Once again we returned to our former home town of Calgary for the summer, a time to catch up with family and friends as well as enjoy some travel down time. It’s easy and relaxing to be somewhere familiar surrounded by people we know and get re-energized for our next long distance adventures. This year we had a number of time consuming issues relating to an ageing parent which involved a move to assisted living along with what felt like endless related appointments. It was not the most stress free summer but despite this situation we were able to get out golfing with family, spend a few days in Canmore, join a local gym and get out for a few rides along the beautiful bike paths within the city.
In early August we hosted fellow nomad friends James & Tracey for a brief visit as they passed through Calgary. We met in Vietnam a couple of years ago and hit it off so well we kept in touch, they also visited us last summer when passing through Calgary. This year we had a whirlwind 36 hour visit with home cooked dinners, lunch on an outdoor patio in the sunshine and walks along the reservoir. Oh, and a rousing game of dice with lots of ribbing and laughs to spice up the evening. It’s fun to catch up in person and share travel stories with like-minded full-time nomads. While we dearly love our family and friends, its not easy for them to relate to our lifestyle and understand why we enjoy it so much. We also discussed our upcoming travels with James & Tracey and have made plans to meet them later this year in Kuala Lumpur, along with other nomad friends. It will be a nice change to spend Christmas and New Years with people we know!
One of my closest friends owns a spectacular mountain home in the town of Canmore, less than one hour from Calgary, and we were fortunate to spend 5 nights there in August. It’s amazing to wake up surrounded by mountain peaks and have easy access to Banff National Park and all it’s magnificent sights. We love going to our friends’ home in Canmore and appreciate every opportunity we have to stay there. I could live there but property is very expensive.
Banff National Park is one of the busiest places around here so when we decided we wanted to look around Banff we drove to a parking lot on the outskirts of town and rode our bikes everywhere. It was a perfect blue sky day as we pedaled along the Bow River, down to Bow Falls, back into town and down main street then out to Vermillion Lakes. Simply spectacular!! Before leaving the park we drove the Two Jack Lake-Lake Minnewanka road to admire the views, they never get old 🥰
Last summer I flew out to Vancouver Island to visit my sister so this year I invited her to come and stay with us in Calgary. We had a lovely 5 day visit doing a little shopping, going for lunches on outdoor patios, walking along the reservoir and just generally hanging out together. She also had the chance to catch up with a few friends of her own while she was here, it has been a few years since she was last in Calgary after moving out to the island. We had such a good time I totally forgot to take any photos!
On my birthday we were invited to join some friends at a horse jumping competition at Spruce Meadows, a world famous venue located on the outskirts of Calgary. It has been close to 40 years since we have been there and this sounded like a fun day out, even better that it was seniors day and all seats were free for those 65 and over. We thoroughly enjoyed walking around the grounds, getting up close to the magnificent horses of the RCMP Musical Ride and watching competitors from all over the world navigating the jumping course.
It’s a pretty short blog this time with not a lot of interesting stuff going on in our lives over the summer. Despite our best intentions of getting out and doing more we seem to enjoy our down time with family and friends.
As usual, our time in Calgary goes by too quickly and once again before we knew it, it was time to get on an airplane for faraway lands. We are heading back to Japan for another visit and then we will hop, skip and jump our way to Western Australia…..