The follow up to the Western Canada chapter’s inaugural meeting may not have had the strong showing they hoped for, but there was still a lot of laughter and the group enjoyed a lovely Saturday brunch at Smuggler’s Inn Restaurant in Calgary. It was a good opportunity to follow up on goals set from the first meeting, and discussions are in the works for a planned train trip next year. The group narrowed down their options to either a 10-day trip to Tibet or a 14-day trip through the Caucasus. If anyone has any experience or ideas to help the group out, please reach out to Tim … and think about coming along!
As a kick-off to the chapter’s first multimedia presentation, area coordinator, Tim Skeet, brought a DVD of his and Lana‘s dive experience at Sipadan, Sabah (Malaysian Borneo), to share with the group. The video presentation highlighted the underwater diversity that attracts many avid divers to this region and explains why Tim and Lana have been there five times now as regulars with Borneo Divers.
Members have been on several trips in the past three months, and many destinations were discussed, but Leo and Edna‘s fascinating description of their recent trip to Greenland captured the attention of the group. Leo’s perspective was enlightening as he detailed the glaciers, rock formations and colorful villages across the icy island. It was funny to see his enthusiasm quelled by Edna’s matter-of-fact description of, “We saw a rock, rock, rock, rock, another rock… oh yeah… and then there was THAT rock.” She did say that the villages were quite colorful, too; but her sharp wit, that only a travel partner of 53 years can get away with, had the group laughing.
Given the ambitious travel plans of all members in this group, a date was, once again, not firmed up for the next meeting, but Leo and Tim enthusiastically discussed the possibility of a serendipitous jaunt out to Vancouver the next day to try and meet up with the BC (Vancouver area) group. While this did not materialize, Tim and Leo are seriously considering another meeting (open to all) for the BC group in late November or early December.
Tim learned a harsh lesson from their meeting by not having an SD card set up in his camera for the group photos. While these may have failed, fortunately they made an arrangement for four members of the group to visit Leo and Edna’s farm outside Three Hills, Alberta, on Tuesday. It was like a two-part meeting with a fantastic lunch put on by Edna and followed with Leo taking us on a comprehensive tour of their sprawling sections of land. The photos above feature from this Tuesday luncheon.
Without a planned date, and with winter quickly approaching, who in the Texas, Arizona or SoCal chapter cares to extend an invitation to a group of frozen Western Canadians during the months of January or February? While this may sound like a light-hearted joke, they think that may be a great idea! If no meetings are planned, keep on traveling!
