Day 1 - LA to Calgary

We went to the airport. I looked at the itinerary Darin's mom sent us and checked when everyone was supposed to be arriving in Calgary.

            DIANE
        Hey look--Mitch arrives in
        Calgary the same time we do.
          (beat)
        Because he's on the same
        plane.
          (looks around)
        Darin, your brother's over
        there.

Indeed, Mitch was sitting in the waiting area, reading a book (which is why he didn't notice our arrival). Mitch and I went to reassign our seats so we could all sit together. Mitch had an exit row seat.

            DIANE
        We'd like to all sit
        together.
        
            MITCH
        Are there any more
        seats in this exit row?
        
            ATTENDANT
          (checking computer)
        Hm. No, I'm afraid there
        are only two seats free
        in this row.

            MITCH
        Yes. I have the third seat.
        

Well, it was pretty funny for us.

Darin and Mitch went to hunt the wild bun (there's a Cinnabon outlet in LAX). When they came back, Mitch pried the book he'd been reading out of my hands -- Children of the Mind, the end of the Ender saga -- so I took out one of the books I'd put in my bag and started reading.

What Makes Sammy Run? by Budd Schulberg is a great book. It's amazing how right on it still is, nearly 50 years after it was first written -- everything is still the same except the dollar amounts.

It's also funny to remember that Tom Cruise wants to star in a movie based on this book, provided Sammy Glick is made more sympathetic. Now that's irony.

When we got on the plane, Darin said

            DARIN
        The moratorium on jokes
        about Canada starts now.

Ha. Not bloody likely, said I, planning to take notes to write down typical Canadian mannerisms.

Calgary International is a nice airport (can't get away from the adjective nice, I'm afraid) with giant posters featuring Canada's national and provincial parks. Writing-on-stone Provincial Park's poster showed a couple of hikers studying (what else?) writing on stone. I thought that was quite well named.

We met Darin's family at Calgary International and then headed into the city to stay at the Westin for a night. I took us this back way from the airport to the downtown, but we still arrived ahead of Darin's folks' car.

I told Lauren about the moratorium on Canada jokes. "No way," she said. "I don't have to stop."

Scott and Lauren turned in, while Darin's parents, Darin, Mitch, and I headed down to the only part of the hotel that was still open to get some food. Unfortunately, it was also the bar, which allowed smoking. Smoking in great quantities. We sat near the door so as to breathe.

One of the big discussions was over what time to get up in the morning. Basically, it was the Central time zone versus the Pacific time zone in the Mountain time zone. Carole kept saying she wanted to get going early. My response: is there somewhere we have to be? Finally I suggested that we be ready to go at 10 o'clock.

"What does ready to go mean?" Carole (CST) asked.

"10 o'clock is a good time," said Mitch (PST).