1. We can sleep in a bit here. This morning, we slept until 8 am, other than Ethan of course, but at least he left us alone until then. This feels nice after our early "up and at 'em" departures in Glacier.
2. Our hotel has a bitchin' free breakfast. It's big and has a lot of hot and fresh options. The kids are suckers for good hotel breakfasts, as am I. And I don't have to do the dishes after.
3. We had authentic Schwarma today, as well as other Mediterranean dishes at a place I found on Google maps voted best food under $10 in Calgary. It wasn't all under 10, but it was a good meal. Ethan and Will got samoas and tabouli, I got a lamb pita, and Eleanor got a bowl of shaved lamb because, well, she's Eleanor. And we had pistachio baklava for dessert.
4. The kids had fun today. We found a "leisure center," which seems to be like a community center. But this one has an indoor water park complete with a large wave pool, and 4 or 5 water slides. These places are sort of my nightmare, but the kids had a blast so worth it. And it was only $27 for our whole family, which seemed crazy. Will got to go to their nice fitness center, too, while I fended for my life, and those of my kids', in the wave pool. The festivities took a dive (see what I did there?) when someone found doodie in the pool and they closed down for a bit, but we persevered.
5. We haven't watched a lot of tv here at all, so we are kind of enjoying the break from Trump. Sure, we are seeing the headlines on social media (still a moron, blah, blah, blah), but it's good to not feel like it's all we hear and see. Will was reading a Canadian newspaper this morning and said it was so interesting to read the stories from the Canadian perspective.
So, see, it's not all gloom and doom. Do I every few minutes think about what we're supposed to be doing instead of tooling around Calgary looking for inexpensive ways to keep our kids busy? Do I think about the beautiful, new condo we had booked, the one with a separate bedroom for Will and I, a room with bunk beds for the kids, a beautiful kitchen, and a cozy living room? Nah. Just kidding. I definitely do. But I'm no longer on the verge of tears every time I remember.
We walked across the busy road (at an intersection of course) today and found a library in a quaint neighborhood. We spend some time in the library and then found a little outdoor fitness area with machines built into the ground. The kids enjoyed tooling around on the equipment. Then we walked to the most depressing mall I've ever seen. But, it did have a bookstore, as we needed to find books for Eleanor to read since she read the ones we brought. A couple of chapter books later, we were on our way. It was funny to finally have to pay attention to the CAD price on the back of a book.
For lunch, Eleanor got a salad at subway in the food court, Ethan chose a croissant from Tim Horton's, and I got an Orange Julius because you never see them by us and they remind me of our childhood trips to California. Will and I ate some of the food we still have back at the hotel. Not sure what we will do with some of it. We have two packages of chicken sausage and a small bag of potatoes we planned to use in foil dinners. Maybe we just find a park with a bbq? (I just read this paragraph back and thought, who cares what we all ate for lunch? Is this what this trip has come to? I need to give details of our lunch habits to fill space? I'm leaving it because it seems to go with the theme of the week so far: sad. Plus, you already heard about our breakfast and dinner, and I am nothing if not thorough.)
It wouldn't really be a ruined vacation blog post without a little negative, though, so here goes:
1. We are not in Banff. We plan to go tomorrow, at least to Banff town and maybe on a short hike, depending on how bad the air is. Praying for a miracle.
2. Will had some kind of bite on his leg that is really bothering him. I got nervous it was a tick but have been talked off the ledge. But it's red, and hot, and irritated, so he is going to try to go to a health clinic tomorrow morning. He didn't make it there before it closed tonight. Thinking it's a spider bite. But he said it hurts enough that he doesn't think he could even do much hiking.
3. We are not in Banff.
4. They do not sell wine in grocery stores here.
5. We are not in Banff. Oh, did I mention this?
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