Cannery Row, Monterey

 Monday: (11/23) Lou’s birthday. I picked up breakfast from A Good Morning Cafe. We decided to take a drive to Monterey. We stopped in Moss Landing at Phil’s restaurant for a clam chowder lunch. On to Monterey for a walk around Cannery Row and a drive through Pacific Grove. Then we headed home. I picked up dinner from Super Taqueria in Sunnyvale. The day started out overcast and drizzling but cleared up later in the morning. It was never warm though. 

Not many photos taken on this drive. Some flower on left. Entering Phil Sea Food Restaurant on right.

Calgary Space Port

Friday: (09/23) Lou fixed pancakes and bacon for breakfast on the new Griddler to give it a test. It worked fine.


After breakfast she dropped me off at the Airport so I could visit the Calgary Space Port. It's a museum that provides some information about the Canadian Space Program. I didn't even know they had one but actually they were thew third country in space and actually established the first satellite communications system. There were lots of things they have accomplished in both space and in flight. It wasn't a very big museum and was more for kids than adults with numerous flight simulators that could be tried out, except not today, for some reason.

When Lou picked me up, we stopped for lunch of Chinese food at the Deerfoot Mall again and then we were off heading out of town on Highway 1 toward Banff and beyond. Dinner was beef log, cheese and crackers on the road. Another interesting thing to fix on the RV. As we were cruising down the highway the transmission gear selector lever fell on my leg. Rather a shock. We stopped at the Visitor's Center on the highway to see about getting a national parks pass so we could camp in the park. As Lou was checking on that, I reassembled the RV. The pin that holds the lever on had worked it's way out. Lou returned quickly because the Visitor Center was closed. We stopped for the night at Illecillewaet (Great) Campground in Canada's Glacier National Park.
(GPS:51.26382482,-117.4929225)

Calgary Bird Refuge

Thursday: (09/22) We were off by 7am to catch a train downtown. A walk in the park started our adventure.


We walked around Prince's island park. We intended to explore Devonian Arboretum but it's closed for renovation. .


Next we caught a bus out to near the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary. We thought it wasn't much of a sanctuary at first but then found out what we thought eas the sanctuary was an old oil refinery site that is being reclaimed. I's cleared, now grassy fields with newly planted trees. When the oil plume it sits on is completely cleaned up and the trees are established, it will become part of the bird sanctuary next door. We then walked the real sanctuary which is quite nice. We didn't see many birds there though. In fact, other than the numerous birds we saw on both our sea tours, we have never seen as many birds, anywhere on this trip as numerous as the ones that visit our own back yard any day.


We walked back from the bird sanctuary through the Inglewood neighborhood where we stopped for a couple of slice of pizza. There was a kind of run down building that had a sign "Fairs Fair Books" on it. We stopped in for a look and found possibly the best used book store we've ever visited. A huge basement store with wide isles, good lighting, chairs, well organized books clasified by type and alphabetical all with the price clearly marked and to top it off it was clean. All those characteristics are almost never found, together,  at a used books store. We continued over to the Calgary Stampede grounds where we intended to see visit the Grain Academy Museum but  it closed two days ago for renovation. This seems to be a trend. We stopped by for some pie before catching the train home. Today was a grazing day. Oatmeal for breakfast. Shared Subway breakfast sandwich mid morning. Ice creams for lunch. A slice of pizza each about 2pm. A shared mini-rhubarb pie for dinner. Beef log and cheese for supper.

Calgary Zoo

Tuesday: (09/20) Bananas for breakfast. We relaxed at home in the morning. Lou prepared some beef stroganoff for dinner sometime later. About noon we headed out to the Marlborough Mall, grabbed a Quiznos sandwich for lunch and caught a train to the Zoo.


Calgary's zoo, like Edmonton's is way above average. Both are excellent in their own way. The Calgary Zoo has nice facilities with comfortable looking habitats. Above left is a picary (pig) and gorilla on the right.


Lots of landscape in the habitats not just concrete floored cages lake so many zoos. Here they also have to have indoor facilities for all the animals but have excellent outdoor facilities for when the weather allows their use.


We especially liked their aviary which is full of owls and hawks. We've never seen such big birds flying loose in an aviary before. They were so close and didn't seem to mind our watching from so close. When they fly close over your head it is a thrill.. The mountain sheep (goat?) habitat is an example of how intricately they make it like the animals original habitat.


To our pleasant surprise, the Conservatory is located in the zoo.


A nice fruited banana tree on the left. One of the many "flowering" plants in the conservatory on the right.


Some of the plants really dressed up.


It's nice to be able to have flowers all year. Just a great place to come for a spot of summer when it's cold outside.


The contrast inside and outside in winter must be stark.


And their butterfly room was wonderful.


70 years ago they had a wonderful dinosaur land on grounds where the zoo is now located. The sculptures were all concrete. Unfortunately they deteriorated over the years. The last of the original concrete dinosaurs is still located where he has always been. at 40-50 tall he would be difficult to move.


