We had tornado sightings last week in Calgary, and I don’t think that people are taking tornado warnings as seriously as they should.
Time to Take Tornadoes Seriously
Picnic in the Parking
Rita, Ruth, Maureen and Adele at Glenmore Park, Calgary
It’s Rita’s birthday! Here in Calgary, the skies are blue and the day was looking great so Ruth, Adele and I were going to help Rita celebrate by having a picnic in the park, followed by a game of bridge.
Ruth and I left our condos at 11:45 am to head up to the Old Banff Coach Road area to rendezvous with Rita and Adele and, from there, we were headed for a picnic in Bowness Park.
Once we got to Bowness Park, we quickly discovered it wasn’t a place that we could really use for our picnic. We hadn’t realized that the flood of 2013 had resulted in so much damage to this side of the Bow River, so we started to think about an alternative location. In fact, if we’d taken a look at the City of Calgary’s website before venturing out, we would have learned that the East side of the park won’t be completely re-opened until the fall.
We could see what looked like a very nice park across the river from the Bowness Park and were considering going there – until we saw the traffic. The cars and trucks were backed up for two kilometres at the place where we needed to go to get across to the other side of the river. It looked like making the crossing would take forever, but for our next picnic we’ll consider going to Baker Park – which is a popular photo shoot location for weddings.
So we thought and discussed alternative plan number three and we agreed to another destination: North Glenmore Park. Back in the cars we got and, believe it or not, with the road construction detours throughout the city, we ended up being back to where we had rendezvoused earlier! After another 6 kms we were at the park.
The picnic table will soon have good food to eat.
The parking lots were quite full, but we did find spaces. I’d guess that we weren’t the only ones thinking about having a picnic in the park! But we were lucky to spot a vacant picnic table, so out with the tablecloths and napkins! We were all hungry and ready for our picnic!
Rita had done a great job in bringing all the plates, glasses, cutlery and liquid refreshments. The picnic lunch was a joint effort and on the menu was prosciutto-wrapped asparagus with a yummy sauce, fresh baked bread, roasted peppers, fresh garden tomatoes, devilled eggs, potato salad and fruit. OH what a delicious spread it was!
Rita and Adele setting up our picnic feast.
There was a even a beautiful bench on the edge of the Glanmore Reservoir that we could use for picture taking before we got back into the cars back to Ruth’s condo for an afternoon game of bridge.
We played bridge for a couple of hours. Adele and Rita promptly scored the first rubber and Ruth and I finally (and I mean finally) managed to
Maureen and Ruth at the picnic.
tie them with a rubber of our own. It took a lot of dealing and throwing in of cards as in most cases nothing seemed to fit.
But what a great way to Celebrate Rita’s birthday.
Happy Birthday, Rita! Hip Hip Hooray!
Home, Sweet Home
Ruth and Maureen – Home in Calgary
We’re back in Calgary! It’s so hot in my condo that I have the air conditioning on full blast. That’s why I’ve thought about naming this post Home, Sweat Home instead of Home, Sweet Home. But home we are.
Looking Back
Ruth and I planned to meet in Toronto and, in a week or so, drive back to Calgary. That’s not exactly what happened. It turned into a 30-DAY EXPEDITION to put it mildly! We had already had an adventure with a lot of miles even before we left Ontario. And once we left Ontario, the road trip really began, but it was leisurely. We stopped. We shopped. We golfed even more than we’d expected. In fact, we had so much fun and games that now I will have to read my blog from day one to remember everything that happened!
I have learned a lot and met a whole bunch of interesting people. Not only “friends of Ruth’s” but total strangers that became fast friends – like Renee in Eau Claire and Bill and Ryan at the Keg Steakhouse in Regina — who were so impressed that we were on a road trip and I was blogging about it that I think they made me blush! Both Ruth and I love to talk to people at the next table, people who wait on you and people waiting in line. And we found that where ever we went, people like to talk back to us and some of them, you end up adopting for a little bit of time, even if it’s ten minutes, or half an hour.
I never thought that I had any writing talent but I have found that writing every day has helped me to put my thoughts on paper (or I should say online). My darling daughter Colleen has been not only a fantastic editor of my writing but has pushed me to do better with every blog. It’s all in the editing that is for sure. She takes some of the harried posts I’ve sent her and has added dimension and made them flyToday was an easy drive from Medicine Hat to Calgary, Alberta as we arrived here around noon. We had one stop at the Tim Hortons in Langdon for a snack. I want to give a shout out to that branch of Tim’s as it was very good and I highly recommend their Dark Roast coffee.
Tim Horton’s Dark Roast Coffee
Our adventures aren’t over, though, we have a dinner party to go to on Friday night, and now the planning needs to begin for the next trip. I’m thinking about competing in the Huntsman World Senior Games once again in St. George, Utah in October – I played competitive golf last year and am thinking about doing the same thing again this year.
My carry-on suitcase has proven to me that if you think about what you pack, a carry-on is sufficient for everything I needed for 30 days. It’s now empty and awaiting my next trip.
I hope you have enjoyed reading my road trip adventures as much as I have had in writing them!