Quick updates

I've been a little busy lately and haven't had the opportunity to post.

The main reason being that Justin visited this past weekend. So I decided to show him around and let him experience what Calgary had to offer.

After picking him up at the airport we were off to Banff on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon. We stopped along the way in a trendy little tourist town called Canmore for some lunch and then continued on to go and check out the incredible views and features that some of our Canadian Rockies have to offer. After checking out the sights in Banff we headed back towards Calgary, but not before driving a little bit into the Kananaskis Country which has some incredible views of it's own.

That night we went out to Joey Tomatoes for a late dinner. Justin was itching for some good beef as it's hard to come by in Japan. So he had a great steak and seemed to enjoy it immensely. I think he also liked the scenery within Joey Tomatoes which is also a well known fact about Joey's in the Calgary area.

Then we headed off to check out some poker action in Calgary. He was also wanting to sit down on a poker game. We sat down from 11pm until 5:15am! We were definitely in the right spot for weekend poker in Calgary.. about 8 tables were going and we played for a long time. Justin actually cleaned me out at one point! It was a max $200 buy in and that's what we each bought. When I was down to my last $88 I was dealt pocket 6's. I made a small raise (we were playing 1/2 No Limit Texas Hold-em) and got some callers. The flop came 6QQ. Hello! I bet $20, everyone folded then Justin raised to $40 and I went all in for the remainder. Cards were flipped. I was ahead, Justin had AQ though, and on the river, of course.. an Ace came! Bah! So I had to rebuy for another $200 and began working my way back up.

Justin managed to take down a MASSIVE pot against a rather unique individual and doubled up when he had a full house against another guys trips. The pot was over $900!!! So at the end of the night I was up about $95 and Justin was up a very nice $630ish!

We left quite happy. The next day Justin and I went out and met up with a friend he knew back from elementary School days and who lives right near a very popular stretch of Calgary, 17th Ave. Lots of chic, trendy places, many bars and clubs and clothing stores etc. So we went bar hopping all the way down, having a round of drinks at each location. At our final stop is where we gave Justin some good 'ol fashioned Calgary hospitality. We had him drinking 4 Irish Car Bombs and a couple of big glassed (25oz) Hoeegardens. At this point he was not so coherent and was speaking in an Irish accent. :)

We got home and he was in rough shape, but survived. I dropped him the next day off at the airport as he continues his journey to Vancouver. I doubt he'll be able to top off the experience he had here though.. Hopefully he remembers some of it!