Day 1 (May 14, 2026): The "bare feet + snoring" flight out west!

Once a year, we receive a two-for-one travel voucher from RBC for our WestJet credit card. The expiry date is every September and, every Setpember in a last-minute panic over what to do with it, I find myself scrambling to make a plan to use it before it expires. With that in mind and realizing that May 2026 would mark the 35th anniversary of my graduation from the University of British Columbia (UBC), we decided to head west for the Victoria Day weekend. And hey - why visit one city in a weekend when you can visit two?!  And so, a weekend trip to Vancouver and Edmonton was conceived.

That was eight months ago, and, as always happens, the actual trip crept up on us. As Pam's music commitments always reach a peak in late April to late May, the timing of a trip like this is never good. Be that as it may, she came home from school on Thursday afternoon only to find me in a mad scramble to wrap up my Parole Board work, and somehow, we managed to run out the door at 4:30 PM for our 6:15 PM flight to Calgary and onward to Vancouver. 

The weekend will be split into, with two days in Vancouver, focussed on visiting friends and UBC, and two days to check out Edmonton. We have both visited Edmonton for meetings, but neither of us has ever gotten to experience the city and its sights. So this will be an opportunity to do so.


You just have to take a nonstop flight from Atlantic Canada to Western Canada to realize how massive a nation we have.  Five hours non-stop from Halifax (YHZ) to Calgary (YYC) is a long flight, and that is without the add-on to Vancouver.  We left Halifax right on time at 6:15PM on a packed Westjet Boeing 737 Max 8 and landed in Calgary a few minutes early.  Our connection to Vancouver left 80 minutes for a reason that was never explained. By the time we arrived at the hotel in Surrey, it was almost 1AM.

When I was five, I took my first flight, along with my brothers, from St. John's to Winnipeg. Mom ensured we were presentable - that's just the way it was done back then.  Fast forward to today, and anything goes.  The guy across from me boarded in beach trunks and flip flops, and promptly ditched the flip flops for the next five hours, ensuring everyone around him enjoyed his feet.  Meanwhile, the guy in front of us snored for over an hour - loud enough to wake the dead. 

We approached Calgary Airport as daylight was beginning to fade.  Some fields were green, but most reflected a winter wheat crop or the stubble of last fall's harvest, not yet ploughed under.

The approach to Calgary Airport usually provides a great view of the downtown core - and tonight did not disappoint!


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