Travels with Lar

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

 February 20 – 24, 2012

This was a work trip. The biggest adventure of this trip was getting in and out of Canada. Going in I did get stopped at immigration. In most places in Canada, I have not had much trouble at immigration, but others in the Mentor training group have had trouble getting into Calgary. One person has gone twice and had a very hard time on both trips and on one trip had to pay $150.00 for a work permit after spending 1 ½ hours talking to the agent.. So as I went to immigration I had a little bit of trepidation. Sure enough, my documentation was not what they wanted to see. However, I was just nice to the agent and asked him a lot of questions. In the end he let me in after only 15 minutes because it was a holiday in Alberta (Family Day) and because I was a nice guy. He actually told me that. So that was getting in.

Getting out was US customs and the fact that I was a US citizen with a US passport made it easy, but the line was 45 minutes long. Then the plane spent 45 minutes sitting on the tarmac to be deiced and then waiting our turn in line. But I finally got home at about 11:30 at night.

I will mention that I did little in Calgary. It was cold. It was generally dark when I left the company where I was teaching and I didn't feel real well and was generally tired. So mostly I taught, got some dinner and then encamped in the motel.

There is a temple in Calgary, but it is under construction so I didn't get to go.

One morning, it cleared up enough to see the Canadian Rockies about 30 miles to the West. They are a little bit more rugged than our Colorado Rockies, but not so high ranging up to the high 9000 foot mark.  Calgary is a lot like Denver - high planes - foot of the mountains - low precipitation - population about the same.

Another trip – come and gone. I am glad this one is done and gone.