canada: cold in calgary
we were excited - first time to get to western canada! well, technically not the first time, but when your 2 years old it doesnt really count.
but first! a quick stop in london. we had unfinished business: the british museum and a meeting with our old friend cripsy. sadly our flight was delayed out of nairobi for 2 hours, then into london for another hour so our 8 hour stopover ended up being rather shorter than we planned. however, we did meet up with crispy who had prepared an amazing breakfast (which we had on the subway to the interest and entertainment of our fellow travellers), and lunch (that would have fed 8!!!, complete with a bottle of wine.) so we had a rather wonderful lunch in a park in the middle of london then rushed back to heathrow to catch our flight to calgary.
calgary is an interesting place. in spite of being a rather large and busy city, it still manages to feel like a small place in the country. a rather neat trick, i think, that more cities should copy. our old friend gideon met us and we happily spent a few days with him, his wife rose and their newborn baby.
gideon took us for a trip to a beautiful little town called canmore, nestled between huge mountains and full of art and photography galleries. our kind of place!
you might be wondering where is the shot of lunch in the park? calgary in the foothills of the rockies? the rustic streets of canmore? sadly i didnt have a camera until my last day in calgary, so all you get is pictures from here on! but you can take my word for it, all the above was stunning.
we said a sad goodbye to gidi and family and had a great time with my long lost relatives, mike and nancy. a highlight of our stay with them was seeing pictures of my great aunt eleanor (nancy's mom) who was always one of my favorites on account of her giving us popsicles when we would visit her down the road from grandmas.
the drive out west was stunning. my picture doesnt do it justice, but if you click and zoom in you can see the rockies. we drove parallel to this for an hour or so and it was gorgeous.
the huge rockslide in the picture above is a small matter of 90 million tons of rock that came down early one morning in 1903, and eliminated without trace a part of the small mining town of frank. among the few survivors were 17 miners who were working deep in the tunnels but had the tools (and time haha) to dig their way out. a train that was due from lethbridge was saved from hitting the rock that now covered the track by the action of a canadian pacific railway worker who ran 2km though the dust and falling rock to meet the train, and was duly rewarded by the CPR with a 25$ cheque.
soon after franks slide we came to the little town where we were to part with mike and nancy - it was really great getting to know them and learning some family history at the same time.
crowsnest pass is approximately the midway point between calgary and cranbrook. here we met with cousins kerry and daleann and started catching up on our respective lives while driving through the gorgeous (though moody) rocky mountains westward....
but first! a quick stop in london. we had unfinished business: the british museum and a meeting with our old friend cripsy. sadly our flight was delayed out of nairobi for 2 hours, then into london for another hour so our 8 hour stopover ended up being rather shorter than we planned. however, we did meet up with crispy who had prepared an amazing breakfast (which we had on the subway to the interest and entertainment of our fellow travellers), and lunch (that would have fed 8!!!, complete with a bottle of wine.) so we had a rather wonderful lunch in a park in the middle of london then rushed back to heathrow to catch our flight to calgary.
calgary is an interesting place. in spite of being a rather large and busy city, it still manages to feel like a small place in the country. a rather neat trick, i think, that more cities should copy. our old friend gideon met us and we happily spent a few days with him, his wife rose and their newborn baby.
gideon took us for a trip to a beautiful little town called canmore, nestled between huge mountains and full of art and photography galleries. our kind of place!
you might be wondering where is the shot of lunch in the park? calgary in the foothills of the rockies? the rustic streets of canmore? sadly i didnt have a camera until my last day in calgary, so all you get is pictures from here on! but you can take my word for it, all the above was stunning.
we said a sad goodbye to gidi and family and had a great time with my long lost relatives, mike and nancy. a highlight of our stay with them was seeing pictures of my great aunt eleanor (nancy's mom) who was always one of my favorites on account of her giving us popsicles when we would visit her down the road from grandmas.
the huge rockslide in the picture above is a small matter of 90 million tons of rock that came down early one morning in 1903, and eliminated without trace a part of the small mining town of frank. among the few survivors were 17 miners who were working deep in the tunnels but had the tools (and time haha) to dig their way out. a train that was due from lethbridge was saved from hitting the rock that now covered the track by the action of a canadian pacific railway worker who ran 2km though the dust and falling rock to meet the train, and was duly rewarded by the CPR with a 25$ cheque.
soon after franks slide we came to the little town where we were to part with mike and nancy - it was really great getting to know them and learning some family history at the same time.
crowsnest pass is approximately the midway point between calgary and cranbrook. here we met with cousins kerry and daleann and started catching up on our respective lives while driving through the gorgeous (though moody) rocky mountains westward....
