. Owen put a video on but it was definitely one for the oldies - Out to Sea or something like that.

We hit Seattle downtown around 11.30am and got a wee tour of the touristy bits it seemed very similar to Vancouver. We’ll get a chance to have an explore of the city we get back from the cruise as we changed our hotel stays to included a night in Seattle before we head back to Vancouver. We found out a couple of days back that Fly Globespan cancelled our original flight so we are now leaving on Wednesday flighing back via Calgary and Manchester and get into Glasgow around 11am on the Thursday 18th. We were lucky we didn’t book through Zoom as they have ceased operations and cancelled all flights. Any way back to Seattle and the Ship. The embarkation process we easy and quick we got a couple of pics going up the gangway.

We didn’t get any upgrades or anything (boo hiss), in fact we haven’t had any perks yet I’m a bit disappointed. I have to say first impressions are that the ships not as spectacular as I thought it would be the rooms a bit pokey and people next door us are smokers. The smoking things a bit weird as there’s so called designated areas for them but this seems to be widely ignored. You’re not supposed to smoke in your room but can on the balconies. There’s plenty of storage space in the cabins so I got us unpacked and the bags hidden away. You have to pay for all drinks even soft drinks, so paid $30 to get unlimited soft drinks. The price of the cocktails and wine isn’t too bad either. We set sail just after 4pm and got a good view of the Seattle skyline as we sailed out of port.

I have to say for all of you who told me you can’t feel the boat moving and won’t get sea sick, wants to get themselves on this ship. Head spin time! Hopefully it’ll get better, I have my travel pills with me.

We are on anytime dining which means we can pick where and when we eat we decided to get a table for just the two of us tonight as we were both a bit tiered. The foods ok, menu fairly varied and if you so desire you can have about 5 courses! We had a little wander around the ship after eating but gave in to the tiredness and had an early night.

Fri 5th - Kamloops to Vancouver

Hotel: Fairmont Waterfront

Another early start today and I for one was feeling very sleep deprived due to the various noises in the hotel during the night. We didn’t bother with breakfast at the hotel as we knew we’d be getting something on the train. It seemed most other people were grumbling about the service and food last night and like us most people had also filled out the hotel comments card voicing their disgust!

The train was super huge today as our train and the train that came in from Calgary were hooked together. The scenery today was a lot more impressive and the trackside tended to be a lot clearer than yesterday so not so many trees to block the view.

Wildlife of the feathered kind was in abundance today the main things being bald eagles and ospreys although trying to photograph them was a nightmare. Here’s one of the better ones.

Amongst the other things we say were a couple of bears and some elks or something similar. The train ride today seemed to drag a bit towards the end not sure if this was tierdness or just that the journey seemed to get a bit boring after lunch. To lighten the mood the rep played a game with us of craw the moose - most entertaining! The journey time in total today again was about 8 hours. Once off the train we had a quick tour of the city with a drive around Stanley Park. The hotel is on the waterfront as the name suggests and our room over looks the harbour although there’s a huge hotel and cruise terminal to our left so this obsqures a lot of the views. The meal tonight was a farewell meal in one of the conference suites, Owen got up and did a bit of a speech. He also gave us all a copy of the group photo we had took in Banff. We all look kind of super imposed onto the picture but a least most of us look fairly decent, if you get a chance to see it you‘ll notice I‘m the only one in a vest top, this is because we‘d come straight from breakfast for it and didn‘t have a chance to get coats. We finished off the evening in the evening in the bar for a we night cap with another couple. We hadn’t had to pay for any drinks during the meal tonight so an amaretto or 4 was in store for me despite of early start in the morning!

