Heading Home

Ugh the long journey back home, it’s so depressing I keep not posting it. Kim is not allowed back into the UK until our marriage visa has been processed and so she had to head back to the USA to apply for the visa (because you can’t apply for it from within the UK). So joy of joys we had flights at different times. We drove to Calgary from Banff and got some tasty breakfast.

I think we forget how lucky we are in the UK with our airports because let me tell you that the shops in Calgary airport were few and far between. Kim’s flight was first and so we said goodbye and she went through security and then my flight was about 12 hours later. No I am not kidding. My god it was boring, I read several books on my kindle, I counted the amount of elderly people in cowboy hats (27). I had a crepe that had cheese cake inside it (did you know this was a thing?? A dessert stuffed inside another dessert??). I secretly charged my kindle and phone from wall points and used Calgary’s free wifi.

Then finally I got to go through security (you wouldn’t think this would be a highlight but it was!) an elderly man told me he liked my fluffy boots. I made a buddy at the departure gate called Ryan from Leeds who wanted to get married to his girlfriend who lived in Canada. I gave him some tips and we got talking to some other people travelling too so that was all rather friendly. Then finally it was time to board. I got sat directly behind a toddler who had shoes that squeaked like a dogs chew toy every time she stepped on them. The family made noise continually the entire way and in the end the steward gave me ear plugs. I reminded myself that murder was not legal even when over international waters. Other than that the flight was good.

I ate my nice plane meal of chicken caesar ricey thingy (I don’t really know what it was but it was nice) whilst watching Jurassic World which was surprisingly not that bad.

I thought breakfast was a bit meh though but better than nothing. Then it was a long  coach trip back to Norwich where I’d parked at my friend’s house, then into goldie (the car) and back home to Yarmouth – finally after 28 hours travelling time. The cats were so thrilled to have me back they’ve been very well behaved ever since, I think we should go away more often.

Mount Norquay

I’ve been busy at work so I’ve neglected finishing off our Canadian trip stories. These photos are from a trip to a Cajun restaurant Tooloulous. Now it was the day before Valentines Day and a few days before Alberta’s Family Day so we were lucky to get a table. Kim had grits… I tried the grits and it tasted like cous cous to me. And the cornbread is like victoria sponge without cream and jam… they say cajun… I say sponge and couscous. I had some delicious blackened chicken. This is unusual because Kimberly is a chicken addict, weekly grocery trips turn into her trying to convince me that we need to buy more chicken and that every meal could be a little better if we were only to add a dash of chicken.

The next day was Valentines Day and we stopped off for a quick breakfast.

 

And then it was time for some snow tubing. It was awesome, they had a little lift you stood on to take you up the mini slope and we really got our technique honed. We only planned to stay there a few hours but we spent most of the day there before going to Balkan, a greek restaurant in Banff for dinner. We both really love Greek food and it was so good.

The next day we took a wildlife tour around Banff and learnt some history of the area which was interesting and we got some cool photos. This is the Bow Falls.

And Surprise Corner in Banff which gave a really good view of the Hotel we had our wedding afternoon tea at.

And we saw some deer.

And big horned sheep.

Afterwards Kim and I stopped back at the frozen lake we got married on Lake Minnewanka and left our padlock. We have a bit of a padlock tradition, there’s one in Wembley in London, Paris near Notre Dame, New York near the airport (funny story about this – ask Kim). Now we did feel a bit bad about this as Banff is in a national park but as it’s on a branch it could be easily broken off couldn’t it?

Then we went back to the hotel for a little time in the spa pool and to sample our maple delicacies. The maple sugar candies are just pure maple sugar, they were so so sweet, even just looking at them I feel diabetes creeping upon me. When I was younger visiting my grandparents they would grow their own fruit and my lovely nanny would always insist on putting about a ton of sugar on very sweet fruit like strawberries etc… even she would have found these maple sugar candies too sweet.

             In the evening we walked down the street from our hotel for another fondue. Oh melted cheese, best thing ever.

Only this time we left room for dessert!