Travelling from Toronto to Calgary and back during flight cancellations
In the middle of June 2022, we took a weekend trip from Toronto to Calgary leaving on Friday evening to return on Sunday evening. Arriving at the airport and going through security and flying out of Toronto was fairly straightforward.
Cameras used on this trip:
Fujifilm X-Pro2 w/ 14mm f/2.8
Canon M6 Mark II w/Canon EF 50mm 1.8 STM
IPhone X
IPhone X (Sue Sue)
IPhone 13 Pro (IG - claire.goes.here)
Airport was not too crowded
Looking out at the tarmac while waiting on boarding
Time for coffee and snacks
Sun setting in the backdrop of the Downtown Calgary as we are about to land..
Landing during golden hour after rain has just fallen
Our rental car… a Mazda MX-30…
Image courtesy of IG - claire.goes.here
The City of Calgary from our AirBNB
Its really beautiful at night
The following morning before heading out
Passed by an open house in one of the nicer areas with amazing views
Image courtesy of IG - claire.goes.here
Downtown Calgary can be seen off in the distance…
Course set to Lake Louise….
The rain begins again
Image courtesy of IG - claire.goes.here
…and clears as we head to Lake Louise
Image courtesy of Sue Sue
Image courtesy of IG - claire.goes.here
The MX-30 has some kind of Alcantara looking material on the dash…
Image courtesy of Sue Sue
Stopping at the side of the road for a few snapshots
Another stop…
Image courtesy of Sue Sue
Image courtesy of Sue Sue
Arriving at the Lake Louise parking lot. There is a fee to enter the park and a fee to park.
The water really does look like the images in person
This magnificent place appears to be a popular place for weddings
After leaving, we tried to go to Moraine Lake but the parking lot was full and they essentially blocked the road heading in that direction as a result.
Course set to the Town of Banff…
We may have gotten a bit lost on the way back and ended up on Bow Valley Parkway instead of the Trans-Canada Highway… for some reason there was not much mobile phone service so we had to use the in-car GPS. This road has a lower speed limit of about 60km/hr and no visible barriers between the road and the forest.
Image courtesy of Sue Sue
Arriving at another stop while heading towards the town of Banff
Image courtesy of IG - claire.goes.here
Cute squirrels were posing for photos at this stop while popping in and out of that little hole
Marvelous views of ice capped mountains in the distance
While in the town of Banff
After a meal, it was time to head back to Calgary…
Image courtesy of IG - claire.goes.here
The looked stunning while driving back during golden hour…
Image courtesy of Sue Sue
Transitions to rain could be seen in the distance.. it was an amazing sight to behold…
Image courtesy of IG - claire.goes.here
Each new cloud formation challenging itself to be more beautiful than the ones before…
Image courtesy of IG - claire.goes.here
Image courtesy of Sue Sue
Hints of a rainbow could be seen off in the distance….
Image courtesy of Sue Sue
And then the rain began…. creating one of the most beautiful stints of golden hour that I have ever seen…
Image courtesy of Sue Sue
By this time, Air Canada notified us that our flight the next day had been cancelled. The replacement option was a string of connections on Monday that saw us going through Edmonton, Vancouver and Ottawa. We eventually got through and were placed on a earlier flight to Ottawa the next day which would then connect to another flight to Toronto.
This image is of the extremely long call to Air Canada. We decided to go straight to the airport to talk to someone and no one came on the line until we already arrived at the airport.
Image courtesy of IG - claire.goes.here
A night shot of the city after reaching back to our AirBNB
Right before the sunrise on Sunday morning….
Catching a few more shots of the city before heading out to the airport
Calgary International Airport
Leaving Calgary….
Prepping to take off…
Image courtesy of IG - claire.goes.here
Ottawa, here we come….
Once we landed and I turned my phone on, this text message came in… they cancelled the flight from Ottawa to Toronto!
Image courtesy of IG - claire.goes.here
Ottawa International Airport… with the flight cancelled, we decided to just drive back to Toronto and not deal with anymore potential cancellations…
IG - claire.goes.here checked a bag, it appears it was lost, probably on its way to Toronto via another route…
Waiting for a rental car…
We received a severely underpowered Mitsubishi Mirage
Image courtesy of IG - claire.goes.here
It was incredibly simple and unrefined. Almost like a throwback to the 90s. It did, however, have Apple Carplay, which we were grateful for…
While 200km/hr is shown, I found myself redlining several gears, possibly into 3rd gear and just reaching 60km/hr
Ottawa to Toronto….
Toronto here we come…
There were the last few scenic shots before the sun set and it turned to night….
Image courtesy of IG - claire.goes.here
We actually made it back to Toronto Pearson to pick up our car a little after 1am Monday morning…
Image courtesy of IG - claire.goes.here