DAY-04 The Rendezvous From Two to Six

Day-04: Sunday, September 6, 2015

Starting Location: Fairmont Palliser Hotel, Calgary, AB
Interim Location: Calgary International Airport, AB

Ending Location: Fairmont Palliser Hotel, Calgary, AB

Pride Week was celebrated in Calgary with a parade through the center of town today. The parade and celebration is in its 15th year. We awoke this morning to a kaleidoscope of colors on the Calgary Tower and the flying of rainbow flags at the Marriott Hotel across the street. Unfortunately we will be away from the hotel this afternoon and will miss the parade but if pictures of the past are any indication it looks to be a good time for all with many smiling faces.

Sheila and I departed for the airport to turn in our rental car around 11 AM. With today's parade in town, many streets were blocked and Amanda (our GPS) couldn't deal with the closures. After several starts and stops and a little dead reckoning we departed the city heading northeast to the airport. With all of the oil produced in Alberta one would think there would be a gas station on every corner and perhaps generally that's the case but not so en-route to the airport. All I needed was a few gallons to fill the rental car. After several switchbacks, loops and second times around we found a lone station where we filled the tank with a some metric volumetric number and some cash cost in Canadian currency.

By 11:45 the car was returned to National Car Rental and we were in the airport.








After some walking and scouting likely meeting spots we came upon the sign for meeting area "B"; waiting there for us were Diane and Greg. With their arrival, two travelers became four.

After a fast food lunch the four of us meandered back to the meeting area to await the arrival of Pat and Jack. We knew their plane had landed and expected a 30 minute wait for them to clear immigration and customs. The 30 minutes stretched to an hour or so. We later found out that they had been diverted to the "open your luggage" line at customs; seems that Pat had stashed a bag of almonds in her purse, could that be the reason for the diversion? As a note, almonds will return later in today's post. Actually the diversion was a mistake and without a dragged out baggage inspection they were passed through and arrived to transform our travel group of four into a group of six.

Our tour operator assigned drivers Neman and Mo from Ambassador Limo Service for transport from the airport to the hotel. With little delay we were all on our way into Calgary.

During the ride into town we passed a very unusual sculpture entitled Wonderland. It's an image of a young girl's head designed and built by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa. Apparently the sculpture has two doors at it's base to allow Calgarians to actually get into the head of the young girl.

Wonderland
by
Jaume Plensa

We arrived at the hotel around 3:30 PM and after check-in agreed to meet for drinks at 4:00 in the lobby bar. Here are a few images of the hotel and its lobby.

By joining the Fairmont's frequent guest program, The President's Club, we have all scored "free Internet", not bad for having never actually stayed at the Fairmont chain in the past.









Also in the lobby by the elevators was another one of those old devices that the newer generations may not recognize. Just wondering if it is still used.

Promptly at 4:00 we met, not in the bar but in the elevator from where we proceeded to The Rimrock Restaurant Lounge where with drinks in hand we toasted to the success of our trip and the friendship of those present and those not.

Gin Martini

Water

Hendricks G&T

As Pat & Jack had fasted throughout the journey from Kitty Hawk with the exception of a less than memorable breakfast in Minneapolis (Disclaimer: Except for the Bloody Mary) we decided to dine locally. With a quick return to his room Jack was soon back with an iPad and at work locating an eatery for dinner.  He came upon several local establishments but soon we had zeroed in on the Murrieta Bar & Grill, named appropriately after Joaquin Murrieta, the Robin Hood of El Dorado.

The Murrieta was a 2 minute walk from the hotel and by about 5:30 we were seated and ready to order drinks and dinner.

Turned out to be "1/2 Price Wine Sunday" so without further ado, we ordered up a Benziger Sauvignon Blanc, a good buy at $20C per bottle.


Sheila opted for a Kir Royale but what was delivered looked like no KR that any had seen. It was a much darker drink and apparently a much heavier and sweeter drink than expected. Speculation was that the KR had been concocted from a sweet white wine and a blackberry liqueur.

For dinner we had a variety of plates, a spinach/onion pizza for Sheila, a Margarita pizza for Greg, white pasta for Jack and my spaghetti with lamb meatballs. The restaurant offered a steamed mussels dish with a tomato sauce.




Both Pat and Diane were interested in the mussels but only if the tomato base could be switched out to a wine and cream base. After discussion with the chef our waiter advised that the dish would be made to order with cream and wine and sopping bread on the side for Diane. Apparently the mussel recipe was a winner as only empty shells can be seen in the pictured plate.








As we are a "learning" group, Diane took the opportunity to offer a comparison between muscle (as in bicep) and mussel (as in PEI seafood).

There was also the attempt at earrings, another creative idea for using the spent shells.

Someone did mention the long past memories of "Lobster Bill".

The restaurant was well chosen, the meals were good and the wine was cheap, so cheap that we stopped in the bar and had another bottle with Sheila opting for a Fru-Fru Cocktail and Pat an Irish Coffee, a coffee that would in no way keep her awake for more than 5 minutes or so; such an opportunity for a picture I could have taken but didn't. 

I had mentioned earlier that the discussion of almonds would return.  It's just one of those things that pops up but somehow we began discussing the amount of water necessary to grow a single almond. Though I could divulge one of the answers, I won't as it's more appropriate to let everyone decide for themselves. As you might suspect this has to do with California and its statewide drought. The image at right includes approximately two dozen almonds; the challenge is to determine just how much water was consumed to grow the pictured almonds

Before leaving Murrieta's we did want to take note of the design of the wine cellar/closet or whatever else it might be called. 

As a note for Denny, we'd like for you to consider revamping your cellar, we're thinking a second floor would be nice not necessarily for more wine but to have one of these nifty "library ladders" on a rail. How cool would that be? 

As a demo, this is how it would work when Greg sends Diane running for another bottle of Cupcake SV; clearly the upper crust stuff would be located on the top deck and Diane would be chasing it down with a smile.

So with dinner and drinks over we walked back to the hotel and made plans for tomorrow starting with getting up, followed by meeting at some time and possibly heading for the Calgary Tower after breakfast. We'll see how that goes tomorrow, another big day for the trip.