Last week was a doozy, as Will and I were back in the homeland for some family stuff and a wedding. Will had gone earlier (Friday, August 25) to help move his Grammy into a nursing home and pack up her apartment. I was due to fly in on Tuesday and the following was the proposed agenda for the week:
- Tuesday: Go to Vulcan to hang out with my parents
- Wednesday: Go fishing with my parents
- Thursday: Go golfing with my parents
- Friday: Head back to Calgary to meet up with Will's folks for a memorial for his adopted grandma, Tove (who had passed away a month ago)
- Saturday: Eric Monteith and Marcia Keeler's wedding
- Sunday: Go golfing with Will's folks
- Monday: Fly home
TUESDAY (AUGUST 29)
I had an afternoon flight that got me into Calgary at 4 pm on Tuesday. From the airport, Will and my parents picked me up, we picked up groceries, and headed right to my hometown of Vulcan, AB. Yes, it's true, my hometown was named after the God of Fire, or Spock's home planet.
My parents love to spoil us when we come home, because we don't do it nearly as often as we should, so we were treated with massive lobsters for dinner...hooray!
My dad with the gigantic treats...
The lobsters ranged between 2.5-3 pounds each. It was a gluttoneous display of garlic butter, roasted potatoes, and sweet, wonderful Taber corn.
It was a wonderful dinner and fantastic to catch up with my parents. As we were relaxing our full tummies after dinner, we got a call around 10 pm from Will's parents, with the unfortunate news that his Grammy had passed away suddenly that evening.
So, Will and I got back in my mom's Honda Pilot and headed back to Calgary to be with his parents. It was a rather big shock to Will and his parents, as they had just spent the last 4-5 days settling her into the nursing home. Grammy was 93 years old and everyone was grateful that she passed away peacefully.
WEDNESDAY (AUGUST 30)
On Wednesday morning, Will and I headed over to the nursing home to pack up Grammy's things and make sure that was all taken care of. From there, I headed back to Vulcan to spend some more quality time with my parents while Will stayed in Calgary to help out.
Once I got back to Vulcan, it was pretty uneventful. There wasn't enough time in the day to do any fishing, so I taught my parents some low-tech things like: how to transfer pictures off a DVD onto a computer, how to burn a CD of pictures, how to create your own letterhead...etc. etc.
Even better was that my mom made some wonderful soup. There's something about Mom's soups and how good and yummy they are. I have no idea how to recreate them, so it's always nice to go home for soup.
THURSDAY (AUGUST 31)
Thursday morning rolled around and Will came back down from Calgary to hang out with me and my parents. Orginally, my mom had scheduled a masseuse to come to the house to give us massages, but in keeping with the comedy of errors that was occuring on our "vacation", the masseuse had miscommunicated with my mom and couldn't come...foiled!
Instead, Will and I headed out to the golf course with my mom and we golfed the first nine holes with my mom, and then Will and I did another round after. They are developing the second nine-hole course at Vulcan and next year, the 18-hole course will be unveiled. I think I shot a 106. Putting is definitely not my forte, but I was hitting the Big Bertha driver pretty well.
On Thursday evening, Will and I were treated once more to a feast for the meatiest of meat-lovers, with AAA Alberta Beef steaks, ribs, more potatoes, and snap peas. Delish!
FRIDAY (SEPTEMBER 1)
On Friday morning, Will and I got up pretty early in order to head back to Calgary and meet up with his parents for the memorial for Tove. (As you can imagine, it was pretty tough for the family to have another loved one pass on while planning the memorial for Tove).
The plan was to go up to beautiful Kananaskis country to scatter Tove's ashes. We were joined with of her friends from the Danish Lutheran Church, including a minister who would conduct the memorial service. Kananaskis is about 40 minutes NW from Calgary, on the way to Banff, and it was an absolutely beautiful day. We headed to the William Watson Lodge, where Tove had spent some time at and really loved the area.
After the memorial, we headed over to the Kananaskis Golf and Country Club for lunch. I hadn't been in this neck of the woods for quite some time, as my family used to golf here with the Calgary Chinese Golf Association when I was in high school...good times!
Lunch was fantastic and we each had a glass of white wine in honor of Tove, who loved her white wine. For lunch, Will and I split two fantastic sandwiches:
- Classic Reuben, which was a lovely combination of thinly-sliced pastrami, swiss cheese, sauerkraut and horseradish mustard
- Alberta Bison Dip, which included carmelized onions and mushrooms, surprisingly tender and lean
We got back to Calgary by mid-afternoon and relaxed for a while (okay, I did a few Sudoku puzzles...)
