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Thus far, our short sojourn in Canada has been delightful.  Of course, we have only stayed in one city, and have yet to see most of the country.  After leaving Milk River, I was somewhat craving a visit to the “big city”, and looked forward to visiting Calgary.  However, prior to Calgary, we chose to visit Lethbridge, and to stay at an RV park there, before checking into a hotel in Calgary.

Lethbridge is actually the largest city in Southern Alberta, and is the industrial and financial center of Southern Alberta.  It is also home to the only university in Southern Alberta.  Since I was flying blind, and knew nothing of the city, I went by recommendation online, and we stayed at the Bridgeview RV Resort in Lethbridge.  Once again, my fellow RV’ers did not disappoint!  The RV park was just wonderful, and a nice change of pace from the bare bones park we stayed at in Milk River.  This park was very large, well built, and with all the luxury style accommodations you would like to have in a park.  Bridgeview has over 200 sites, and 150 of those have full hook ups.  The maximum size was 45 feet, so we were okay there as well.  I did make reservations, and although they are not officially required, the park was pretty much full so I would think any stay here would need a reservation, especially on the weekends.  And of course, they allow pets, and in fact, seemed to encourage it.  I know I am biased, but I feel animal lovers are a special kind of people, and I tend to find that they are more trust worthy.  I know, I know, us animal lovers are a crazy bunch.

This resort had a good sized swimming pool, and that was a welcome relief.  My kids love to swim, and thus far, we haven’t had access to a pool.  Lake and stream swimming is fun, but sometimes it is nice to chill out in a good old pool.  And I am slightly embarrassed to admit this, but we never left the park.  I had wanted to go out and explore Lethbridge, but the kids were having so much fun at the park, and I was loving relaxing pool side watching them, while reading one of many trashy novels I brought along.  So, I am sorry to say I never really saw much of Lethbridge, but I can tell you that the Bridgeview RV park is a wonderful place to stay if you ever find yourself in Southern Alberta.

Next up was Calgary, which was definitely a welcomed retreat.  Up until now, I have been very lazy with laundry, meaning, I hadn’t really done much at all.  Also, I had been suffering from some back pain, and really needed a long, hot bubble bath.  So, I used this opportunity to check into a hotel, and I dropped the rig off for some routine maintenance.  

We stayed at the Westin Calgary, which was really, really nice.  I belong to the Starwood Preferred Guest program, and I had accumulated 2 free nights and decided to use them now.  I have always been a fan of Westin hotels, as I love their “Heavenly Beds”.  And before you ask, yes, they are heavenly.  In fact, they are without a doubt some of the most comfortable beds I have ever slept on.  I consider myself a sleep connoisseur, and I take my sleep time very seriously.  The Westin Heavenly beds are so, well, heavenly, that I have considered buying a set of their mattresses.  Of course, then I see the price tag of $3500, and remember that I am the cheapest girl on the planet, and realize that I had better really enjoy these two nights on my heavenly bed!  Also, a side note about Westin Hotels.  They allow dogs, and don’t charge any additional fees for bringing your furry friend!  You do have to sign a waiver, and obviously agree to not let your pooch pee all over your hotel room, but I think that is fair enough.

Up until now, we had been driving for just over two weeks.  Because this was the first time I had ever driven this long, and because this was a friend’s RV, I decided to take it in for a look, and some regular maintenance.  As I explained earlier in the series, a good friend loaned me the RV, and I wanted to keep it in pristine and perfect condition.  Believe it or not (I found it hard to believe) but we had already traveled about 1800 miles.  That’s considerable wear for this rig, and I wanted to do whatever possible to keep it in top condition.  I hadn’t really had many complaints about the rig thus far.  I was disappointed with the gas mileage, as I felt I was only getting like 6 miles to the gallon.  That, obviously, made me feel like throwing up.  So, I  knew I wanted the air pressure checked in the tires, and also wanted to ask them for ideas about improving gas mileage.  Also, the last time I took out the awning, I had a rough time pulling it back in.  Well, I shouldn’t say that, as it went back in effortlessly, it just seemed to be sticky, if that makes sense.  Like, it needed lubrication, or a shot of WD40.  Since it wasn’t my bus, I thought it best to have a pro take a look at it.  Lastly, we felt like the air conditioning wasn’t working as well as it should.  It was cooling down a tad, but it didn’t have that “cold” feeling we would normally get.  So, along with these issues, I asked the mechanic to do a full run through of everything, and make sure everything was in good condition.  I also told him where we were headed (Yellowknife, in the Northwest Territories), and asked if we needed to take any special precautions.

I had located the RV maintenance company of the internet (where else?), and I found them to be very honest, and very thorough.  Normally, being a single woman with kids, I expect to be screwed over as soon as I walk into any car or RV related shop.  Not here though.  All the employees were incredibly kind, helpful, and they even threw in a few extra’s!   They even drove us back to the hotel, and picked us up two days later when it was time to pick up the RV, and head out again.

In Calgary we visited a few attractions, but the time was pretty low-key.  We did visit the Eau Claire Market, Prince’s Island Park, and the Calgary Zoo.  The Zoo was a lot of fun, and had many great exhibits. However, living in San Diego, I think I am pretty spoiled when it comes to Zoo’s.  We are regular visitor’s to the San Diego Zoo, and personally, I feel our Zoo is the most beautiful in the world, and also has the greatest variety of animals.  However, it is still a great deal of fun to travel and see new places, and experience new things.  Plus, the children don’t really care…a zoo is a zoo, and they just loved it.

All in all, I really loved Calgary.  We stayed in downtown, so it didn’t feel very Canadian, but still, it had it’s own special vibe to it.  It is definitely different than a large American city, although I can’t exactly explain why.  The people are incredible, very helpful, and they are always ready and willing to reach out and help if they can.  They were incredibly welcoming, and very warm.  I would definitely like to go back and spend more time there, as I know I barely touched the surface of this beautiful northern city.

Please come back on Wednesday, October 15th for our seventeenth installment, “Banff“.  See you there!