India- still day 5, but at the Taj Mahal.

Leaving Delhi to get to  Agra took forever, oh my god the traffic was eye-popping...the honking and noise and craziness, but oddly enough no road rage. I guess if you live in a city this congested, you learn to adjust and cope with it. There were some pretty unusual sights to see.

Children selling fresh roses are everywhere. Smart little girls, as soon as they see a camera they hide their faces, they will only let you take their picture if you buy a rose. Kind of hard to buy something when the bus windows don't open. (Yeah, yeah, I know I just finished saying I hate taking pictures from a bus window, but I didn't say I didn't do it, just that I hate it. Insert sheepish grin)

This is a  tobacco shop, note the huge grin on the face of the fellow on the right, they want their picture taken, and happily pose for free.

The buildings seem a tad wonky, perhaps that is why this one wasn't finished?

Not sure what this is, but I didn't want to get "scaned" so I stayed on the other side of the road.

Finally we arrived at the Taj Mahal. It was quite extraordinary to see, although it's not anywhere that I have always yearned to visit, so it wasn't overwhelming or emotional for me. I felt like I was trudging along, sort of  like this:

I was sort of surprised at how many monkeys were on the grounds. This fellow just looks exhausted.

It was crowded, but not as jam-packed as I had expected, funny thing though, you know how we like to take pictures of other foreign people  in the clothes of their culture? Well, I've never seen so many people who think that we are the exotic ones and want to have their picture taken with us! Even in Africa I didn't find this. If we sat for a rest, there were literally families and families who wanted us to hold their children, or sit by their wives and have our picture taken with them. It was very strange.

Sometimes it was really hard to get away. 

This little one wanted to show us her pretty shoes. She was too afraid to actually sit with us though.

After the Taj Mahal we had to go to a marble cutting/inlay/polishing demonstration and then of course they herd you into their shop to purchase. Their shop is, of course, the best and the cheapest in all of India. I'll say, the art of cutting the gemstones and doing the inlay into marble was pretty amazing, but they insisted that everything was totally handmade by the small group of men in the family business. So. There were well over 8,000 pieces in the store, from huge tables to small trinkets, but there is no earthy way that all these items are hand made. A normal plate-size item takes about a week. They obviously have a machine of some sort somewhere. I did not fall off the proverbial turnip truck. 

Anyhow, I'm just not interested in writing about the Taj Mahal, don't get me wrong, it was incredibly beautiful and the story behind it is a touching love story, but at the end of the day, it's still just another monument to me. I know some people practically make it a pilgrimage to see it, so to each their own.

On to better stories and pictures!

India Day 5...the rest of.

So the hawkers and touts at the India Palace were enough to drive a person insane. They are in your face constantly and simply will not take no for an answer. It tends to makes one be very rude, which I'm not normally, but I got good at it pretty quickly. 

We then drove by the Presidential Palace, people are not allowed to stop there, so we drove by twice in order to be able to "click the photo." I did not "click the photo" as I do not give a rat's ass as to where the president lives, plus I hate taking pictures out of bus windows. I'm not sure why, but I just

do. One of my many quirks.

Next stop was the Qutub Minar, and I did "click the photo" there, and you may "view the photo" here:

And here: (as a plane passes over...old and new)

It's the worlds tallest rubble masonry red sandstone minaret at 273 ft tall, 45 feet wide at the bottom, and about 8 feet at the top. It's incredibly intricate with each of the different levels being carved in different styles. Pretty impressive considering it was built in 1192. There were also other buildings there, old temples and whatnot and I won't bore you with a history lesson (mostly because I didn't pay really close attention, I was too busy sweltering in the heat and trying to keep the sweat from running into my eyes) but suffice it to say, they were very beautiful.

Then we got back on the bus and headed to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal.

India Day 5

This morning we were out of the hotel by 8:30 and off to do a bit of sightseeing in Delhi. The weather is invariably warm and muggy and the smog is intense. I was thinking that something was wrong with with either my camera or my camera card because the pictures are all a little "faded", this morning scene is not  rays of sunshine as the sun rises to beautify another day....it's rays of smog. 

Anyhow, what do you do? Breath deep, hope for the best and carry on. 

We went to the Jama Masjid mosque this morning, the largest in India. Its marble and red sandstone and holds 25,000 people. It is to Muslims what Jerusalem is to Christians. We had to make sure we had no food or gum, and they supplied us with gowns to cover shoulders and legs, both men and women, and they were very strict about it. One fellow had super long legs and they were in quite a dither trying to find a gown long enough to hide his hideous, white. North American calves!

