Calgary airport

It's a clear blue day in Calgary, and I'm sitting with my back to the window so that the brilliant sun is warming my neck and not making my eyes water.  The only part of the airport that I can walk around in is pretty small and generic.  On the West Jet flight from Kelowna we were offered "sweet or salty" and water.  I chose salty, which turned out to be a mini bag of sesame, bran bits, the kind my Lycee colleague Maud's husband used to call cat food.  The food offered here is pretty much the same, by the smell of it, tempting hot salty oil and sweet buttery popcorn.  May gave me 4 of my favourite granola bars from The Bean Scene in Vernon as a farewell gift; I'll eat one of them soon.  As John drove me to the Kelowna airport, I 'treated' him to breakfast at Tim's so I'm not hungry yet.  Driving each other to the airport and treating the driver to something from Tim's is becoming a tradition for Mo, John and me.  I had a dark roast with a shot of espresso and double cream.  Before we board at 2:10pm, I think I'll buy a coffee to have with the granola bar.  I'll be wired by the time I reach PV.  

Maybe being wired wouldn't be so bad.  I certainly wasn't alert enough to remember to put my watch ahead an hour as we landed in Calgary and consequently almost missed the plane for PV.  As I sipped a latte and gazed into space, I was jolted to attention by the sound of someone trying to pronounce the name Van de Vyvere over the intercom.  I was one of 4 people being paged in a last call to board the plane.  I jumped up, left the latte on the floor, picked up my bags and dashed to the gate, just in time to walk the gauntlet of righteous, irritated faces already in their places to my seat near the middle of the plane.  

Once in PV, I followed the advice Carolyn had reminded me of to avoid being overcharged for a taxi to town.  I pulled my small bag out the door, took two left turns, walked on the overpass to the far side of the highway and caught a city cab to Baughan's, where I now sit on the balcony, overlooking the Bay of Banderas.  

It's lovely in Vallarta, as always.  Baughan's place is perfectly situated one block above where Jim and I stayed on our last visit.  We have shared good chats, meals and walks.  I was with Archie and Marilyn for their last day in Mexico; it was fun walking with them around the areas where we lived when we were first here.  I have had my initial visit to the dentist and will have one more.  Dr. Michel is so busy now that my next appointment had to be for a time when I was planning to be in La Penita, so I will have to leave there a day early, but lucky as I sometimes am, Dick and Ellen have offered me their spare room for two nights; Baughans will have other guests at that time.  It was wonderful to see Dick and Ellen again, back at the Plaza Sta. Maria.  They look great; one of their few concessions to age is that they are no longer walking up to an apartment on the fourth floor.  They have a very comfortable place on the first floor.  As they were the ones who introduced Jim and me to some of the people and places we most liked in PV, it felt good to sit back, chat about times shared in the past and enjoy a couple of Ricardo's margaritas and Ellena's snacks.  

A cow on one of the walking streets in PV

Archie and Marilyn on the Malecon.