Breakfast at the Calgary Tower and Shopping at the Street Fair

Thursday, July 4, 2013

We got up really early this morning to be ready to catch a bus, again the small school buses, to take us downtown to the Calgary Tower for breakfast. The Tower is Calgary’s answer to the Seattle Space Needle. At the very top is the observation floor with a 360 degree view of Calgary, and one section is complete with glass floor looking straight down onto the street below! I hate heights, but Phil pulled me back onto the glass floor…there was no way I was looking down though!

The restaurant was the floor below the observation floor and there was not a bad seat in the house, as the entire restaurant rotated around continuously while we were served and ate breakfast! The food was very good and the view was wonderful!

After breakfast we walked across the street to the Glenbow Museum. This is a combination of a Museum, Art Gallery, Library and Archives all under one roof, boasting nearly 200,000 artifacts, 30,000 works of art, and thousands of shelved archival materials. I very much would have loved to visit the archival and genealogy materials, but that section was closed today, much to my dismay!

After the museum, we walked over to Stephens Street where the street is closed off to vehicle traffic and vendors set up their wares in the street. I bought a Cowboy hat, for protection from the sun and to get into the spirit of things for the Stampede, which officially starts tomorrow.

We rode the C-Train home, which is Calgary’s mass transit system. We have been provided with free tickets for the train for the time we are here, and it’s very easy to use. The exit station is right across the highway from the stadium, with a walk bridge over the highway.

Phil went to bed for awhile and I dozed in my chair, so we were both feeling a little more rested, just in time for our hot dog cookout in celebration for those of us from the states for the 4^th. We were suppose to have root beer floats afterwards, but a storm came up, sending all of us scurrying for our rigs to avoid the lightening and rain. John and Fran joined us for a couple of games of cards, and the girls won both games!


The internet here appears to be to slow to attach pictures, will try later.

Edmonton, Travel to Calgary, First day at Calgary

June 29 – July 1, 2013

We all decided that since we were going to be so busy in Calgary that we would just take care of business and mostly just sit around and relax.

Today, the 1^st was Canada Day, but since everyone had to go to work tomorrow, the campground emptied out by noon. The campground was suppose to set off fireworks at 11:00pm (not dark until then), but we were playing cards and didn’t even hear them go off…if they did.

Tuesday, July 2…Strange things happening here, we are far to the north, in Edmonton, Alberta for heaven’s sake and we are under a Severe Thunderstorm and Tornado Watch!! The sky to the north and east of the campground was black, Edmonton really got hammered with heavy rains and hail! Can’t believe this kind of weather has come this far north!!

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Traveled today, had about 4 hours of driving ahead of us to get to Calgary, so we left the campground a little earlier, we were on the road by 9:00am, surprised even us!

Calgary is just about straight south of Edmonton, and we are now in the plains. Very much like Kansas or Nebraska, gentle rolling hills to the point of almost flat. Lots of cattle and horses, it’s called the Cowboy Valley (according to the map).

Weather is much better today, yesterday before the cold front came through we had a high of 87, today the high was 74. Suppose to be down in the 60’s over the week end with rain. Rodeo in the rain, sounds like fun uh?

We are ‘parked’ at McMahon Stadium, which is the football stadium for the college here in Calgary. So, we have electric and access to water, no sewer for a week and no WIFI. So, the only time I will be able to send updates is if we go to some sort of internet café. This is what I call camping rough!!

Tonight we boarded school buses, that I think were meant for short legged pre-schoolers as there was absolutely NO leg room. We were taken to a place called the Winter Club where we were sworn in as Honorary Calgarians and then served a buffet dinner that was pretty good!

It was around 9:00pm when we returned back home and Phil went straight to bed. He is having problems with the right side of his back, which is sending pain to his arm and hand. He has been taking some of my pain pills, using ice and anything else we can think of, but nothing is helping. It is getting worrisome. I have been trying to get him to go to urgent care, but I think he is afraid of the cost and what they will tell him.  

West Edmonton Mall

Friday, June 28, 2013

One of the items on the “Must See” list of things to do is the West Edmonton Mall and WOW!! We have heard of the Mid America Mall in Wisconsin, but haven’t been there. John and Fran had been, and they say that this one is by far the better attraction. You literally need a map to get around this place, and a scooter would be very handy!! If you don’t have a scooter, be prepared to be totally exhausted if you try to see everything, and we tried, we really did. It’s kind of like Disneyland, you just can’t see all of it in one day!