Below, prayer mats being laid out

In this picture, notice the women in long gowns, they are other tourists in the gowns they supplied, we had to have all our skin covered. The men were washing face, hands and feet in preparation of prayer. I highly enjoyed the experience as I doubt I'll ever get the chance to go into a Muslim mosque again.

Me outside the mosque overlooking part of Old Delhi.

Next we went to the Raj Ghat, which is Gandhi's cremation place. It was a nice garden and memorial, but what is most memorable are the bathrooms.....filthiest I have ever seen, and I've travelled to some pretty dicey places. It was also very smoggy. Poor Gandhi, he would be so disappointed. 

Then we moved onwards to the India Gate, the traffic here is unbelievable, and I mean really unbelievable. Bumper-to-bumper means literally that.

The do, however, have what I assume to be a high-tech hydro electric system. I say this because I've never quite seen a system like this, it includes monkeys running across and over they wires, screeching and pooping as they run. This is where we outsource?

Old Delhi was pretty amazing. The streets are a winding maze of confusion, and if one wandered off, chances are good one would never be seen again. 

Headed off to the India Gate next, a monument similar to others in almost every country, an eternal flame and a memorial to soldiers who died in war. It was huge and impressive, but not my kind of sightseeing. There were a lot of soldier there though, it's a place prone to protests.

I'll finish the rest of day 5 shortly....gotta run! The pool is calling.

Holy!

 I wanted to tell my story in an orderly manner, and while I've only written up to Day 4 and we're actually on Day Something Else Maybe Nine, I have to interrupt my train of thought to tell you this story. You have to read this to the end, please, even though parts of it refer to religion. And you have to know how the Hindu people respect all animals and will never hurt one deliberately, all life is sacred to them, and they feed and care for all of them...pigeons and birds always have seeds, cows have hay, dogs are fed and they all live harmoniously together. That's important to this story.

We are in Pushkar right now, which you may have seen on various travel shows as a very famous place known for the camel fair, where camel traders come from around India to buy and sell camels. It also has one of the holiest temples in all of India and you can go to the ghat there and partake in a blessing ceremony. 

A ghat is a holy place near a lake or river where a Brahmin (type of holy man) will bless you in a ceremony that includes also blessing your family and friends; past, present and yet unborn. It's a very serious ceremony, no shoes, no skirts for women, no bare arms or legs and certainly no cameras or cell phones. Husbands must sit to the right of their wives and everyone cups their hands as the Brahmin pours fresh rose petals which signify (and you are warned to not smell them under any circumstances, it's apparently very insulting)  then some rice, which signifies prosperity,then sugar which signifies a sweet life, then red powder which signifies family and future family, and finally turmeric which signifies the ones you love who have died.  As he adds each one, he prays and blesses you, and then he has us repeat a series of prayers in Hindi. At the conclusion of this, he puts a smear of the mixture on our foreheads and we then think of everyone we want to be blessed and then we are to go to the lake and toss our petal mixture into the water whilst wishing for good karma for all our loved ones.

Above picture is the ghat, steps leading down to the water.

Below picture is the temple, and also some of the pigeons in flight. Keep reading to understand the importance of the pigeons! 😳

So we walk down the steps to the water and I hear this sort of hollow "thunk" and a freaking pigeon falls from the sky and lands at my feet. He's flown straight into the pole beside me. He tries to lift his head and I see blood all over, and his wing is broken. What the hell kind of message is this?!  I'm standing there, kind of shocked and sad and a bit panicked, and a stray dog runs right over; grabs the bird and rips it in half and runs away! Imagine all this happening in a split second, at this holiest of holy ceremonies. And the Brahmin's robe opens up as he runs over and he's wearing a t-shirt that says "Venice Beach, California." Seriously, what the hell? All that's left at this point is a few feathers and I'm wondering if I hallucinated the whole thing. Then I thought I was going to burst into hysterical giggles, because I look at everyone else and they're standing there, mouths ajar and eyes wide and bugging out and some of them have grains of rice stuck to their forehead from the Brahmins blessing and it looks ridiculous and also sort of like maggots. It was probably one of the strangest experiences of my life. 

So that's India for you, always expect the unexpected. 

