Cracked

We can be handed a dozen situations on any given day. Like a carton of eggs, we usually find one weak and broken egg. don't dwell or mourn too long on the fragility of the day of one bad egg that didn't make it. Remember the other eleven are  good eggs. Enjoy your life and embrace the weakness of being vulnerable. His strength will make you strong... And maybe the crack in the egg is because something new is being born? 

Champagne Taste on a Flight Attendant's Budget

I was fresh from the farm… well, not the kind with cows and chickens but the kind where you grow wings and fly like an eagle.  The Flight Attendant Training Facility is spoken of fondly by most American Airlines employees as the “Charm Farm.”  You learn to work your “buns” both on and off.  After 7-1/2 weeks of 10-12 hour days with few days off, I had my shiny new silver wings and I was ready to mount up and fly somewhere…anywhere.  All of my classmates were ready to test out their new wings with flight benefits beginning the day after graduation. 

My husband’s birthday happened to be the weekend after my graduation.  Jonathon has an explorer’s heart that probably began in infancy and I’m a serendipitous girl so we decided to try an impromptu trip.  Jonathon cut his teeth reading or maybe eating ;) National Geographic.  He read an article about the beauty of the Rocky Mountains.   Not the Rockies of Colorado but instead the more elaborate Rockies of our friendly northern neighbor Canada.  They are situated in Banff National Park just 76 miles away from Carlgary Airport in Canada which is a location where my new wings would fly us nonstop no less.

When I saw the flight load on our preferred destination, my wings began to flutter at the direct flight leaving that evening.  The destination had what is known by FA’s as the green light.  The flight’s green color clued me in that we would “very likely” be converted from an out of luck standby sleeping in the terminal to ticketed passengers on a silver bird to Calgary, Canada.   We packed in a jiffy and with passports in hand, headed to the big DFDubs (DFW).  The gate agent actually had our boarding passes printed when we arrived at the gate.  Happy Birthday to Jonathon!  

My husband and I have very different missions when we travel.  I love to eat and my husband's favorite thing to do is sightsee  We  have an agreement so we don’t hurt each other on trips like these.  I get to decide on ALL meals.  I do my research to find the local and famous yummies. We agree upon a timely meal schedule each morning.  He knows better than to let me miss a meal and I don’t mind when he takes detours to look at a lake 20 miles off the beaten path or him taking a last minute dash into the ditch so we can check out the waterfall he saw out of the corner of his eye.  I sometimes allow a sigh to escape when we take a right hand turn from the far left hand lane because he saw a snipe or something but he is well aware that we can never chase snipe at the expense of me missing one of my regularly scheduled feedings :) We don't have big blow ups in the car because he's trying to find out what's past the next mountain 200 miles away and all the while I'm whining "but I'm hungry", "I'm bored", or "I need to go potty" every few miles. We both get to have fun on our trips without killing each other!  Win-Win!  Banff, Canada, was the perfect place for us:  outrageously good food, magnificent sights and lots to explore in nature. 

Since my husband and I have our mutual focus now of beautiful views and delicious food, I included the info below about both tastes and sights if you decide to visit Banff.  We were witness to God's beautiful creation in the mountains and saw the following critters:  Elk, Hoose (I wasn't sure if it was a horse or a moose), white tail deer, mule deer, tree squirrel and a pileated woodpecker.  Thank goodness we did not see a wolf or bear but we did see their tracks when we got lost and, yes, i may or may not have potted my pants when i saw the bear scrapes in the mud and I WAS FUUUUREEEAKING OUT! (I'll save that for another blog. Healing must come. It's too raw)

Here are some pics of the local views and vistas of Banff: 

FREE STUFF
What to do in Banff:

Hike along the Bow River

Walk and see the vistas and views in the park

Visit the hot springs

Sightsee at the Banff National Park, visit Lake Louise, Lake Morain

lastly and most importantly avoid being eaten by the local wolf packs and bears ;)

Fun fact per my husband:  "You know you are supposed to hold your breath when you go through a tunnel...unless you're the driver because you will pass out." me:  "No, I didn't know that."  Thankfully "Tunnel Road" in Banff wasn't actually a tunnel so, thankfully, I did not have to lose consciousness.

EATS
Power Food for Flight Attendants:

OEB Bistro- Calgary

Brunch

OEB is near downtown Calgary but it has an Austin, Texas vibe.  Our waitress was helpful with her recommendations and  super friendly when she answered our numerous questions.  I’m not sure what the acronym OEB stands for but my made up name is Over Every Border because they could have one of these in every country and be a success.  My husband’s guess was Over Easy Benedict since the owner has his own chicken farm and cracks over 2700 eggs per week at the restaurant. (He's usually right but I rarely admit it)   I ordered the “Threesome.” I know, crude but I suddenly became unoffended by the name when i tasted the food.  The breakfast included a pancake, 2 eggs cooked to my liking, delicious breakfast potatoes cooked in duck fat (which I try not to think about too much), fruit, and Chicken Blueberry Bangers (chicken sausage with blueberries-YUM I’ve convinced myself it’s chicken and fruit so probably healthy) and real live maple syrup:  Oh and Canada is famous for their maple syrup.  It’s pure, smooth and I have convinced myself that it is also very healthy.  (Check out how it’s made:  http://www.maplesyrupworld.com/pages/Howto-Make-maple-syrup.html)The Threesome (could easily be shared by two but I ate all of mine and was particularly territorial about the sausage only cutting off a small sliver to share with my husband ;)  
To my regret we didn’t try OEB’s well known french toast:  it comes with lemon curd, berries, and its topped with lightly browned meringue.  Oh My Gawd!