Thurs 4th - Jasper to Kamloops

Hotel: Kamloops Towne Lodge

A slightly disturbing early start the earliest so far. It was still dark when we went for breakfast mainly as although the sun had risen it was still behind the mountains. I attempted to get some atmospheric photos but they didn’t come out very well. Anyway at 7:15 we were on the bus and ferried to the Rocky Mountaineer train station in Jasper and boy was it cold. No kidding here you could see your breath, when the train pulled in it was a mad rush onto the train. Due to the size of our group we had a carriage to ourselves and being the youngest by far we were the first on. But again all seats had been pre allocated so we were stuck with what we were given. The seat area was huge with plenty of leg room, but we had a window divide was just in front of us so we didn’t have the best view. There was a viewing platform at one end of the carriage but it wasn’t very big and could only hold 4 people at a time, this didn’t really matter today as the trackside was obscured by trees a lot of the way. We did manage to see some wildlife fairly early on both bears and elk. I think in total we saw 5 bears which brings the bear count to roughly 9 although I’m kind of losing track so I may have that a bit out. One interesting thing about the journey was that we crossed a time line leaving mountain time and entering pacific time gaining an hour in the process. The train journey in total was about 8 hours so slightly exhausting.

Our hotel stop for the night was not a Fairmont as the rest have been but a Best Western. To say it was slightly lower class was an understatement. The rooms themselves were ok and fairly big. Ours had a balcony but unfortunately overlooked the main state highway so not much opportunity for sitting out.

There was a shopping centre across the road so we had a wander around this before heading for a drink in the bar. Unluckily we got the dippy waiter who got my drink wrong so not a great start, then after charging the bill to the room we got a snotty phone call saying we couldn’t do this as we didn’t register a credit card at check-in. This hadn’t been a problem at any other hotel and given the amount of business the train company were putting through the hotel you would have thought they’d give better service. I think Princess should be the ones arranging the accommodation here instead of leaving it to the train company as the quality and service is so different of that of the rest of the hotels. The restaurant didn’t get any better and despite the reservations put through for everyone no tables were ready and everyone had to queue. I won’t even bother to go in to the food and wine service……..

Wed 3rd - Lake Louise to Jasper

Hotel: Fairmont Jasper park Lodge

Oh my early start, or is it all of last nights alcohol making me feel groggy? Chris managed to get up some pictures of the lake after breakfast before we boarded the coach as we realised we didn’t do this yesterday, nor did we transfer the pictures from the camera or recharge it’s battery!

First port of call for today was the Columbian Icefields for a trip up the Glacier. It gradually got cloudier and wetter as we approached the area. The format of the trip was a shuttle bus ¾ way up the mountain then onto a snow mobile - a beast of a contraption. When we reached the snow mobile station we noticed it started to snow a bit. When we got to the top of the glacier is was a blizzard, for proof of this see …..

We were somewhat cold after this despite the scotch which I nearly threw back up! Once back on the bus and slightly drier it was a drive up to our lunch stop - basically a restaurant and gift shop aimed at the coach tours and boy was it pricey. I did see a gorgeous pair of earrings but at $1500 I decided against them.

The final stop for the day was the Athabasca waterfall. I wasn’t expecting anything great giving some of the stops we’ve had but we were impressed, there was lots of trails to go around and lots of photos to be took.

For the adventurous on the bus there was a rafting trip along the river and to the hotel, we decided against this and just headed on to the hotel. The hotel is a lodge style so everyone has their own cabin. We took advantage of the outdoor pool until it got busy. We’d also booked an early tea in preparation for tommorows early start so we found ourselves in a bit of a rush.

The evening meal was the best so far I was adventurous and went for rabbit followed by bison oh and not forgetting the chocolate and amarreto mouse hmmm. In the restaurant there was a pianist and bassist playing which was pleasant although I had to stop myself singing along a couple of the songs. Chris had his sensible hat on and wouldn’t let us go to the bar so we headed back to the room to get the bags ready for the next couple of days and an early night.

Tues 2nd - Banff to Lake louise

Hotel: Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise

It wasn’t too early a start today, the breakfast buffet was really busy though and everyone has been commenting on the time taken during the line up to get a table. Today’s drive took us first off to the Banff gondola. Well I say gondola it turned out to be a ski lift complete with electric fence around the enclosure to keep the bears out! Now it was slightly cold it didn’t help that we had ¾ length trousers on. After getting a acclimatised to the coldness on the gondola we disembarked a fair way up the mountain side and went to the look out point. There were some fantastic views but no wildlife sighting, that was until we came back down. Out the corner of my eye I glimpsed a bear on the mountainside, Chris in his super speediness (we think) managed to get in on camera. Until we get back home and enlarge the image on the pc we’ll not know for sure.