I will be back on track tomorrow since its a complete day off at this fantastic resort and speedy wifi. 

Until then....namaste! 

Day 4 continued in India.

To continue Day 4, after we visited Gandhi's place, we went to a Sikh temple, but before we could enter we had to remove our shoes and socks, and  cover our heads with a supplied blue and yellow scarf, both men and women. The temple itself seemed clean enough, but the small room where we had to leave our shoes wasn't the cleanest, and the short walk to the temple was, uh, revolting. It was only 50 or 60 steps, but they were not fun steps, New Delhi is not a clean city by any stretch of the imagination. The temple was beautiful, very ornate, lots of gold and other adornments. I felt a little odd walking through a Tempe while people were inside praying, but then I realized that it's no different than walking through any church in Europe while people are inside.

Now, attached to the temple is a huge establishment that is similar to a soup kitchen at home  except anyone can eat there...rich, middle class, poor, homeless and any faith is welcome. Obviously it is utilized mostly by the poor and homeless. They sit outside by the hundreds and wait their turn while the people inside have their meal. 

All the food is donated and all the labour is volunteer. It's an incredibly massive operation. The kitchen and eating area would never pass inspection in North American, but things are different here. Really different. Remind me to tell you about cows later. I know you know that cows are sacred here, but it's a whole different level than what I realized.

Anyhow, as we were watching the food prep I was asked if I wanted to help make some naan bread, and of course I wasn't going to miss this! The balls of bread were flung at me almost faster than I could roll them out, but its not a complicated procedure, and before long I was rolling with the best of them, sitting on the floor with bare feet, flour flying everywhere.

This is half the room of people eating.

The naan making area.

Food prep, shelling peas and dicing potatoes today.

Gargantuan containers of rice. The smaller ones are 5 gallon pails.

The reason it's all free is for two reasons, one is it creates work (not for pay, but "busy work" to keep people occupied) and two being it brings you good karma.

Oh honest to gods, I just can't seem to get anything written, but if I don't do it now I'll never rememeber the order of things, so excuse the disorder of my mind.

We then went for lunch where I had paneer sharmi and naan, then went and found a money changer and probably got totally ripped off, but when you need money, you need money. Headed back to the hotel to sit by the pool for a while and then try to repack my suitcase which has expanded greatly and I haven't bought a single thing yet. How does that happen? All I've done is switched my sneakers that I wore down here with my sandals. Jeez. Time to start tossing stuff and leaving things behind already? 

Anyhow, here's some photos to amuse you.

Ate here:

Ate this:

Sat around this:

Yearned for some of these:

Felt rich owning 18,000 of these:

India Day 4

So I'll call it Day 4, but I'm not sure. Close enough.

We are at The Metropolitan Hotel in New Delhi. It's very nice, nothing overly-special, but it has a really good breakfast buffet. I love foreign hotels that cater to tourists because the buffets are so varied...one can have anything for breakfast; from oatmeal to mutton to curried veg and fish. I don't want to get Delhi-Belly just yet, so I ate sparingly (well, obviously I don't want to get Dehli-Belly ever, but I believe it's inevitable. I'm not sure I'll be here long enough to build a good tolerance to street food. So I stick to yogurts, cheese, fresh fruit and toast. For now.

When I woke up about the first day and looked out my window, I thought it seemed sort of misty/foggy out there,  much like Vancouver and other coastal cities and I assumed it would burn off by noon. Well, as you may have guessed, it burns off never as it's smog and pollution from this city of 16 million. Million. That's like half the population of Canada in one city.

This is the view from my room. Looks ethereal until you realize it's smog and never goes away. It smells like burning garbage. I remember a Russell Peters routine where he said that everyone needs to go to India once, and "when your plane lands and you get out....stretch and breath deep, if it doesn't smell like shit, well, you're not in India."  I'm not gonna say it smells that bad, but it does smell.

The city is like everyone says....it's so loud, the constant cacophony of vehicle horns just drills its way into your head...the noise never stops. The traffic is bumper to bumper at all times, and I literally mean bumper to bumper. There is no rhyme nor reason to the streets. It's quite terrifying. But you know, there is also no road rage or anger.

The trucks are decorated in intricate designs, and have signs painted on the back to "please blow horn" so that they know you're behind/beside them, as a polite warning. I don't know how that works  since the sound of horns never, ever stops, so how a driver distinguishes between someone honking at him as opposed to the other 8 million drivers is a mystery to me. But I guess it works, although not too well because I have yet to see a vehicle without dozens of door-dings.

