Mom’s hat on the left, mine on the right.
Back from holidays and wow, we did a TON!
- Spruce Meadows
- Calgary Stampede (rodeo)
- Drumheller, including the Royal Tyrell Museum and the Hoodoos!
- Ghost Lake
- Canmore, hiking up to Grassi Lake
- Downtown Calgary
- Calgary Zoo
So…We did pretty much everything you CAN do in Calgary! The weather was a mixed bag- rain and thunderstorms the first night, cold the second day at Spruce (seriously- I was wearing a sweater, jeans and a jacket! I didn’t even bring cold-weather clothes with me, so had to borrow them!), and then warmed up by Wednesday to about 30 deg for the rest of the week.
Staying with family is always a bit of a challenge- it’s nice to stay with company, but you also run the risk of irritating them, not giving them enough space, or they feel like you don’t want to hang out with them when you want to *give* them that extra space…It saves $ but adds frustration. Always a bit of a tightrope, a balancing act.
View from the top of the Stampede
I particularly enjoyed the rodeo this year, and I even had some amazing fair food- peanut butter and jelly sandwiches deep-fried on a skewer interspersed with deep-fried Reese’s peanut butter cups! OMG so good.
We also tried the Jurassic Pork pulled pork mac’n’ cheese. Also a winner! Not a winner- the Crazy Cones- too much cone, too little lousy ice cream. Blah.
Spruce was classic as always- Ian bought me a pair of gloves there, they had free hot dogs too! I ate three- which was pretty much two too many…My stomach…
I remember being here celebrating 25 years!
Canmore was really nice actually. We did a short hike up to Grassi Lake, and climbed around a bit. I saw a pictograph! Very cool. We finished it off with a lunch in Canmore.
Allosaurus!
Drumheller was cool, a lot cooler than I thought it might be. The town itself is a big nothing…No neat shops, just small, dusty and hot. The Royal Tyrrell Museum was fantastic! Love the dino info, and so informative.
Hoodoos
Then the Hoodoos were so cool, and it felt very hardcore to be hiking around in the heat. We also visited Wayne, pop. 33…And the Last Chance Saloon, where we got a beer, and then hiked up to the grassy plains area. Nice and hot.
A hot day in the badlands
The Calgary Zoo was also really neat, the animals were SO active! You know how rare that is? So rare! The bears were acting silly, the tigers were prowling, the female lions were nuzzling and grooming each other, and the butterflies were even friendly, with one hitch-hiking on my (very attractive to it) orange purse.
A friendly hitchhiker
The night we flew home, we watched bad weather come rolling in. We spent the day boating at Ghost Lake- a very cold lake outside of Cochrane (cute town), as my sister’s boyfriend owns a fast speedboat. The clouds came in, and by the time we made it to the airport, thunder and lightning started up. We sat on the plane, which was stifling hot and muggy, for about an hour before they cleared us for take-off. Lucky thing we left then, as the storm kept going and they closed the airport until 11am the next day! Jesus!
Got home around 9pm, and was so tired. It was like the whole week caught up with me!
Saddling up to the bar at the Last Chance Saloon in Wayne, AB
Rode Oats the next day and he was soooo nutty. Freaked out about the stuff moving around the outdoor arena, spooky and snorty. We got through it ok, but man…After a week away, rough riding and spooking wasn’t really what I was looking forward to! He did look cute playing with a feedbucket after the ride though, so can’t stay mad…
This week- I’m riding tonight and dressage lesson tomorrow, may ride Wed and resume reg. jumping lessons on Thursday. No rest for the wicked though- going camping on the coast this weekend for my b-day!
The adventures of Mr. Oats 