Further along the road the coach screeched to a halt, no not an accident but more bears just playing by the roadside and then darting in front of the cars. We didn’t get the best view from our coach as there was another coach in front of us, but we were rewarding a mile or so later when another bear ran across the road and started eating the berries by the side of the road - we managed to get quite a few pictures of this one.

We had quite a few picture stops today in particular a couple of picturesque lakes with mountain backdrops. The last stop we did was at Lake Moraine - moraine being something to do with the rubble left at the end of the glacier movement (don’t quote me on that :P) The only wildlife we saw here were fat squirrels who weren’t camera shy!

Arriving at Lake Louise it’s the most picturesque hotel so far, it’s just so difficult to describe but basically opposite the hotel is the foot of a glacier and the glacier lake is surrounding on 3 sides by the mountains. We didn’t have much time to follow any of the lakeside walks which was a real shame. Our room itself was extremely small but we all had lake views which I think was then pay off. The service in the restaurant was pretty poor but in true fashion there was far too much food. As oppose to ordering your own starter a selection of small plates (think tapas) was brought to the table. We shared our table tonight with two other couples from our bus and ended up consuming far too much wine especially for the early starts we seem to be having!

Well today we’ve seen quite a bit of wildlife so hopefully this is just the start of things to come.

Mon 1st - Calgary to Banff

Hotel: Fairmont Banff Springs

Labour Day in Canada today we had an early start as last nights alcohol did me no favours. We also still didn’t know the arrangements for leaving today so rang the concierge and was told to be outside for 7.30 so it was just as well we got up early. You can guess what is coming now yes the concierge got it wrong so after rushing down breakie and get our bags packed, Owen the tour guide rang and let us know it was a 10am start and to have bags outside the room for the bellboys to collect. The lobby had 3 or 4 different groups waiting for departures and the average range as expected was about 60. The seats on the bus had already been selected for everyone so no good seats good be nicked by us early starts!

Today’s tour is Calgary to Banff we had a couple of photo stops along the way but we were in Banff for lunch with a couple of hours to ourselves to wander around the shops. For lunch we stopped in a Swiss steak and cheese fondue house. We had a fantastic cheese fondue and chicken hot stone it was out of this world. They even stocked a locally produced range of ciders - Chris as expected had pear while I had black cherry. We liked it so much we went to the liquor store to get some for the hotel.

Before being shuttled to the hotel we had a little sightseeing tour or the river and the view of the hotel from the opposite side - cue lots more photo opps.

The hotel itself is definitely one of the more grander the room we had was huge but didn’t get much of a view. We had another wander into the town before tea. The town itself is quite like a big version of Keswick I think I think this because of the backdrop of the mountains from the main street and the abundance of mountain clothing shops. After trekking round most of these stores we even managed to get Chris his Northface jacket - although not identical to the one he’d seen it was just as good.

Tea was ok Chris tried the bison as this had been recommended by the rep and I had a game platter which had quail, venison and elk. By far the best was the elk and I‘ll be having this again if it‘s on anywhere else. Unfortunately we were too full to sample the pudding buffet but it did look nice.

Sunday 31st - Calgary

Hmmm back to the Scottish weather we’re used to - rain, rain and more rain oh well guess what that means shopping centre time! The only problem was getting to the shops as the C train was shut in the downtown area for maintenance so we had to find the shuttle bus to get us to the first operating station and then get the train to Chinook where the shopping we’d chosen to go to was. There must be about 20 different out of town centres we could have chosen but the larger ones you need a car to get to or to know the buses really well.

We had to check out this morning as we are moving to the Palliser tonight to join up with Princess. We left our bags at the hotel and headed off. The centre was deceivingly big on one side but the shops are just like at home. The food court area though had so much choice it was unbelievable everything from Sushi to Taco’s. Overwelmed by all the choice we ended up at the burger joint I went semi healthy and had a baked potato whilst Chris had a burger swimming in cheese sauce. Price was it was really cheap I think it was only about $8 for everything. Back to the shopping I was very restrained and only bought a $20 pair of shoes to replace the ones I had with me that were disintegrating! Chris found a Northface jacket the kind he’s been after for ages but the shop was useless and couldn’t price it up so wouldn’t sell it and the manager was due in again until Tuesday! - most strange. With a mega disappointed Chris we headed by to the Hyatt to pick our bags up.

