May 2014

 

May 2014 saw us visited by TbayTel, one of DaddyJ’s oldest friends and the keeper of all of the good stories about his antics in University! TbayTel was out in Vancouver for a conference and stopped in for a long weekend. Our four days were jam packed with showing him the sites in Calgary, eating at our favourite places and hearing the Wolf of Wall Street speak. Needless to say, despite the freezing weather here a very good time was had by all. Thank so much for making the time to visit us TbayTell.

 

Tubby Dog post Wolf and Beerfest

 

Enjoying the Food Trucks in a winter storm!

The beginning of the month also saw ScoutJ leave on his school trip to Montreal, Quebec City and Ottawa. It was a weeklong trip where they flew into Montreal, rode their coach bus to Quebec City and Ottawa before flying home. ScoutJ saw many things we had not seen on our previous trips, visited Quebec City for the first time and had a great adventure!

 

May 8th – May14TH, 2014

Itinerary

Day 1: Montreal

Depart Calgary at 7:00AM on Air Canada. You arrive in Montreal at 1:08PM where a guide will meet and immediately transfer you to Pointe A Calliere for your tour beginning at 3:30PM. From there you will proceed to be checked into your hotel before having dinner and then heading to the Old Port area for the Cirque du Soliel show Kurios!

Day 2: Montreal

After breakfast you depart for the Montreal studio of the National Film Board. There you will have a workshop on stop motion animation with puppets. After lunch you will visit the Olympic Tower and Biodome (we are attempting to arrange a visit with a local school, if that is succesful then we will substitute that this afternoon). Afterwards you will have a late dinner at one of Montreal’s famous smoked meat restaurants.

Day 3: Montreal - Quebec City 

After breakfast you will visit the famous Notre Dame Cathedral. Once done you will travel by coach to Quebec City. Along the way you will stop for lunch at the St-Hubert BBQ Restaurant. Once there, students will have a bit of free time to shop and walk around in Old Quebec.  Dinner will be in Old Quebec followed by a Ghost Tour.

Day 4: Quebec City

The day begins with a walking tour in Old Quebec. Then after lunch the group will visit Montmorency Falls and the Copper Museum where the students will enjoy an interactive workshop. Dinner  will be held in a local Sugar Shack for a traditional meal, inclduing maple syrup, and live music. That evening you will visit a local theatre to enjoy one of the latest movies in French.

Day 5: Quebec City - Ottawa

This morning you will visit Artillery Park where you can go in an re-inact history. From there you head on to the Plains of Abraham. Your last stop will be at a Huron Village where you will have time for more interactive activities. It will then be a late departure for Ottawa where you will arrive in time for a late dinner.

Day 6: Ottawa

Today will be full with sightseeing in Canada’s Capital. You will start with a drive by of the Prime Minister’s House and numerous embassies.  Then there will be guided visits of the Parliament Buildings and Canadian Mint.  You then walk over to Byward Market where students will have lunch and have a little free time. Afterwards you will visit the War Museum for a guided tour. Dinner will be late back near the hotel.

Day 7: Departure

Your last morning has you taking a guided visit of the Museum of Civilizations before heading to the airport for your flight home departing at 2:35PM. You will arrive back in Calgary at 5:03PM. 

Saying Goodbye at the Airport
 

Bottom Left pic is from Ottawa

I must say it was crazy standing there at the airport that first morning. I have know that this trip was coming for the nine years and suddenly it was upon us, how could he be old enough to be doing this, were we not just dropping him off at pre-school last week!? Time sure flies when you kids can sleep through the night!

Return of the traveler with gifts for everyone!

GuideJ enjoyed the end of the Guiding year with a district wide ceremony at Baker Park. We got to recognize the efforts of the people who make the year come together, see many of the girls move up divisions and meet more Calgary Girl Guides. It was a great evening of fun for everyone.

 

 

Her final activity of the year was a weekend camping trip to Bow Valley Provincial park for some tenting fun in some pleasant weather for the end of May. We are very lucky to have joined such a great Guiding troop, our leaders are wonderful and have gone out of their way to make this an incredible year of learning/fun for all of the girls.

One of the other very nice surprises of May was ScoutJ’s nomination for a band award (most improved), an award for playing on the badminton team and being on the honour roll! He set the bar rather high for our first visit to the Gala des Méritas, great work at school this year ScoutJ!

 

Our May long long weekend saw us touring Alberta. We began the weekend with a day trip to Canmore. There are few things as relaxing as a walk in the shadows of the Three Sisters’ after a great meal at the Grizzly Paw! Following that, we went on overnight trip to Edmonton where we visited the pool, ate at the Sugarbowl and relaxed while DaddyJ went to meetings.  I must say, it was a wonderful weekend spent enjoying Alberta.

Looking back it was jam packed month of fun from beginning to end!

Checking out the lake where we rented a slip for the BabyJ