A quick trip from Whitehorse to Calgary
I’m in Calgary at the moment. I flew down on Tuesday, had one full day to explore, and am flying home this afternoon. This wasn’t an optional trip – I lost my passport somewhere in Alaska on my last trip, and need to get it replaced right away. Everything happens for a reason, though – it had been too long since I’d seen my daughter and grand-daughters who live in Calgary, and doing something as stupid as losing my passport is reinforcement that I need to simply my life.
Murphy’s Laws being what they are, the biggest air show in Whitehorse in decades was being set up as I left. Here, the regular WestJet flight to Vancouver manouevers between the various miliary aircraft in for the show, at 08:50.
The full 11-plane Snowbirds team, seen from my seat on an Air North 737-400.
This is the tailings pond from the Whitehorse Copper mine which operated from 1967 until 1982. Plans are underway to work these tailings to remove the magnetite in them (it’s used in the production of steel) and then stabilize the site to eliminate the dust that’s currently a problem at times. This mine site is located well within the city limits of Whitehorse, about half-way between our home and downtown.
We pulled away from the gate at 10:00am as scheduled, were in the air by 10:10, and at 12:19 (1:19 Alberta time), I shot this photo as we circled to land in Calgary. The amount of construction going on in Calgary amazed me – thousands of acres of former farm and ranch land are being turned into residential and commercial developments.
From high-density to farmland in the blink of an eye. The yellow fields are canola.
This is always culture shock that quite stresses me out. Traffic and construction, with people everywhere. My daughter took the afternoon off work, picked me up at the airport, and we went downtown to get the paperwork done for my new passport. When I told Cathy that I’d lost it and was getting a new one, she said that if I could pull this off I had horseshoes up my butt – I left the Passport Canada office with a slip to pick it up on Thursday morning 🙂
That night, I met my daughter’s boyfriend and I took everyone out for dinner. Note to self: do this more often!
On Wednesday, I had a list of things to do with my grand-daughters while Andrea was at work. It turned out that we only got to one place – the Calgary Zoo. I’m not a big fan of zoos, but it’s extremely good, and in 5 hours, we only saw about half of the place. And I am a big fan of animals – I took almost 400 photos 🙂 Here’s a brief look:
Here’s a fellow I’d like to sit down and have a chat with.
I see this zebra, but in my mind I see the herds of zebra that Cathy and I will experience in Africa some day.
There was a half-hour wait to get into the Penguin Plunge but it’s well worth the wait. It’s completely different than the Antarctic Encounter we visited in Auckland, and I wouldn’t say that one is better than the other.
What can you say about a Siberian Tiger – my gawd that’s an impressive animal!
The girls and I drove to Andrea’s workplace and while we were waiting for her, I asked about dinner ideas. It was suggested that we go to a good Thai restaurant downtown. Okay, now I know that my grand-daughters are all grown up! 🙂
After a nice meal, we saw this reflection on the way back to the car, and decided to go up the Calgary Tower for a look
A small glass floor deck has recently been added, and it’s both very cool and very popular.
A final portrait of my girls at the end of an excellent day.
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