The Great White North Finally Lives Up To It's Nickname

We've come prepared for the worst weather but we've had remarkably clear skies while here in Canada's third largest city and, for the most part, up north in the Canadian Rockies for the week before this. Maybe a sprinkle here and there but nothing more than mild and temporary.

Waking up on this last morning in Calgary, I look out the window. Fall and the sunny weather is nowhere to be seen. There is a blanket of snow on everything and it is still falling steadily.

Hilton gave us a late checkout (2pm) and we'd planned on doing a couple of things around town before heading to the airport for our later flight home tonight at 7:00.

Those plans are pretty much dashed by the weather so we lazily spend the day packing up, eating the rest of our snacks, and gradually getting ready to go.

Finally, it's 1:45 so we'd better checkout.  I get the car from the lot across the street. It's now very windy to go with that steady snow and it's freezing outside.

Gingerly, I transfer Tim into the front seat of our rental Ford Escape.  This is where he'll stay until we pull into the rental car return later which is, thankfully, indoors and under a roof.

I have to gas up the car before we get to the airport so we find the nearest Costco where we get two pieces of bad news.  The first, a mild letdown, is that our Costco Visa card nor our Costco membership card will work on the gas pumps up here. They use a Costco Mastercard up here and, despite our card being called Costco's 'Anywhere' card, we can not get it to work.

The other, more tragic, bit of news we find out while Tim and I sit in the car while Letty runs into the main Costco store to look around...we hear that one of our favorite musicians, Tom Petty, had died of a heart attack.

A Tom Petty marathon suddenly breaks out on the FM station that we're listening to. I find another station for gas and slowly make our way to the airport listening to a playlist of the best of Petty.

We check the car back in with Enterprise, make our way into the terminal, change out of our winter clothes back into something more suitable for L.A., and check in our bags.

One thing that's nice and convenient for U.S. travelers here in Calgary is that TSA, ICE, and Customs are all stationed here at the airport so, once you clear those three (which goes by surprisingly fast and easy), once you deplane in the U.S., you're free to go straight to baggage claim and leave the airport without any additional barriers.

Inside, we while away the waiting time at a very nice Belgian cafe in the departure lounge before taking a very easy and quick flight home.

Catch up on the rest of our Canada posts below:

Jasper National Park
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six

Calgary
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four