Our Lifestyle Adventures: Revisiting Calgary

Go Calgary Flames!

My Kai

We said we would never go TO the cold! But here we are again, going TO Calgary because we missed Kai, the baby in the family. He was born just fifteen months ago and, since he was born, we had the pleasure of his company for only four days in July during April’s wedding in Scotland. But the heavens looked on us with favor. We were blessed with the low 60s all two weeks of our stay. I understand we will miss the Halloween first snow of winter for we will be back in sunny Phoenix on October 29!

MinnBar

Our three-hour layover on the way to Calgary was through the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. It was such a revelation! We exited the plane at Concourse G which was filled with food outlets, instead of waiting areas, and each table of each food outlet, like the MinnBar, was equipped with a tablet for the menu, ordering, and games! They were also equipped with charging stations.

at the Taekwondo tournament in Edmonton

Barely two days after we arrived, the whole family, Claudine and Arnold, the twins Ashton and Andre, Enzo, baby Kai, Claudine’s mother-in-law Tess, and Bill and I drove in two cars to Edmonton, capital of Alberta, for the provincial Taekwondo tournament. The boys came home with two golds, two silvers, and two bronzes and Claudine got to referee for the first time. She is a black-belter. And I found my field of yellow right outside the Sports Center. Fall is definitely giving way to winter, leading me to write:

The yellow leaves have all fallen,

I caught the lovely mantle of gold.

But we’ll be back where the sun shines,

While here it'll soon be barren and cold.

Filipino Feast at Max's in Edmonton

After the tournament, we got our fill of Filipino good eats because Edmonton boasts of two popular Filipino restaurants: a Max’s Fried Chicken (well-known international Filipino chain) branch and Palabok House, famous for palabok, a well-loved Filipino noodle much like Thai cuisine’s Pad Thai. After over eating, we over shopped, not at Edmonton Mall which is one of the largest malls in the world, but at the Outlet Mall which had cheaper goods, hoping to find cheaper goods since in Canada.And I came home with my stash,

Filipino Feast at Palabok House in Edmonton

We were also able to see the model of the new house Claudine and Arnold have bought. It will be ready by July next year where and when the whole clan, except for April and Clint, plan to have a family reunion. The new house is larger than their current one with almost 3,000 square feet, four bedrooms at the top floor, a full basement, and a main floor.  It seems that they upgrade every four years and take advantage of the burgeoning real estate market in oil-rich Alberta.

chicken inasal marinating 

The rest of our stay was pure family bonding time. I got to take care of Kai who, according to a lot of people, looks like me and, at night, Enzo would read to me for fifteen to thirty minutes. I also got to cook for Claudine and Arnold: Hainanese chicken, Guiness beef stew, Chicken Inasal, and steamed crabs and prawns with garlic pasta. It was a half a month of being Grandma and Ma again. Brunch at Smuggler's Inn and dinner at TiPot was an experience. Bill and Arnold even got to watch an NHL match, Calgary Flames vs. Tampa Bay Lightning, complete with their Flames' uniforms!!!