Day 9 (August 15, 2023): The trip home

This is a short entry to close out this blog. We had heard Utah was a beautiful state, but we were not prepared for the scale and diversity of the natural sights. It’s always a good thing when a place turns out far more stunning than you could have imagined. 

We had planned to see four of Utah’s national parks and ended up seeing five, each of which was very different from the others. Our Nissan Kicks rental took us 2068km in a week and we didn’t have so much as a single incident on the twists and turns of the mountain highways. 

The trip home from Las Vegas via Calgary was pretty uneventful, except for a 90-minute delay on our Calgary > Halifax flight. Fortunately, we were able to spend most of our four hours in Calgary at the Westjet Elevation Lounge, whose food was surprisingly good!

We landed just after midnight Halifax time tonight. Great to be able to sleep in our own bed, after seven different hotels on the trip. 

This is the last trip I’ll take during my federal government career, as one month from today I will retire. Maybe traveling will take on a more spur-of-the-moment approach from here on!

Thanks so much for following our blog.  Many days contained two or three times the number of photos we typically post during a trip - the sights were simply that varied and beautiful.  Your patience with the sheer volume was appreciated.  Special thanks to Pam for her great eye and all her wonderful pics!



Even the airport has casinos in the departure areas. Some people just can’t get enough of the slot machines, I guess. 


Lunch and (due to several delays on our Calgary > Halifax flight) supper at Westjet’s Elevation Lounge in the Calgary Airport.  Many lounges implemented table service during Covid. Westjet has kept that approach. 



All four of our flights on this trip have been packed. Business seems good for Westjet!  This is the 737-800 on our final leg. 

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