Late in the planning of this trip the decision was made to spend a night in Calgary rather than another in Airdrie. A good thing, too. The wedding that kept on giving had finally stopped giving, and even with that considerable three day diversion, we had seen and done everything there was to be seen or done in Airdrie three days earlier.

Our Montrealler friend Daisy, who also had persevered the pleasures of recent events, would be joining our travels for the next week or so. The three of us squeezed our considerable baggage into the car of a mutual friend who kindly drove us the 40 minutes to our AirBnB.com accommodation in Calgary.

My first AirBnb experience (earlier in the week in Edmonton) was a good one, preferable in many respects to a hotel, particularly in offering a glimpse of what it might be like to live in the neighbourhood. Other than a treadmill in the living room and an overly soft pillow-top mattress cover, everything was as expected. Which is to say it was less disappointing than I usually find hotels.

Having come directly from the wedding recovery breakfast, we arrived at the Calgary AirBnB apartment well before the usual check-in time. The owners, a young Chinese couple, permitted us to drop off our bags before we headed out. They were hard at work cleaning the place, and with the house rules requiring us to remove our shoes before entering, we had a favourable impression that cleanliness was important to them. Continue reading 10. Deconstructing Calgary →