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Trip Start Feb 03, 2008 Previous
Entry Trip End Feb 20, 2008

  Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Wednesday, February 20, 2008

We met Cathy for breakfast - we had free breakfast as part of the hotel stay from Celebrity. I tried the 'wheatgrass shot' - a 'high energy' drink as they called it. - since it was free. Andy said it tasted like lawn clippings and he was right. The rest of the breakfast selections were very good.
We said goodbye to Cathy as her shuttle was leaving at 9am. It was great to travel with Cathy - hopefully we'll be able to do it again and there isn't a snow storm screwing up her travel next time.
We decided to tour the Queen Victoria Building (QVB) shopping center across the street from the hotel. It was built in 1898 and is a grand building. You can have a guided tour every day at 2:30 but we were leaving at noon. It has a central clock that is very elaborate with moving figures and secret doors that open to display different scenes from Britian's past.
We also learned from the literature on the bulding that a terrorist bombing in 1978 at the Hilton (the hotel we're staying in) blew out the front windows of the QVB. I'll have to do a google search on that when I get home.
After some more shopping (Andy likes shopping and history, in that order although he would disagree), we finished up packing and meet our shuttle and said goodbye to Sydney.

The flight from Sydney to San Francisco is 13 ½ hours but the flight wasn't full so Andy and I had 4 seats (the middle row) all to ourselves. We still didn't ge much sleep - the seats are never that comfortable and there's always noise and on the this flight - a crying baby 5 rows ahead, a strange little Jewish man in the row behind us who talked to himself every now and then. And there was a guy next to him who liked to shuffle cards (not play cards just shuffle them) and tap his pencil on the seat tray as he did crossword puzzles.
Once arriving in San Francisco we had a 10 hour wait for our flight to Calgary. I had checked in Sydney and the United Airlines checkin agent said all the earlier Calgary flights were full.
That is why we will never book our flights thru Celebrity unless we can have greater control on the flight selections.
Luckily our 2 hr flight was on schedule and we made it into Calgary at 11:30. We had booked a room at the airport hotel for the night in Calgary as our arrival was after any departures to Regina.
On Wed morning, we arrived at the gate to find out our flight was delayed by 2 hours. Air Canada said the plane in Regina (that turns around in Calgary and returns to Regina) had mechanical troubles so they had to get another plane. So after more time sitting around in an airport, we finally left Calgary at 9:45 and arrived in Regina at noon (1 ¼ flight, 1 hr time change). It was a welcome surprise to have Brenda, Andy's sister, standing at the bottom of the arrivals stairs. She not only gave us a ride home but had bought us some groceries so we wouldn't have to venture out in the -20C weather for food (not for a couple days given the amount of food!). Thanks again, Brenda.
Finally home!
I hope to have a final thoughts entry but right now, I need sleep.

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