There are three major religious groups in India. Hindu, Sikh and Muslim. That makes up 86% of India. The other religions make up 12% and Christianity is 2%. Only 2%. We visited temples/mosques of all three.

First we saw a Hindu temple. Pictures were not allowed inside, but the outside looked like this:

It's the Birla Hindu Temple, built in 1939 and covers 7 acres. It was inaugurated by Gandhi, he would only inaugurate it if all castes and religions were allowed in. A priest blessed us by putting a tilak or bindi (the red smudge) on our foreheads.

Notice how the shape of the domes are elongated. That means a Hindu temple. Round ones are Muslim.  See? You can learn things by reading my blog.

We next went to Gandhi's place of assassination, which I did not think was going to be interesting in the least, and I was so wrong. First of all, the minute you get off of the bus, the sounds of the city are enough to drive you a bit insane, and then the minute you step past the walls surrounding his home, into the gardens, it's like night and day. It's instantly cool, quite, serene, the birds are chirping, the temperature goes from a muggy, sticky 25C to something sweeter and enjoyable. It's quite amazing.

The life of Gandhi is fascinating. I won't bore you with a history lesson right now, although I'll bet you wouldn't actually be bored.  What an incredible man.  Every morning he'd walk the same path in the garden and contemplate and pray. The foot prints here are where he walked the last day of his life before he was assassinated in the spot where you see the small column.

There also a museum here of his life, which also surprised me. It was FABULOUS. You should go there! Really! It had room after room after room, each filled with the most incredible interactive displays.  Some were like magic or like something from a Harry Potter movie, seriously! Writings that would appear on walls and the floor, as if an invisible person was holding a giant quill and was writing thoughts and quotes of Gandhi's, giant chess sets that would shine quotes on the walls as you moved  the pieces,  a huge harp in the whimsical shape of Gandhi that made picture appear as you plucked the strings and more and more in every room.  It was all free, and filled with docents who were more than eager to show you how it all worked.

There were a lot of school kids there that day, all dressed in their uniforms and oozing politeness. They all wanted to show us how well they could converse in English (which was really quite good) and we joined them in a really fun display, which was teaching us how powerful unity can be. One person put their hand on a brass (brass? I'm not actually sure, is brass a conductor?) plate on the floor and everyone else held hands and the last person put their hand on another brass plate. As we held hands,  purple lights lit up the column higher and higher the longer we held hands. The minute one person let go, the lights went out. I mean, I know it's simple science, but it was still a teachable moment. 

After our lessons we all went out for a class photo, and then we went on our way. It was a really fun time!

I would write some more, but at this moment I'm beyond exhausted. The heat is that sticky kind of heat and it just sucks the life right out of me and my mind won't work and I need to check my grammar before I hit the "publish" key, because there is never an excuse for poor grammar, but I fear that saying that may come to bite me in the ass today. 

Day 2-ish...maybe Day 3 too?

Day 2.  So Day 2 was mostly spent in the air.  The plane left at 11:40 and because my Dad drilled it into me that it's always "better to be early than late" (I used to piss him off by retorting "yes, but better to be late than never." I caught an early shuttle and was at the airport in enough time to stand in the endless lines, so of course there were no endless lines. We were through check-in and security in less than 45 minutes.  Killed a bit of time by taking some touristy pictures in the airport, which was decorated for Chinese New Years, lots of colour!

The first plane ride was surprisingly comfortable. The airline was China Southern and I gotta say, it was a pleasant departure from Air Canada. Seats were roomy, the flight attendants were constantly up and down the aisle with hot tea, cold drinks including beer and wine....no charge (I didn't partake as I am an extreme light-weight drinker and don't day-drink at all) and hot lemony towels to wash away the stress of all that free wine. The dinner was really good. Honestly, it really was! The meat was chicken, and it was genuine boneless thighs, none of that "chopped, formed and frozen" nugget crap. And the desert was cheesecake! Yay! 

Also free were pillows, blankets and headphones....try and find those on Air Canada these days.

The movie selection was good too. I watched five. And for those who care to know, they were:

-Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (fabulous, but only if you've read the book)

-the new Jack Reacher (horrible, especially if you've read the books)

-Keeping Up With the Jonses (meh...basically a Mr and Mrs Smith)

-The Masterminds (probably bad, but funny anyhow because of Zack Gallifinakis)

-The Accountant (I thought it was good.)

