Day 4: Helena to Calgary

Quote of the day:  "Pour some maple syrup on it"

*We did not make too many stops today, so there very few pictures of us

On the road in Montana

Crossing the border

Downtown Calgary

         We woke up early in Helena so that we could hit the road to Canada! We sort of had a late start, leaving an hour later than planned, but the highway was extremely empty (shocker) and easy to drive. We spent the whole trip talking our hearts out. It was a really good bonding day for us girls, we are definitely getting a lot closer. We only made a few stops, the first right before the border to mail our postcards. It was one of the smallest towns of my life which is actually somewhat surprising if you consider its proximity to the border. Estrella and I took a brisk walk around looking for a post office. Overall, the town was quaint and charming.

                Crossing the border into Canada was super easy. It only took about 20 min and the officer did not even check our car to see if we possessed any illegal substances. He had a delightful Canadian accent “Oh Kamloops eh? They have lots’o great weather up o’ver there!” We filled up again shortly after crossing the border. Haha we had a little problem with the machine and Estrella had to run inside and say “I’m not from here! How am I supposed to do this?!” oh we give such a great image for American tourists.

                Calgary was nice. We searched for parking for like 40 min. It was quite surprising that the “early bird cheap special” was $20. At night, they cost so much more. We settled on some sketchy area which made us nervous because of our stuff in the trunk, but what else could we do? In the end, we ended up eating in a high class market—sort of like whole foods. We then spent the night exploring 17^th street and its nightlife, grabbed some desserts from McDonalds, drove past the university, and more. There was a nice park near 17^th where we had a nice walk (sidenote: EVERYONE in Canada exercises, its ridiculous, no matter where you look, you find at least 10 joggers) and we were bitten to death by mosquitoes. We then returned to the hot hotel exhausted. Haley passed out pretty quickly while the rest of us looked in books and guides to plan our day about town tomorrow. We’re keeping our eyes out for the Rock Machine (thanks for the warning Mrs. Hayes lol!) and are excited for a free day in Calgary!

Best:

•   Finally in Canada
•  The Immigration officer
•   Good conversation

Worst:

• Rejected from everywhere, even McDonalds
• Parking (sooo expensive and sketchy!)
• Water dripping from the AC