It couldn't have been too long after I got back from Canada in September 2016 that the work schedule for this year was released. Five operating crews keep Limerick Generating Station safely generating power, and so our shift rotation repeats on a five-week cycle. One of those five weeks is a training week, but we don't have training in all of those slots. And it so happened that our schedule aligned with my hopes, in that we wouldn't be spending the week of June 26 in the simulator. That meant getting vacation approved for that week would be a breeze, and that I could easily schedule another trip to visit our wonderful neighbours over two weekends. The second of those weekends was of particular importance, as it was the weekend that Canada celebrated the sesquicentennial of its Confederation. That'll be recounted in the second part. Here, I set down the first four days of the trip, where I visit a province I only scratched the surface of eighteen years ago...
I had trouble sleeping on the night of the 22nd, being so damn excited to get this vacation underway. That trouble didn't deter me from making my flight, nor did it detract from the feeling that I had to be on my "A" game upon touchdown at Pearson. For one, I had only a little more than an hour to make my connection to Calgary, an interval during which I would have to satisfy the Canada Border Services Agency. Speaking of which — for two, I remained most acutely aware of my subjection to secondary screening upon my arrival at Stanfield in September 2016. Multiple sighs of relief were exhaled when the process went much more quickly and smoothly on this trip. I did get a bit of shuteye on the flight across the continent; combined with the anticipation of ten days of possibility laying before me, I didn't need much of an energy boost.
Having taken dinner at a brewery on each of the previous three nights in Alberta, I saw no reason to divert from that course. My search at Walterdale Park identified the nearest such establishment as Situation Brewing, on Eighty-first Avenue. After parking and finding my way to its front door, I noted a particular sign on a nearby office: "Rachel Notley, MLA — Edmonton-Strathcona." A fun offshoot of the trivia fandom is getting up to speed on the politics of places I go. (For example: at this juncture, preparing for my next trip, I likely know more about Jacinda Ardern than the vast majority of Americans.) Thus that name rang particularly in my mind as I sought and obtained beer, food, and company. As I did, I struck up conversation with two lovely ladies — one of whom engaged me more deeply than I ever expected to be on vacation. Among the topics covered: the aforementioned Premier and her future prospects; supply management, Scheer, and Bernier (this being only a month or so after the CPC's leadership election); and the political climate on our side of the border. It was wide ranging and engaging. We agreed on a lot of things, while respectfully disagreeing on some. Perhaps the conversation flowed more easily on my end because of the very fact that I had a "hard out," to use the show business term — I couldn't stick around much past ten o'clock, having a flight to catch. It was a great close to the front end of my trip; another couple of beers inside the Edmonton Airport and a change into the comfy clothes got me ready for the seven actual hours and three time-zone-lost hours of the transfer to Nova Scotia...