I managed to watch all 5 because it was a 13 hour flight. Ugh to that. We landed in Guangzhou, China and changed planes for the final 6 hour jaunt. Big ugh to that. 

However, we did land on the tarmac in China and had to walk a bit to get inside, so at least we got some fresh air and a good stretch.  The second flight wasn't as good as the first, still on China Southern but the plane was not quite as roomy, the food not quite as good (it was actually inedible) and by this time everyone is tired and just wanting a full size bed. 

Possibly the closest I'll get to China, and maybe Ethiopia as well!

The reason I was so confused about the days and time is because we flew about 19-20 hours, but we crossed the international dateline, so we either gained a day or lost a day, no one knew for sure, plus there was a 13.5 hour time change, plus the route we took followed the sun so there was no nightfall for my circadian rhythm to adjust, and my poor brain had no idea what time it was. All I know is I got on a plane at noon on the 14th, and 20 hours later it was 1:00 AM on the 16th. I don't know where the 15th went and I'm too confused to care.

We landed in smoggy New Delhi on time (not sure on who's time, exactly) and we had to go straight to the tourist visa counter and show our e-visas and also do a retinal scan and be fingerprinted on a biometric thing. Very odd. My eyeball photos are now in a foreign database somewhere. So much for my career as an international spy. Anyhow, our visas were processed and our passports were stamped so we got our luggage (yay! Not lost!) and went to immigration. The line ups were unusual, one said "for nationals" and one said "red card line". Then there was an open hall with a guard standing there looking very lackadaisical and bored. We walked over to ask him what a red card line was since we didnt have a red card, and he just waved us through before we could even speak and pointed to the rest of the airport. So, no customs and immigration for us.

We found the fellow holding the sign for our group and he called a bus for us, and off we went through the insane traffic of New Delhi in the dark hours of the night. Kinda surprised I'm still alive after that harrowing ride. 

We arrived at the hotel at about 1AM and the only good thing about the lack of sleep and weird time changes is the fact that I can go to sleep now, get 7 hours and wake up with my body adjusted properly and on time. No jet lag!

India. Day 1.

Yikes! After months of waiting and planning, here I am!  Well, by "here" I don't mean I'm in India quite yet, I'm in a Vancouver hotel. The flight leaves tomorrow morning, and not until almost noon which is so incredibly fantastic. No ungodly early rising. Nothing starts a holiday off worse (for me) than getting up at 4 or 5 AM.  I haven't seen a sunrise for about 3 years now. Seen one, seen 'em all.

So anyhow, some blog info. I've kept a blog for lots of years, but generally just for myself, like an online journal, and then I shared it with a few friends and family. So if you're new here, look around and I hope you stay awhile. 

I am a bit of a grammar freak, and I do try to double check my punctuation and spelling, however I don't understand commas at all, I use them far too often, and I think I use them in all the wrong places as well, so please excuse the plethora of them. I use commas like I talk, which is with lots of pauses.

I write like I talk, which is a bit disjointed with lots of side-stories.

I start too many sentences with "so" and "anyhow", and sometimes even "So, anyhow"...a double annoyance, but, again, that's how I talk. So if you're ok with all of that, hang around and read my stories.

Here's the first one. 

I'm traveling to India sort of solo. There are 7 other people from Cranbrook, maybe 9, who will be on the same flights and the same hotels and we will have the same guide. We won't always be doing the same things, so it's sort of solo, sort of not.  

I don't want to be the kind of person who writes like they're an inspirational meme, everything all rosy and wonderful as I travel through far away countries. You know the kind I mean. Every picture is captured "seeing the real part of the country" and "not a tourist!" or an artfully positioned selfie; hair blowing in the wind, or yoga pictures on the beach....you know what I mean. But sometimes I do get a bit passionate about what I'm seeing, so excuse any spewing of prose that might flow from my fingertips. 

I had my hair cut the other day (this ties into my story, so be patient). It's short, and blunt and swings when I walk. It still has some pinks and purples in it, and my bangs are sort of edgy.  I actually get a lot of compliments from total strangers. (Thank you Heather!)  So, I'm striding through the hotel restaurant here, well, striding as best I can with my stubby little legs, and a woman leans over and gently says "Excuse me...". and you know, because I'm a strong, independent, travelin' woman with an edgy haircut, striding through a hotel on my way to India, I turn and say "Yes?", fully expecting a compliment of some sort. She leans and whispers "You have toilet paper on your shoe".