………….

The Fairmont Palliser has a very grand lobby area but is much smaller than the other hotels as it one of the original town buildings. I think it is only 10 storeys max as oppose to the 20+ at the Hyatt. Room wise it was ok not as modern or as grand as the Hyatt we had 2 double beds instead of a super king for some reason and there was no view at all, unless you count the office blocks next door. The bar menu looked good but rather than stay in the hotel all night we decided to go for some drinks first. We had to be back for 8.30 for the welcome meeting so it was early doors when we headed out. Luckily by this point it had stopped raining but it was blimmin cold! First stop was one of the outdoor clothing shops to see if we could find Chris’s jacket and stop him moaning. Oh course sods law they didn’t have it in yet but I found a gorgeous grey furry fleece - Catherine you will be soooo jealous I feel the need to keep stroking myself! After spending lots of money on my new jumper we went for cocktails at Milestones accompanied by some sweet potato fries hmmmm. I should add the intention was to go back to the hotel for a light tea hence the snacks while drinking however as we never stick to plan we ended up a place called Earls further down the road and had a huge tea. The starter was well scrummy it was a spinach, artichoke and cheese dip served with toasted pita bread, we could have quite happily had this as a main meal but we didn’t we had pizza (Chris) and pasta (me) and ended up totally stuffed. Oh forgot to mention the numerous martinis to wash the meal down with think I was a bit tipsy by the end!

Back at the hotel we found the welcome meeting had been moved so we’d missed the first one the rep was supposed to be back around 10 for another one but never showed so we gave up and went to bed.

Saturday 30th - Calgary

Wow well we’ve had an energetic day! Rather than heading for the Calgary Highland games we headed for a walk along the elbow river and onto a place called Heritage Park. The Elbow River walkway is very much like the nicer bits of the Water of Leith and then some. The initial parts are very much walking through residential areas until you get further out into the suburbs where the river path is lined by some really nice houses all with private river access. A lot of the houses are very Colonial in style all large plots averaging 3 floors most with at least 2 doubles garages and heated paths and driveways. Price wise we think they were starting at around $600,000 Canadian Dollars for a 5 bed all ensuite, it’ll be interesting to compare this with Vancouver as it’s supposed to be a lot more cosmopolitin and more pricey. After walking about 12km we got to Heritage Park which is like a larger Canadian version of Beamish. As well as all the shop front replicas they were a few rides and attractions we ended up on the steam train, paddle boat steamer and the horse and carriage. It was well worth the money and a popular place for local families.

Needless to say our feet were aching by this point so it was a bus and train back to the hotel as we couldn’t face the 12km walk back! We’d also booked tea for 8 at Milestones where we were on Thursday so we had to watch our time.

Once rested, showered and changed we headed across the pathway for tea, it had started raining by this point so it was just as well we didn’t have far to go. We were slightly more restrained with the cocktails and rather than get a pitcher I had a few raspberry mojitos (which as it turns out would have been cheaper to buy a pitcher) and Chris had a couple of tropical concoctions. My tea was lovely - butternut squash ravioli, and Chris had meatloaf but something spicy in or on it made it slightly inedible for him.

Friday 29th - Calgary

Slight mix-up with the free breakie today, we thought it was on until 9:30 turns out it was only until 9 as we turned up at 9:05! Chris managed to persuade them to leave the bread and toaster out though so we got something. Luckily being the weekend tomorrow it’ll be on until 10 so not so much of a rush. Anyway after sorting ourselves out it was off for another wander around the city.

What we didn’t realise yesterday on our travels was that Calgary has a system of covered walkways called the +15. Basically they are enclosed walkways above the street level to avoid the traffic and noise of the roads. Anyway today we decided to try and get onto it and I can’t say we were particularly successful! We did however find the maze of shopping centres that are hidden between the walkways and various shop fronts. One of the centres has an indoor garden at the top of it called Devonia Gardens, with a variety of tropical plants and water features and some humongous fish!