This mall is totally enclosed, has three levels, covers 5,300,000 square feet, more than 800 shops and services, has parking for more than 20,000 vehicles and employs more than 23,000 people.

But wait, there is more…included in this mall are several specialty areas:

Galaxyland Amusement Park-

Features more than 24 exhilarating rides and play areas for all ages. Four distinctive roller coasters,

kids play park, Turbo Ride Theater, carnival games, a rock climbing wall and more.

Waterpark-

World’s largest indoor wave pool, located in a tropical oasis with an average temp of 29 C (84.2 F), has 17 unique water slides,

including one that loops, a couple of hot tubs areas and a wading pool.

Deep Sea Adventure-Worlds largest indoor lake features an exact replica of the Columbus flagship Santa Maria, water bumper cars and a Sea Lion/Seal show area.

Two Miniature Golf Areas-One is a Glow in the Dark game and the other is a full 18 hole Mini Golf course.

Ice Palace-NHL sized Ice Rink, skating lessons, hockey lessons, open skating and hockey games.

Ed’s Rec Room/300 Club Lounge-Cosmic Bowling, 14 projectors showing live music videos and sporting events. Arcade games and fully licensed bar and kitchen.

Ropes Quest-Three level ropes course. While harnessed in, climb along a sea of beams and ropes all the way to the top to conquer this obstacle course.

The ‘food court’ is amazing compared to what we are use to in most malls in the states! One area has full sit down restaurants with a variety of choices of types of food. The actual food court is an area about the size of a football field with every type of food vendor there is, and common seating in the middle. Phil and I had handmade crapes with bananas, whipped cream and chocolate syrup…soooo good!!  

This was an all day event for us and we didn’t even ‘do’ any of the special things, just walked through and looked! Oh, almost forgot, there are also two hotels, complete with conference rooms, a movie theater and a full service grocery store in the mall. You could live here, and never have to leave…unless you just felt the need for fresh air. If you are interested in more information you can check out the web page at: westedmontonmall.com.

Travel to Edmonton, AB

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Today was a travel day. John and Fran have been having problems with one of their breaks on the motor home, so they left before we even got up this morning so they could get to the Freightliner dealer today to have it looked at. The thinking was that if something was wrong, then a part could be ordered and possibly be here before we have to leave next Wednesday. Good news though, nothing wrong with the breaks and only cost them $100.00 to have it looked at.

We left Hinton around 11:00am, only had about a three hour drive to Edmonton, our next stop, so we knew we didn’t need to get out really early. On a side note, our truck has been running much better and we are now getting an average of 10mph, while towing!

We have left the mountains behind and entered the plains area of Canada. Starting to see crops planted and cattle grazing, on gently rolling hills.  Whatever is planted up here is done with a hope and a prayer as the growing season is very short. There has been so much rain here in the last month that there was a fear of the crops being totally washed away. June has been one of the wettest months in recorded history. Calgary is still having problems with excess water, but from what we hear, they are working hard to get it cleaned up and ready for the Stampede. Going to be interesting to say the least!

Hinton and Jasper

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Took the day off from site-seeing and went into Hinton to do some shopping. Had lunch at a local pizza place, where the meat lover’s pizza consisted of hamburger and Canadian Bacon. Interesting, but had enough cheese on it to make it really good.

On the way back to the RV Park we saw two male Caribou’s

grazing along side of the highway. These were much more mature than the one we saw yesterday, both of these guys had full racks.

Early in the season yet, they were still ‘in velvet’. This was the first time I had ever seen a rack ‘in velvet’ and I can totally understand why this term was applied, as they really do look like velvet! Makes you want to go right up and touch them, just to see if they are as soft as they look!

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Today we drove into the city of Jasper, and on the way we passed an adult male Caribou grazing on the side of the road. This guy had a full rack of horns. Phil got a full head on picture of him, very impressive!!

Parked the car and walked around the square and strolled in and out of the shops. Although there was a good crowd, the numbers were not excessive yet. We could still get into the shops without fighting for our personal space.

Jasper is a quaint little town with a mountain atmosphere. The buildings are older,

but well maintained, and yet the wooden floors still creek as you walk through the shops.

Everywhere you look there are flowers and the bright colors are so pretty! The town itself is being maintained by the “Friends of the Town of Jasper” and their work is supported by the gift shop they run and donations. Quite an undertaking! I was involved with the “Friends of the Library” when we lived in Heber Springs, and that was a job in and of itself! I can’t imagine taking on a whole town.