Ewwwwww. Oh my god. How embarrassing. What does one do? Does one scuff it off and kick it under a table and run away? Does one pick it up and hold it arms length away from one's body as one runs away? Does one pick it up and scrumple it into their hand as one runs away?  Or does one just say "oh, thank-you" in a small voice as one scurries around the corner to remove it discreetly?  You decide. I'm not even going to tell you which one I chose.

Anyhow, I will try to not write about the next few weeks in a pretentious and arrogant way. If I do, please excuse me, because remember, at the end of the day, I'm just a chick with toilet paper on her shoe. 

Pronunciation concerns.

That time of year.....

So, it's that time of year....the time between November 1st and 12th.  The time for disagreements over Christmas decorations going up before Remembrance Day and whether it's proper or not.  

I'm always amazed at the amount of letters to editors, comments written below newspaper articles, horrendous disagreements and name calling after Facebook posts and memes that I see.

The first thing that spouts out of the mouths of those who think that not a single decoration should go up before November 12th  is "disrespect." "You're disrespecting our Veterans." "Show some respect" 

First of all, tell me exactly how me (or you, or anyone) putting up a wreath or snowman or a string of lights is disrespecting a Veteran?  Don't just say "I'm sure you can wait a few weeks to put up your decorations", I want you to tell me how it's disrespectful. Really, how? Do you know the meaning of "disrespectful"? Let's look it up:

"A lack of respect or courtesy. Being insulting. Having scorn, disdain or disregard for someone."

All of that has nothing....nothing to do with the way I hang things in my house, and it's certainly irrelevant to the way I feel about Veterans.  The two things are not comparable, they're apples and oranges. Decorating before November 11th is certainly premature as far as I'm concerned, but it's in no way disrespectful. Decorating before December 1st is equally annoying to me. Or even before December 15th.

Ask a Veteran if they care, the majority of them don't worry about who puts decorations up, and when. It's a cliché to be sure, but being able to make those kinds of choices is what our freedom is about, and no one has the right to say that someone else is wrong and/disrespectful because they are decorating for a holiday. 

I think the lack of Health care, the diminishing pension, and the poor government support that our Veterans receive is a much more pressing issue than a display of Christmas decorations. And if you're not so much upset with Joe-Down-The-Street putting his lights up before the snow flies and the temperature drops to below zero, but you're actually upset with the commercial stores setting up their displays, well, why should a retail organization be any sort of moral compass for us? Who really cares? If it bothers you, don't shop there. If you don't like the way my house looks, don't walk by. Such false outrage.

What it boils down to, for me, is that no one can tell me how I am supposed to honour the dead, and you certainly can't tell me when my holiday spirit should kick in.

You want to respect our Veterans? Instead of getting frothy at the mouth with anger over something as petty as a seasonal display, maybe take a Veteran a meal or take them on an outing. I'm not even going to list the ways to help.....you know the kinds of things that can be done as well as I do.

Donate some money to the poppy fund and wear your poppy. And if you want to decorate early and enjoy your decorations, do so. And if you don't want to....then don't. It's not worth arguing about.

 

Happy Thoughts.

I have a friend who has two children. When she was pregnant with her second, which was totally unexpected, she was terrified that she wouldn't have enough love in her heart for the new baby. She loved her first one so much that she couldn't possibly imagine having any love leftover for another child. I told her that she would be completely amazed at how her heart would expand and that there would be more than enough love to go around. That the heart doesn't have a finite capacity for love, it has an infinite amount of room. (Of course, the heart is just a muscle that doesn't actually feel any kind of emotion at all, but you know what I mean.)

Anyhow, of course when the new babe was born, she was totally besotted and instantly in love. 

And now she worries about when it's time to "let go" and how do you hand your children over to someone else? To have some other person be the Number One in your child's life? I mean when you give your entire self to being Number One to your kids... how do you just give that up? When every moment of your life is spent marveling at the love you have for your children, and seeing the love that is reciprocated, it's a pretty awesome thing.  That little seed of jealousy at giving that love to someone else is planted really, really early. 

However, I am here to tell her (and you!) that it's just like having a new baby...when your son (I can't speak for daughters, since I don't have one....it might be different with girls), when your son finds the woman who is right for him, his true love, the one who makes him smile and makes it worth while to get up each day....you are filled with nothing but joy. Honestly! True story!