After finding our way out of the shops (more difficult than it sounds!) we headed back towards Prince’s Island via the information centre which turned out to be an unmanned desk with a few local papers and leaflets, although we did find the free wifi spots and some frozen yoghurt ice creams like you get in NZ yum! Ice creams in hand we went to the park and sat in the sun for a bit and blogged away.

Forcing ourselves to get up we headed for Calgary Fort and definitely found the wrong side of town (and the salvation army) so there were down and outs everywhere but they didn’t bother you just freaked my out a little. Can’t say there was much to see at the Fort but there were lots of signs to read so that kept Chris amused for a while. The heat was really kicking in by this point and some liquid refreshment was required so we wandered back into town in the direction of the hotel. On the way we passed the Olympic Plaza, a park area with big water feature to commemorate the winter Olympics of 1988. It would have been a nice place for snacks but the café/bar faculties were limited so we found the Irish bar instead, can’t say it was what our idea of what an Irish bar is but they had Strongbow on tap so I was happy.

After being fed and watered we head back to the hotel and utilised the pool facilities - and yeah I know food and alcohol directly before swimming aren’t the best idea but hey ho. The evening canapés on offer tonight were rather scrummy they were kind of like mini puff pastry pizza rounds without cheese, so we polished off a few of them. We headed towards the trendy bars to see what they had to offer for tea but one menu wasn’t very inspiring and the other was blasting out the dance music and only had seats outside. We had a couple of drinks before we gave up and headed elsewhere. We ended up at a fancy Italian where I didn’t have much luck as first the wine I wanted they didn’t have any of and then the main course I wanted was off as well. I picked an alternative but the waiter chose to ignore me and brought something completely different! Still Chris’s was fine and what I ended up with was ok but I think it was a bit pricey for what it was.

Thursday 28th - Calgary

We ended up getting up fairly early today, the air-conditioning units are fairly noisy and can be heard through adjacent walls. We headed down for breakie which was very nice albeit a wee bit pricey, only to discover (after eating and getting it charged to our room) that the breakfast included in our room rate was not served in the restaurant but in the regency suite upstairs. As a result of this we found out well should have access to that floor and our cards got updated to access it. Other benefits of the suite are free tea, coffee, soft drinks and snacks, as well as canapés at teatime and a private bar.


Anyway after feeling decidedly bloated from the super huge breakfast we went for a wander around the Calgary armed with a map from reception which Chris took charge of as in his own words “my sense of direction is useless”! The city has a central pedestrianised street where most of the bars, shops and restaurants are, so we headed this way towards Prince’s Island Park which is a manmade island created by a chap called Peter Prince burrowing a channel through the city to aid his business however many years ago. It’s now part of a big wetlands project to help clean up storm water before it hit’s the river. There’s also a large picnic area a walks around the river banks. A lot of the river bank areas have been renovated so there’s walkways everywhere and various sculptures and monuments. It’s definitely the place to go jogging and cycling and even quite a few roller bladers and skateboarders. - Doh knew I should have bought my roller boots! On the wildlife front there’s lots of black squirrels which look quite eerie so we have a few photos just to prove we aren’t making it up. We also took a Ryan for a swim for the benefit of any BT bods reading this - he says he is enjoying his holiday very much and has lots of photo’s to show everyone.

From Prince’s Island we headed along the river path in the direction of the zoo. There was a minor scary moment as we passed by some druggies lighting up but the female joggers didn’t seem to bat an eyelid so we carried on. I have to say on the approach to the zoo and from the display maps it didn’t look huge, however, 4 hours later we took this though back. There was quite a lot of work going on in the zoo and various bits being refurbed, all the kids seem to get pushed/pulled around on go-cart trike things which were kind of groovy. We did quite a bit of walking around the zoo as the attractions were quite spaced out and there was a large botanics area with greenhouses - one of them with butterflies in but trying to photograph them was slightly tricky!

By the end of our treck which was probably a good 6km we were slightly knackered so we caught the C-Train back which are like the metro’s in Newcastle but a lot cheaper and the fare stages in the central downtown strip were free. Oh and they are kind of like trams in that downtown they run along tracks on the road which they share with buses.

