We have been in Calgary for a month now and life has been very low key with consequently not much to write about. It has been cold with above average snowfall since we arrived in late February, a friend suggested it was our punishment for living on a Caribbean Island for the last 15 years 🙂 From all the comments we hear, this winter has been substantially worse than the past few years, so unlucky us to pick this one to come back to Calgary!! Fortunately, we have a lovely home to stay in while our brother Bruce and his wife are enjoying themselves in Phoenix, Arizona.
The weather has kept us indoors much more than we are used to which has been the biggest adjustment of our new life. In one respect it has been good in that we have had a lot of time to spend researching and planning our upcoming travels to Europe. This past month we have been able to finalize our itinerary and book our apartment rentals up to November 9th, check it out on the Our Journey page. We are comfortable knowing where we will be living for the next 7 months and doubt we will plan this far ahead in the future, but it is exciting to look forward to the places we will be visiting. One highlight of the upcoming plan is our time in Southern France will coincide with the route of the Tour de France, a favorite event we are excited to witness in person. In 2011 we were in Italy during the Giro d’Italia and managed to see two days of racing, it was amazing and fueled our desire to see more.
Besides all our planning we have found a wonderful indoor tennis facility allowing us to somewhat maintain our tennis skills. A local swimming pool offers lane swimming for Susan as well as a complete weight room for Blair so we have been spending one or two days a week there. Maintaining our fitness level has become a challenge when we are so used to just walking out the door to warm temperatures and any activity we wanted to pursue.
A couple of weeks ago the weather improved for a short time and out came the sun to melt some snow away. We took full advantage of the nice day and brilliant blue sky to get down by the river for a run along the pathways. Calgary has hundreds of miles of bike paths throughout the city which are kept clear all year round by the city. During “rush hour” you will find these paths filled with commuters on their bicycles, it is a great city to get around by bicycle.
I wish we had more interesting things to write about but other than spending time with family and friends we have not been out re-acquainting ourselves with the city. Perhaps now that we have our travel plans sorted well in advance we will make more of an effort to get out! Our only excitement in March, if you can call it that, was the arrival of our crate from Cayman. We left most of what we owned in Cayman and kept only our bicycles and what we consider irreplaceable items acquired during our life. Our worldly possessions were stored in Cayman for the last two months, shipped by air to London and on to Calgary, finally arriving here in early March. For the next few years our “stuff” will be stored in our brother’s basement awaiting the day we decide to settle down…