I feel sad for women who don't get along with their in-laws, be it daughter-in-law or mother-in-law or even sister-in-law. Holy cow, life is far too fragile to have family animosity. And it can be cut short so quickly that there is often no time to make amends. 

I am incredibly fortunate to have the daughter-in-law that I have. And so fortunate that her mom and dad raised her the way they did. Be happy for your kids....if they're happy, be happy for them. It's simple, really.

Make fun where you can.

So, you know, it's a funny little world we live in. We had to go to Calgary for a doctor appointment this week.  We have to go 3 or 4 times a year, and we have some very good friends who have to go as well, they go much more frequently than we do, and we always hope that someday our visits will coincide so that we can go for dinner in the city, but it never happens. It's frustrating how often our mutual appointments are within a day or two of each other, but never the same day. *sigh*. We've just given up trying.

Part of our routine on the trip is stopping at Timmies in Invermere for a coffee (or an Ice Capp, depending on the season) and a pee break. Steven was in the men's room and commented on how they needed more urinals, it was a tight fit in there, and the fellow In front of him joked and said "As long as no one pees in my back pocket" and turned to leave. Yup, you got it, it was our friend.  

I love when that type of thing happens. Is it fate? Coincidence? Does it happen for a reason unknown to us, but is relevant to our future lives? Hard to say.

We chatted outside for a bit, and then decided to meet up at the Timmies in Canmore for our next pee and coffee break (because face it, we're old and Canadian, the oldness means more pee stops and the Canadian part means we automatically pull into any Timmies on the highway)

Just a few miles out of invermere we saw the highway in front of us filled with bumper to bumper traffic, and thought "yikes....Sunday in the summer on the road to Banff....gonna be a long trip", however as we came to a dead stop, we realized it was an accident. A bad one, 3 or 4 ambulances soon passed us, fire trucks, police cars and the Stars Air Ambulance (our medical helicopter service, for my non-Canadian readers). The highway was going to be closed for 4-6 hours. 

Our friends were just two cars in front of us, so we walked up to them to figure out what to do. Either sit for 4-6 hours in the heat, or turn around and go back to Cranbrook (about an hour and a half) and then go to Calgary the other way, 4.5 hours. Which would make the total trip about 8 hours....1.5 here, 1.5 back, 4.5 there, plus pee stops....this is why we leave for our appointments a day ahead of time.

Anyhow, our friends have a relation who used to live in the Invermere area, and he's a logger and knew of a back way around, a forest service/logging road. He said it would be rough and dusty, but only about a 45 minute detour and we'd be back on the highway! So hooray for cell phones and friends!

The drive was quite beautiful, we had never been that way (I mean, unless you're a logger, who would be that way?) The scenery was lovely, what we could see of it, because when he said it would be dusty, he was not exaggerating at all.

Hack, hack, cough, choke.

  

However, every now and then we could look over the valley. The highway we should have been on is waaaaay over there, on the far side of the valley.

As the road wound down into Radium (where our junction to turn towards Banff was) we did notice a really nice looking campground by the river, a possibility for future trips. Well, not likely, but good to know.

So, a scant hour after stopping for the accident, we were right back on track. Which brings me to these thoughts:

If we hadn't seen our friends in Timmies and chatted with them, would we have been past the area before the accident even occurred? Would we have driven to Calgary as usual, no visit and no detour?

Or...would we have been one of the first at the accident, and not having seen our friends we would have had to have waited the 4-6 hours, or turned around and ended up with an eight hour trip?

Or...would we have been involved in the accident?

Did we run into our friends there for a divine reason? Or was it luck? Or something greater? I guess we aren't meant to have all the answers.

We continued on through the parks (Kootenay National and Banff National...so gorgeous), had our coffee and lunch meeting at Timmies in Canmore and continued on to Calgary where we met them for a great dinner at Nicks Steakhouse in the city. Finally! Schedules coincided!  (Seafood fettuccine)

Next day was a quick hospital appointment, then a bit of shopping, then a doctor visit, then dinner.

We went to Montana's, generally a decent restaurant in a chain. It was pretty bad. We went once, about two years ago and it was awful, but I believe in second chances. We went a year ago and it was "ok".... Not great, but average. It's right beside the cinema we go to, which is also by our hotel, so it's handy and within walking distance, so we decided to give it another shot.....third time's a charm and all that. Well, I'm here to tell you, third time is not a charm.

