An extra leg to our summer vacation

Fate decided we'd earned ourselves a couple extra days of vacation. When delays in our first leg of our trip home started making that connection look awfully tight, we hadn't expected we'd be stranded for days. Our first hint that something was off was when the flight attendant, upon landing, listed about a dozen or so cities for which passengers had connecting flights that had all been missed. Oh, and by the way folks, due to Stampede, every hotel in town is fully booked. [read: enjoy sleeping on the airport floor.] Stampede what?

Some time around the moment we unexpectedly found ourselves passing through Canadian customs for an extra evening abroad, our phones informed us that our second leg from Calgary to San Francisco was being replaced by a next-day, three-leg journey: Calgary → Vancouver → Seattle  → SF. A full day of airport adventures beginning with a 4am check-in? Nope.

We sped-walked our way to the nearest counter and sweet talked our way onto the next direct flight to SF, leaving in only 48 hours. Sir, Ma'am, we'd like to let you know that WestJet won't be able to cover any fees after your first overnight since we have offered you an earlier alternative. We happily paid our way through a weekend in Canada to avoid the airport extravaganza alternative. Here we were, furiously attempting to snag one of the last remaining overpriced Airbnbs and googling what exactly this Stampede was all about.

Tim Horton's. When in Canada...

Made it to the Stampede!

This was our first rodeo!

It wouldn't be a proper rodeo without some live country music.

Check out those mad quilting skills!

Show dogs? Yes, please!

The next morning we were attending the world's largest outdoor rodeo. The cowboys and cowgirls dressed true to trope: cut denim jeans, cowboy boots and hats. The rodeo itself was unexpectedly impressive, and each segment was proceeded by a little "Rodeo 101" instructional film in which an SUV-announcer voice tough-guyed his way through very clear explanations about how the next event worked: a surprisingly inclusive approach to sports. We could tell it wasn't Texas when the announcer in his western drawl informed us that we were on native land, but other than that we were ironically living Nicolas's most American experience in the heart of Canada. Cap it off with a country-fair-style art expo, a stunt dog show, and a fabulous vegan dinner at a small, immigrant-owned Indian restaurant a few blocks away, and frankly we couldn't asked for a more surprisingly well-rounded bonus vacation day. And for once on this vacation, I didn't spend hours coding away. ♥️

Flying in over SF: all vacations come to an end, some just unexpectedly later than others.