They did build a new, smaller prehistoric park on the zoo grounds. By smaller, I don't mean small, just less acreage than before. Prehistoric park. Now the figures are fiberglass but still big. The habitat on the right shows how detailed the area is.It is several acres itself.

Great zoo. We stayed until they threw us out at 6pm then took the train downtown. We had dinner sharing a lasagna and a slice of pizza. After dinner we went to the Calgary Tower, rode to the top and took a look in the daylight and waited for darkness for another look. You get a nice view of the city there. We were back to the mall by 9pm and returned to our campsite in the city near the Deerfoot Mall.

Wednesday: (09/21) McDonald's breakfast burritos for breakfast. We took the jeep out for a little drive around town. We stopped by the old Olympic facilities west of town. We shared an avocado bubble tea with pearls for lunch. We wandered around getting lost and un-lost several times. As the traffic was building up about 4pm we dashed home. We shared some Chinese food for dinner. Our late afternoon and evening were enjoyed hnging round at home. I worked on the countless photos taken recently to select a few adequate ones for the blog. Our light lunch with early dinner didn't last so we had some of Lou's beef stroganoff for dinner.

Calgary, Alberta

Saturday: (09/17) We stopped for the night in Calgary at Walmart near the airport.
(GPS:51.10661794,-114.04104875)

Sunday: (09/18) Chinese for lunch at the Wok With Us fast food in the Deerfoot Mall food court. We shared a combo of chowmein, mixed vegetables, sesame chicken and sweet and sour pork. Up in Edmonton we saw accessory waffle plates for the Griller by Cusinart. We've been looking for a good all in one device like that, not for the RV but for home use. Unfortunately, that was all they had, the accessory, not the Griller.  Everything was 25% off which is a pretty good incentive. There were none at any of the Sears stores anywhere in Edmonton. There is a Sears here by the Walmart we spent the night at so we checked there. No luck, but they did check nearby stores and found one a few miles away. We headed over and picked one up and now have a new toy. It has a panini grill, a griddle, and waffle maker. We looked around the shopping nearby as well. This looks like a good place to catch the light rail train for a tour of Calgary tomorrow. There was a Safeway across the street from Sears so we pulling in nearby and I used their wifi while Lou fixed more chow mein for dinner. Hers was the best.
After lunch there were notices on all the RV's in Walmart's lot advising us to move. We had hoped we could enjoy a long visit at Walmart's like in Edmonton but that was not to be the case. Fortunately, there is parking on the street nearby so tonight we'll still be nearby.


Monday: (09/19) Biscuits and gravy for breakfast. We took our transit day trip today riding Calgary's light rain from end to end to end. we hopped on and off a few times exploring different parts of the city.


We took a walk around downtown up on the second level of town, the ped walkways that lead from building to building. Like almost everywhere, they've had a paint the fiberglass sculpture contest. Here it was cows. I also spotted the interesting Atrium ceiling above right. It looks rather artistic to me.

Chow mien with vegetables and bourbon pork. For dinner we had more Chinese, our leftovers from last night. Nothing significant accomplished today other than a a good tour of the city.

Edmonton, Alberta

Note: Photos have been added to posts lack to August 24th which should make it current and a little more interesting.

Sunday: (09/11) A morning walk around the campground, a split cinnamon roll and we were on the road by 0930. Of course, the rain has returned. We arrived at West Edmonton Mall at 2pm and had lunch of leftovers of roast chicken, bean dip, and chips. We walked a little of the mall before it closed.


This is the second biggest mall in the world and it appears to be. We find a place to stay nearby and return tomorrow. The mall is the second largest in the world and can't be seen in one day. Above left is the wave pool and above right the sea lion show.

We stopped for the night at the nearby Walmart's on Stoney Plain Road. When we disconnected the Jeep at Walmart, the battery was dead. First time that happened. We haven't used it since we left Haines, Alaska and even though the battery is supposed to be connected to the RV's evidently that connection wasn't making so the brake solenoid and vacuum pump killed the battery. Something to look into. For dinner we had a nice green salad and shared a chicken pot pie.
(GPS:53.53854004,-113.64596116)

Monday: (09/12) Lou picked up breakfast from the McDonald's in Walmart. Part of our support the host program. She also had her hair cut at their salon and did some other looking around the area. I was busy working on labeling and collecting photos for the blog. It's been weeks since I last uploaded any photos. For lunch Lou made ham sandwiches. After lunch we drove over to the mall again. The jeep started up nicely so the battery was recharged with its 15 minute run last night. We looked around the mall until we needed tea and then stopped by a McDonald's across the street for tea. Yesterday, that is where I got a good Internet connection so we returned there. Unfortunately, it barely worked and was only good enough to check email, not upload photos. There are three other McDonald's in the mall. I tried each of them to see if they were any better. None worked. When I look at the wifi signals with my wifi manager on my phone there must be hundreds of wifi signals all trashing the air waves. The mall does provide thei own wifi sigal throughout the mall but charges for it's use. Everyone else but McDonald's have networks that require login so none of them were of any help. The end result was that I didn't get anything uploaded. i did find a good spot to do it though, Safeway nearby has a good signal but my computer battery died so maybe tomorrow. For dinner we stopped one of the food courts in the mall and shared a Chinese combo of chop suey, vegetables and BBQ pork. We topped that with a shared chocolate caramel blizzard sundae from Dairy Queen. Today was mostly sunny so our solar panels did a pretty good job today. 

