I went out West, I saw some great Women, and I drank a bit of Wine.

Just back from my Western tour for Shut Up & Eat, where the realities of being back home hit me hard this morning when I realized I forgot to put “Distribute toilet paper on an equal and regular basis to all bathrooms” on my husband’s “to do” list while I travelled.  Oh who am I kidding, I didn’t leave a list.

What I do have a list of the amazing people, places, and things I did on my trip that I’d like to share. Western hospitality lived up to its name, so I wanted to shout out to the following who made my journey such a fun one.

Victoria: My first stop was perhaps the most beautiful, with an amazing short and sweet stay at the Empress Hotel.  Their service and the history of the building were both incredible.  I visited Amy Bronee at CFAX and the Real Parenting Show, before heading over to Tall Tales Books where I was hosted by Drew, Kate, and their lovely daughter, and I had the chance to meet some fun Victoria Moms & Dads, and even a Tweep from Calgary who stopped in. Janice Mansfield of www.realfoodmadeeasy.ca provided delicious brunch nibblies.  Tall Tales has an amazing selection of books for children, as well as loads of story time and other special event activities. I left some signed copies behind there, so if you live in the area…And special thanks to Yukari Peerless, a lovely and dynamic social media connector who joined me and supported me on my travels.

I flew out to Vancouver after a great day in Victoria, to attend a reception prior to the “Symposium of the Book: What’s So Funny?” being held at Simon Fraser University in downtown Vancouver.  I was on a panel with respected humorists such as Will Ferguson (Happiness, How to Be a Canadian), Mark Lieren-Young (Never Shoot a Stampede Queen), Robyn Harding (Mom Will This Chicken Give Me Man-Boobs?), moderated by the very funny Mark Critch of CBC’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes.  The symposium the next day was as educational as it was fun – I did find myself having to explain Twitter to most of the panel however.

Monday morning I visited with Breakfast Television in Vancouver (see the clip here), before jumping on a plan to head to Calgary; the city of 9 degrees in July (why didn’t I pack more warm clothes?).  I headed over to Pages Bookstore, where they treated us with wine and cheese (again, signed books left there), before going across the street to the Yardhouse Pub where I was met by an enthusiastic group of Mompreneurs.  Special thanks to Christy Schultz and Carla Young for hosting and pulling together some incredible women for me to speak with, and learn from.

Tuesday morning I was up early to get to Breakfast Television in Calgary (clip here).  Please note that the pink shirt I’m wearing had sat in my suitcase for five days, through three cities, and had no wrinkles, without ironing.  A shout out to my friends at Mark’s WorkWearHouse for providing that, plus other clothes to me, for the tour. After admiring their giant piece of prop toast, I was back at the airport for a flight to Edmonton.

Tuesday night was “Dip and Sip” night; an event co-ordinated by the wild and crazy (and professional) Tamara Plant of MomMagazine, a longtime Funny Mummy partner of mine.  I met a fantastic group of Edmonton women at The Melting Pot, where we dipped into cheese, chocolate and chardonnay.  Special thanks to Greenwoods Bookshoppe for being our on-site bookseller (again, signed copies…well you know)

Wednesday morning was Breakfast Television Edmonton, (clip here)  where the focus was on surviving road trips with your kids. My friends at LeapFrog gave away their new Explorer gaming system to one lucky viewer, as well as three signed copies of Shut Up and Eat.  I had an hour or so to wander around Edmonton, and strolled the beautiful Hotel MacDonald, checked out the building I worked at (about cough 20 years cough ago), and then headed over to CTV Noon News (clip here).  Then it was back to the airport (passing the famous West Edmonton Mall enroute) to head home where my children eagerly awaited me…or actually the dispersing of the gifts I’d collected along the way (Calgary Flames shirts, Victoria pens, BT baseball caps).

And then back to reality, where I’m now adding “Throw out rotting food” to the To Do list I just might prepare when I head out to Los Angeles next week.