On My Love for Calgary and Being an Ikea Whore

So we're back! The trip was great, we had loads of fun, and I took tons of pictures - but most of them will have to wait - I have to go and delete all the crap ones, and change the sizes of the others so that I can upload them...perhaps tomorrow I'll post those. But here's a little post for you anyways:

As we drove across Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and into Alberta, I began to notice the flat prairie turn gradually into rolling wheat fields, then into hayed green ones dotted with giant wind turbines, and finally into huge sprawling cattle farms, before we finally breezed down the Trans-Canada highway into my beloved Calgary, and the mountains in the background nearly made me cry.

Oh Calgary. How I have missed you.

The city has grown immensely since we left it exactly 7 years ago, yet it still feels like home. We drove into our old 'hood, found our very first basement apartment, then drove on to our next place, a two bedroom apartment in the North East. It's funny how quickly things come back to you...we would be driving and one of us would yell something like "Hey, remember that Tim Horton's!?!? That was the one we stopped at that time when we went camping in Montana, and then you remembered you forgot the frying pan and the sleeping bags, so we had to drive all the way back here, but you decided you wanted hot chocolate before we went home?"

I went to Ikea three times. Yes three. Did you read the title of this post where I said I was an Ikea whore? Yeah, it's true. I freely admit it. And I spent around 800 bucks in that store. The funny thing is that I went there for a dresser for the baby's room...and I left with a dresser, a bookcase, a new entertainment unit, a rug, kitchen gadgets, new accessories for E's room, and a whole shitload of stuff I could have lived without. But I figure hey, I only go there once every decade or so now, so why not get what I want? Plus, we paid cash for everything, so no credit card bills will be coming - yay!

Miss E handled the hours in the van much better than I thought she would. For the total 28 hours (there and back) she was in her car seat, the total crying time was about 37 minutes. She spent much of the time concentrating on her finger dexterity, and practicing her new ear drum popping octave of shriek. Dynamite.

We managed to squeeze in everything we wanted to do while we were there except visit The Wicked Wedge (the city's best pizza - oh god!), and head down to 17th ave to visit some of the funky little shops I love - but those can wait till next time, which will definitely be sooner than 7 years from now!