For dinner, we met up with Donna, Kalah, Dy, and Paul for dinner at Brava Bistro. As soon as we walked in the door, I was greeted by Dewey, and old friend from my days in the restaurant industry, and who was the managing partner at Brava, what a nice surprise!
Will ordered an appetizer for the table to share: P.E.I. MUSSELS, with a white wine leek cream sauce, pomme frites & aioli. These mussels were amazing, as I had not tried mussels with a cream sauce before. The mussels were quite large and tasty.
For dinner, I ordered the BEEF SHORT RIB (red wine braised boneless short rib served with an aged canadian cheddar "mac 'n' cheese", roasted broccoflower & a cabernet rib jus). What can I say, I'm a sucker for braised beef and aged cheddar mac n' cheese. It was exactly what I expected, delicious and filling. I had to pass on 1/3 of it to Will, which he didn't mind.
Will ordered the SPICY SESAME BEEF (chilli & sesame oil braised beef with bean sprouts, pea shoots, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, rice noodles & soy/ginger vinaigrette), which he thoroughly enjoyed. Donna and Paul had the AHI TUNA (seared rare, served with sesame spinach, shitake mushrooms, shoestring potatoes & red wine pepercorn sauce), while Dy had the GOAT CHEESE, PESTO & CHICKEN PIZZA (grilled chicken, goat cheese, cherry tomatoes & basil pesto).
Dinner was really nice and it was great to catch up with Kalah (who had just gotten back from a trip to the Dean Family compound north of Zhijuatenjo), Donna and Dy (who regaled us with stories about teaching and Costa Rica), and Paul (who is just entertaining all around).
SATURDAY (SEPTEMBER 2)
Finally! The day of the wedding! We were excited for some revelry after the craziness of the week so far.
We headed over to the Westside Recreation Center for a workout (and to get rid of the guilt of gluttonous eating all week). This place was huge, with a 430m track, tons of cardio and weight equipment, massive pool with waterslide, hockey rink, etc. etc. We got in a good workout and headed back to the house at 1 pm.
We had to book it to South Calgary to check into our hotel early, get ready and catch the shuttle bus to the wedding site by 2:30 pm. The wedding was taking place on a ranch south of Calgary and was slated to begin at 3:30 pm (early!). Our good friends (via frisbee), Eric Monteith and Marcia Keeler were getting hitched, and they had planned a sweet agenda for their event.
- Ceremony: 3:30 - 4 pm
- Pictures/Drinks/Games: 4 - 6 pm
- Dinner: 6 pm
- Dancing: Until 2 am
Did I mention that it was open bar? And I was overwhelmed to see the list of names of folks who I had not seen in a long while (6-8 years) and were able to catch up with. There were about 2 hours between the ceremony and dinner where it was non-stop catching up and bocce. And gin and tonics.
The dinner menu included salad, Alberta steak and corn (flown in from a family farm in Ontario!). As promised, floss was provided...
Table 8!!! (Amanda Hobbs, Jamie Kelly, Will, Steph Chow, Bea, Jeff Sward, Megan O'Brien and Morgan Hibbert)
Needless to say, there was plenty of shots, drinks, dancing and good times that happened until 2 am (that's an 11 hour wedding!). Thanks so much to the Monteiths and Keelers for a fantastic time!
SUNDAY (SEPTEMBER 3)
It's safe to say that I was "tired" on Sunday. After we checked out and got a much-needed chai tea latte, Will and I headed back to his folks' place to meet up for a round of golf at Pinebrook. Our tee-off time was 2:44 pm and we spent the next 4.5 hours in the schweaty heat (30 degrees celsius!). I was hitting really well, but could not putt to save my life. I think I 3-putted almost every hole. Seriously, I had the mental strength and focus of a 8-year old with ADD. I think I shot a 108. Sheesh.
When we got home, Mike and Susan Lavery fed us well...again. We had a yummy salad, roasted vegetables, and pork loin, with a lovely 1999 Pine Ridge Merlot. Will and I were toast on Sunday night and bailed on meeting friends for drinks. No hair of the dog for this little camper.
MONDAY (SEPTEMBER 4)
Alas, Monday arrived and we would be leaving on the 7:20 pm plane back to SFO. My parents came into town and joined Mike, Susan, Will and I for lunch at Pinebrook.
After lunch, there were a few errands and then my mom took us to the airport. It was an interesting and busy week, as usual, despite our attempts to work in relaxing down time for this trip. We will miss Grammy dearly, but are relieved that she's in a better place now.
Now I really can't wait for a real vacation in November...!
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