My goodness, I’ve been back a week and still nothing more about my Calgary tour? I’m the first to admit that I’m a lame blogger.
What about my memories? 8 schools. 10 glorious autumn days. What do I remember?
I remember my luggage. My poor, vulnerable luggage.
Here is my luggage leaving Vancouver airport:
Just waiting to be crushed by a jumbo jet.
Here is where my luggage arrives in Calgary:
Just in time for a polar bear’s dinner!
But I fought off the beasts, got to my lodgings and prepared for an intense week of storytelling and book presentations.
By the way – Happy Halloween. I’m currently writing this between trips to the door to give the local ghouls and monsters bits of candy. I tried giving them bits of sound advice but they will have none of it.
People in Calgary take their Halloween really seriously. Two weeks before the night, I saw houses majorly decorated in scary decor. Like this one:
Here’s a few other things I noticed about Calgarians:
1. They are willing to wait for hours in line at a Tim Hortons.
2. If you push your way to the front of the line at a Tim Hortons, they will cover you with glue and chocolate sprinkles and leave you in the front window as a warning to others.
The weather was quite mild and sunny and I discovered the many riverside trails that run through the city whenever I had a moment. I also had a free Sunday to go to Prince’s Island Park which is right downtown. I had a chance to hobnob with the locals.
Oh, and the place I stayed at was in the Inglewood neighbourhood. I had a great view of the city skyline.
And the city skyline had a great view of me (one of the two white, triangular houses dead centre in picture)
No, I wasn’t levitating when I took that picture, I was up in the Calgary tower because sometimes I’m a sucker for touristy stuff. And besides, they gave me really good directions to it.
Speaking of levitating, there’s a part of the tower that has a glass floor. This is what you see when you look down:
Apparently it’s not a good idea to jump up and down on the plastic really hard when an elderly grandmother is attempting to step on it. Unless you like getting hit across the head with a handbag.
But I haven’t mentioned the wonderful schools I visited. So in the same order that I went to them, here they are:
St. Bede
Father Doucet
Battalion Park
Chief Justice Milvain
Ecole Sam Livingston
St. Cyril
Holy Redeemer
St. Clement
I want to thank all the schools and the teachers or librarians who hosted my visits.
I should also mention that on the Saturday between my two touring weeks I had a book signing at McNally Robinson bookstore and I had a chance to reaquaint with staff from wonderful Wildwood school, which I visited last year.
