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Landing of flight Continental CO 663 HOU-YYC

Calgary is located at the transition zone between the Canadian Rockies foothills and the Canadian Prairies, and is relatively hilly as a result. Calgary's elevation is approximately 1,048 m (3,440 ft) above sea level downtown, and 1,083 m (3,550 ft) at the airport. The city proper covers a land area of 726.5 km2 (280.5 sq mi) (as of 2006)[2] and as such exceeds the land area of the City of Toronto.

There are two major rivers that run through the city. The Bow River is the largest and flows from the west to the south. The Elbow River flows northwards from the south until it converges with the Bow River near downtown. Since the climate of the region is generally dry, dense vegetation occurs naturally only in the river valleys, on some north-facing slopes, and within Fish Creek Provincial Park.

The city is large in physical area, consisting of an inner city surrounded by various communities of decreasing density. Unlike most cities with a sizable metropolitan area, most of Calgary's suburbs are incorporated into the city proper, with the notable exceptions of the city of Airdrie to the north, Cochrane to the northwest, Strathmore to the east, and the Springbank district to the west. Though it is not technically within Calgary's metropolitan area, the town of Okotoks is only a short distance to the south and is considered a suburb as well. The Calgary Economic Region includes slightly more area than the CMA and has a population of 1,146,900.

The city of Calgary proper is immediately surrounded by two municipal districts, Rocky View No. 44 to the north, west and east; and Foothills No. 31 to the south.

After our harrowing experience of fighting 600 people trying to get through Canadian customs at 6:30am on a Sunday in Toronto's Terminal 1, we obviously missed our connecting flight. We rebooked over the phone to avoid a line-up only to get stuck in another one when trying to re-check our bags. Because of the short notice of our "booking" there were no seats together left on our plane. We both had middles. Nice.

Somehow the flight attendants (and after me telling them that we'd missed our connection after arriving from Lima because of customs) decided to give us a nice little bonus. It's almost like they knew we were going to tell everyone the horror stories of travelling through Terminal 1 with Air Canada.

As our whole trip was funded using Aeroplan points it was nice to see them bump us up to Executive Class on the way home to Calgary from Toronto. There were no meals left for us, but the seats had robotic massagers in them and the beer was free. A great way to cap off an amazing trip.