Tuesday:(09/13) We shared the last of our cinnamon rolls and some sausage for breakfast. After showers and a haircut for me at Walmart, we drove over to Safeway and while I uploaded the recent photos and updated the blog, Lou was busy looking around the stores nearby. We met for lunch at Chili's enjoying an appetizer for lunch. We explored the Canadian Superstore (market) and a local home improvement store (Rona's). back at the Jeep, where I'd left Carbonite busy backing up the files on the computer. Lots of pictures makes for  a lot to backup. After losing some photos a few years ago, I prefer to backup. We shared a cup of soup from Safeway and then decided to just move the RV over here to Safeway and let the computer do it's thing and I could use the computer and internet as well all in comfort. For dinner Lou prepared backed potatoes and ham with some raw peppers and carrots. Today was mostly sunny but cool. They've already had their first frosts and this morning may have been one of them. Nights get down to 0 or -2 Celsius. Freezing or a little less for us Fahrenheit folks.

Wednesday: (09/14) I fixed Don McMuffin's this morning for breakfast.


We visited the Muttard Conservatory this morning.


Nice green houses, some unusual plants.


Nice little conservatory that gave us some ideas for our own backyard. I like the mother earth topiary.

We took a drive about town and visited several thrift stores along the way. For lunch we stopped at the Kingsway Mall food court. I had Chinese and Lou had KFC chicken. In the evening we moved over to Safeway for some more WiFi use. I got quite a ways behind on backing up files and am slowly making progress at it. Lou made salmon chowder for dinner with toast. We had another nice clear day. it was cold in the morning but the afternoon was nice and warm (73 degrees F). We made a list of the things we want to do before leaving and it looks like we'll be here a few more days.

Thursday: (09/15)  Lou made corned beef hash and eggs this morning, one of my favorite breakfasts. We went to the Zoo today. They have a very nice soo.


We especially liked the fact they treat the animals like friends. We met the elephant on one of the lawns where she was out enjoying her afternoon walk. She walked on to a field where they had recently cut some trees. She munched on the leaves from nearby trees, pulled up her own grass, and really seemed to enjoy tossing dirt onto her back, belly and head. the attendants didn't really seem to like that as much because of the over spray. We also met the two arctic wolves on their walk.


Two arctic foxes. Quite a difference in their coloring. They are in transition to white, I assume.


Owls really do look wise.

 
The two tigers looked quite comfortable in their area and the red fronted lemurs were cute when the attendant was feeding them.

We had lunch at the zoo, tuna salad, granola bars, and V8 juice.


After the zoo visit we went downtown and took a walk there. We finally stopped at the Visitor Center to see what we should do while we're here. We've already done most of it. Some how, another day was used up. We returned with the RV to Safeway for some more use of their wifi. Lou prepared roast chicken, baked potatoes, with raw carrots and bell peppers.

Friday: (09/16) Leftover corned beef hash and eggs for breakfast. Lunch was at the Southgate mall. We drove over to the West Edmonton Mall, bought transit day passes and caught a bus toward downtown. We walked an older part of town around 124th st.


We took a tour of the Legislative building. Mary, our tour guide was a fountain of information. We learned things about our own form of government we didn't know. As Mary explained Alberta's government she compared it to ours in California and to another guests home in Chile. One interesting item was that there were several California palm trees growing in a little room above the dome. You could see them from the rotunda below. They have been there over 79 years. Interesting place to find palm trees.

We caught the light rail train to Southgate mall. We shared some Chinese food. Then we took the train all the way North and then returned to catch another bus back to the car. Now we've done Edmonton. Dinner was leftover salmon chowder and toast. It rained last night and was cold this morning but, as seems to be the case, the afternoon turned out to be nice and warm.

Saturday: (09/17) Breakfast of McGriddles sandwiches at McDonald's. While I "worked" with the computer at Safeway, Lou did the laundry and visited a fabric store. Leftover soups for lunch, chili for me, salmon chowder for Lou. We finally left Edmonton at 2:30 heading South on Highway 2. the Visitor Center on the highway just South of town had a nice sanitary dump and water. We stopped in Innisfail for a walk and dinner. We shared a Subway green chill, bacon and beef sandwich. We stopped for the night in Calgary at Walmart near the airport.
(GPS:51.10661794,-114.04104875)