Once safely reinstalled at the hotel (after some map reading once departing the train only to turn around and see the hotel right behind us!) we checked out the pool and hot tub which we had to ourselves. The pool was a tad cold to say the least so we spent most of the time in the hot tub!

As our cards were now fixed to get into the regency suite we thought it would be rude not to go and sample the canapés - oh and the cocktails of course!

………………some time later………

Hmm well the regency club was a bit of a let down, no complementary drinks (except tea, coffee and softies) and the savoury canapés were a bit limited, but there was a lot of yummy sweet things so I took upon myself to sample a scrummy dark chocolate mouse with a raspberry centre. Hmmmmmmmm. The other benefit of the suite is free internet access so we set up the techy side of this blog, and did email etc.

Back tracking to earlier we ended up having tea in a bar grill place called Milestones as it looked fairly popular and did posh pub grub as oppose to most of the other places that we a bit too fancy for what we wanted. The service here reminds of that in NZ where everyone is always asking you how you’re doing and what you’ve been up to and just generally a lot friendlier than the UK. After learning from last night we went for a main course only that turned out to be just the right size and was absolutely scrummy. They’re drinks list is called a ‘wish list’ and the cocktails on it are out of this world. We opted for a champagne cocktail each to start and shared a jug of Sangria for the meal. My cocktail tasted like a raspberry slush puppy and didn’t last very long! Chris being his usual self opted for a tropical mixture quite yucky to me but he seemed to enjoy it! After the drinks we were expecting quite a large bill but were pleasantly surprised and even got a 25% off voucher for the next visit which we both agreed we’ll use before we leave Calgary.

Wednesday 27th - Calgary

We arrived into Calgary around 6pm local time, the flight was about 8 and half hours which given our usual flight times to NZ that we‘ve under taken in the last couple of years it felt relatively short. As far as Fly globespan go the flight was fine and there was plenty of food to keep you going. Drinks were a little bit sparce but you get what you pay for. There was a baby seating in the seats next to us but it was very well behaved and either slept or breastfeed so peace and quiet all around.

Calgary airport is very similar to Edinburgh airport only slightly bigger, we sailed through immigration, and after picking our bags up which came off relatively quickly we walked through what I supposed was customs where a guy took our immigration forms from us and we were free to go. We ended up in a taxi from the airport as there didn’t seem to be a shuttle service to our hotel. Initial thoughts as we drove in were that Calgary was very industrial and quite sprawling, it didn’t fill us with confidence for it being a very nice city. We were also a bit sceptical as to whether the taxi driver was taking the long route round but in the end it cost what we’d been told to expect from the hotel website.

Once safely installed at the hotel we found our room on the 15th floor. It has floor to ceiling windows and a bathroom nearly double the size of ours at home!

Taking into account of the time difference which we figure to be about 7 hours we were feeling kind of knackered by this stage, however it was still a wee bit early local time so we headed down to the hotel bar for nacho’s and spring rolls. It was at the point that they brought them out we remembered portion sizes are somewhat larger this side of the world! Needless to say we didn’t make much of a dint in the nacho’s but polished off most of the spring rolls. It was also the first time I’d had to sign my ’new’ name and I can honestly say not something I’d practised so I ended up just printing it - I’ll have to practise some signatures later!

We had a wee look around the pool area before going to bed but couldn’t get into the regency suit to check it out but as I can’t remember what the room rate included we’ll have to check it out tomorrow. We also ended up having a few unplanned trips in the lift as you need to use your room key to operate the lift and if you’re not quick enough it whisks you away to where ever it has been called to! Any way by this point it’s now 9.30 and we can’t keep our keys open anymore so off to sleep in the super huge bed we have!

Welcome to Us

Welcome to our blog we thought it was about time we got round to setting one up and now we have a fairly reasonable reason for setting it up, here we are.

After the wedding festivities of the weekend we have to get used to the whole husband and wife thing and especially for me remembering to say Mrs Jennifer Griffiths when someone asks my name! I signed my 'new' name for the first time on Wednesday and unlike me I hadn't sat down and practised it, so I ended up just printing my name, I'm sure I'll come up with a suitable scrawl. You'll probably find it's me writing most of the blog as with most of these things the typical Christopher line is.. "but you're so much better at these things"..... so enough of my ramblings and on with the blog!