We had a really good flight from Warsaw to Calgary. We flew Lufthansa to Frankfurt and had a 2 hour connection with Air Canada to Calgary. The Air Canada flight was excellent. The plane was a new Airbus 330 and the distance between the economy seat rows was probably the largest we have ever had. The meals were also good with not too much food being offered.

Picked up the rental car from National Car Rental (we had booked with Eurocar) and headed off to our friends, John and Sonja, who had invited us to stay with them. We had booked a compact car but were upgraded to a Chevrolet Impala which we really did not need nor want. Could understand it if it had BC plates on it and they wanted to return it to Vancouver however this was not the case. As we headed off to our friends place the skies opened with a tropical rain storm - heavy black clouds, fork lightening and large raindrops. Calgary has had a really long and cold winter with lots of snow followed by a really wet spring, but our arrival was about to change that. All the lakes were full and the rivers fast and very high. There was also a lot of ground water around and we were to find out later, lots of mosquitoes.

We of course had a lot of catching up to do with John and Sonja, but found time to fit in a drive with them to Elbow Falls and Bragg Creek the day after we arrived. With the Elbow River being high and fast the falls were at their best. The village of Bragg Creek is an artisan's village with a western feel about it. Although we did not buy anything this time (we purchased art on a previous visit) we had a good browse and lovely lunch. The day before we left Calgary we had a game of golf with John and Sonja at the Cottonwood Golf and Country Club to which they belong. A lovely golf course with wide fairways, fast greens and long grassed roughs which took its toll on the guys. Although Anne does not play golf she came along for the ride, accompanied Sonja in the cart and had plenty of advice for everyone, especially Bruce. All of our days in Calgary were nice and warm but this day was probably the best one. Hope this weather remains for the Calgary Stampede which will commence soon after we leave.

During our stay we also visited some other friends, Brian and Lorraine, who had invited us for lunch. After catching up with events since we had last visited there was lots of reminiscing back to our youthful days. From the visit with them we went over to Evelyn and Dave’s place (Bruce's cousin) for dinner. Evelyn had invited her sister Eileen who now lived at Strathmore just out of Calgary and another cousin Robyn. We did not visit with Bruce's brother Neil as he would be flying out to Penticton the next week to coincide with our visit with Bruce’s mom and his other brother Greig.