The coffee was excellent....served in a huge ceramic mug. That was all that was good and picture-worthy.

Husband had a small steak, with 4 wings and waffle fries. She asked if he would like mushrooms with the steak and he said "sure", and also a small clamato on the side for the draught beer. So. They forgot the wings, the waffle fries were all stuck together, the mushrooms were an additional $6.99, I knew there would be a charge, I thought $1.99, maybe even $2.99, but come on...six dollars and ninty nine cents? Plus they were out of draught beer and still charged .99 for the clamato to go along with the tall boy they brought. (My non-Canadian Aussie friends, yes, clamato is clam juice with tomato and spices and we mix it with our beer. It's yummy. Don't squinch your face up, you guys eat Vegemite)

I had a grilled chicken breast, kinda dry, grilled prawns that were not hot, barely warm, the "seasonal veggies" were chunks of zucchini, red peppers, and something yellow, soggy, in a bowl. I may have had rice as a side, I honestly can't recall. We never did get our water, nor the offer of more coffee.

Plus, I forgot how annoying the constant shout-out (with age announced) of birthdays every 5 minutes is, along with horrible singing, but I'll also concede that that isn't the fault of the staff nor the cooks.

There was, however, the cutest baby beside us. Maybe 8-9 months old, chubby as all get out, with a dark black shock of hair and black eyes and incredible dimples. I know he had dimples because every time he peeked our way, he'd go into fits and gales of laughter. Made my day. Laughing babies. Better than any meal.

So,  I try to not be "that person" who doesn't tip, but in this case neither the food, nor the service was any good. It wasn't busy, there were lots of servers working, there was no reason for it. She passed by us quite often and never once stopped to ask how things were, or if we needed anything. And plus, the food was not good. So I did not leave a tip. 

Then we went to the show and I watched Matt Damon being all buff and Matt Damon-y and I had jujubes too, so all was well in my world again.

Next day we had to run to the hospital for husband to give a blood sample. We walked over to the hospital, walked into the lab, I pushed the machine to get a number and before I even had a chance to grab the ticket, a nurse came out and called us. Wow! That's either luck or awesome staff scheduling, in either case it was literally less than a three second wait. Literally. We had originally planned to stop a clinic after the doctors visit yesterday because the hospital lab was closed, however the one lab we walked into had a wait time of 2-3 hours minimum. My heart sunk, thinking we'd be spending all the next day waiting, so the three second wait was pretty thrilling to me,

Did a bit of shopping at the Costco, done and done. Out of the city by noon.

Now. I have to tell you about this place: Chiniki Village. Have my local friends heard of it? I'm sure you've seen it, it's about an hour west of Calgary, I believe on the Nakota land. There was a gas bar/restaurant/native handicraft place there before, but it burned to the ground (arson) a few years ago. However, it's finally been rebuilt and reopened and I've wanted to stop there for a while now. And, am I ever glad we did, it's fabulous!

The gas bar is just a gas bar, the convenience store is large, clean, well stocked, sells lots of native items and handicrafts as well, but still nothing too special. But walk around the side, go up a few stairs, and there is the restaurant. It's huge! It's bright, with massive windows and a huge open beam ceiling, kind of a tee-pee idea I think. The staff were super friendly, and the service was excellent as well. The lunch menu was burgers and sandwiches, soups...the usual, except instead of buns and bread, it was on bannock and fry bread, and lots of elk and bison. I had a bacon, lettuce, tomato, egg and cheddar on bannock, and he had a clubhouse. Gotta say, it was excellent, and only $6.99.

Nice view from their deck.

The seating area was circular, all around the fire place in the centre. The little gift area you can

see in the right, sells elk tendons (packaged for soup), elk antler ground into pills, elk 

antlers still in velvet etc, with lots of writing in Japanese. You know the tour buses stop

here and the Japanese men probably buy as much as they can carry! (Again, my Aussie and 

European friends....elk antlers are an aphrodisiac. That's probably a rumor started by

North American hunters)

And then we hit the highway and came home. 

So it just goes to show how attitude can make or break you. You can: "sigh....have to go all the 

way to Calgary just to see a doctor...hotels, gas, meals. Waste of money" or you can "Whoop! Road trip! Let's  try and find something new and exciting to try!! Yippee!"

 I try to be the "yippee" kind of person.