Recommendations:

Threesome $14.50

French Toast $14.50 (haven't tried it so let me know ;)

Bison Cafe -Banff

Dinner

We ordered the Cast Iron Elk Tourtiere. A butter pastry topped ground flavorful elk meat with a red pepper slaw, roasted pear on the side.   It reminded me of an Elk pot pie-YUMMY Goodness.... comfort food. 

I ordered the Chicken and Waffles were also served in the fun iron skillet.  I was pleasantly surprised by the unique flavor.   In Texas, we have chicken and waffles which are highly unhealthy. Texans like the chickens to have some manners and keep their skin on and our waffles come with sugary syrup. I normally feel ill after eating a carton of grease and butter along with enough to hop honey boo-boo up on sugar. The canadian version of this dish was more like chicken tenders with a nice light jacket of batter.  The waffles were unsweet with a deep brown burgundy type sauce sans syrup.  A really nice treat.

Recommendations:

Chicken and Waffles $29

Cast Iron Elk Tourtiere $16

Maple Leaf Restaurant, Banff

Brunch

Jonathon ordered the Farmer's breakfast.  It was traditional but not in taste.  The bread was made in house daily as well as the jam.

The waitress recommended the Brie and Pear Pizza as her fav.  I almost didn’t order this heavenly inspired dish thinking that it would be too sweet.  My fears were unfounded.  The pears had been roasted, the brie was buttery and light, the spinach lined the crust and there were crumbles of lightly coated walnuts.  All of these additions complemented the pizza so beautifully.  The crust wasn’t a traditional pizza crust it was a PIE CRUST! The decadence of the pizza had my taste buds doing somersaults.  I know it's good when make "mmmm" noises when I partake. 

Maple Leaf was such a good pick for lunch we decided to go back for dinner and I was NOT disappointed. We already had an appetizer on the way and I planned on trying out their desserts too.  The waitress didn’t bat an eye when I went for the easy and cheap way out during a dinner service and ordered soup and salad.

Fried pea sized capers laced the Caesar salad and it was topped with house made secret sauce caesar dressing, finely shaved parmesan and maple bacon.  The maple bacon was the meaty non fatty super flavorful kind.   On the side was an adorable single crostini with a light layer of cream cheese mixture.  This little unassuming piece of toasted bread was the "sleeper" part of the dish. I mean how good can a bread and cream cheese be?  but it was GOOOOOOOD.  I stopped myself from asking for a refill on the crostini ;)

My husband loves sea scallops but I’m not a fan.  They usually have a rubbery feel and are flavorless. Not these.  The three scallops were tender and had a brown butter sauce along with tiny perfectly roasted pears and olive sized capers placed between the minimalist scallops.

The french onion soup was good but so is LaMadeline’s so I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it.

MAPLE LEAF was my PERSONAL FAV.  It’s a SHOW STOPPER

Recommendations:

Lunch

$15 Brie and Pear Pizza

Dinner

$15 Grilled Sea Scallop appetizer

$13 Caesar Salad

Mother Earth, Canmore

Breakfast/Lunch

Fresh made pastries, granola, sandwiches.  With the name Mother Earth Coffeehouse, it's no surprise this one of a kind place has an organic and earthy vibe.  Canadians love their tea.  With a variety of flavors they offer, you can pour your hot tea of choice over ice and voila!  You have texan iced tea (and and you have to add 12 packs of sugar for (said in my best texan twang" "sweet tea."  I tried a couple of Mother's muffins which were warm right out of the oven but my favorite was the Lemon Zest Pound Cake.  It wasn’t too lemony and I felt like I was eating something made by my momma…Oh and Mother's was CHEAP which  is important on a flight attendant’s limited income. 

Recommenations: Lemon Zest Pound Cake $2.50

TRIP COSTS
Doing Banff on a Flight Attendant budget:

Two people in Canada for 4 days/3 nights:

$0   FREEEEEEEEEEE Airfare

$84  CAR RENTAL (tax included) Alamo small car rental with AA employee website discount 

$108 HOTEL (1 night) Hilton Garden Inn with AA discount- first night in Calgary 

$20 entry to Banff park 

$70 GAS a tank for sight seeing

$80 **HOSTEL (2 nights) in Canmore

$180 **TOTAL per person **

*remember to add your money for food and $40 for bear spray for peace of mind ;) and you are ready for Canada. 

**Notes on Lodging:  *No AA discounts that we could find for hotels outside of Calgary that I could find. First night in Calgary at Hilton Garden Inn I would give the Hilton a 4 out of 5 with dings for not including breakfast and not giving out a bottle of water when registering.   I don’t like hostels but it looks very nice and we did a drive by:  http://www.thehostelbear.com/index.htm  Lodging seems to be much cheaper during the week.  If you want to keep it cheap a hostel is the way to go :-/ There is also a Holiday Inn thats about $140/night but it was sold out when we went.  We booked on https://bookings.ihotelier.com/Copperstone-Resort-Hotel/bookings.jsp?hotelId=73125 and paid $380 (two nights total with taxes at Copperstone in Dead Man’s Flats (about 7 mi from Canmore and 20 mi from Banff)  It was extremely nice and backed right up to the Bow River.   If you are going with a group I would highly recommend the Copperstone because you can buy your own food and it sleeps 4 comfortably.  The Copperstone is more like a small efficiency apartment: a nice sized kitchen including fridge, washer/dryer, dishwasher, pots/pans, granite counter tops.  2 bedrooms:  1 king, a couch and two bunk beds. Free wifi & garage parking.