Stampede

Stampede is Calgary's largest event - something people look forward to all year. It's 10 days of real-life rodeo (the largest in North America) and real-life cowboys and 10 days of the Urban Calgary-ites pretending to be cowboys. Now, I have done the rodeo in Houston - but this was something entirely different. First, people dressed up every day for 2 weeks straight. Everyone. In Houston people dressed up a bit - but it was hard to tell if people were dressed up or if the cowboy gear was their normal attire. On an average day, Calgary people don't wear cowboy outfits. Really. Second, the whole city is in Stampede mode for the entire 2 weeks. This includes free pancake breakfasts all over town every day of the week. It also means the stores try to "stampede" themselves by putting up wood exteriors and hay bales. Even the stores in the mall, ie: Banana Republic, dress their mannequins to be in rodeo attire. The two weeks start off with the Stampede Parade, and then the "Stampede" fair (typical fair stuff - rides, gross food, animals, rodeo). In addition, there are many, many parties to attend - mostly for the corporate folks. Pete went to something every night of the Stampede. I went to a couple of the events with him and we had a great time. I'll post photos from the other events in future posts.

Here's an example of the restaurants trying to "stampede" their exteriors.

4th of July

The 4th of July meant....



tennis lessons and swimming lessons.

But, we also brought some American traditions into play after pete got home from work.

Grilled burgers on the patio...



Smores!



Relaxing outside...



Sparklers (which are sold year-round here in grocery stores)



Great 4th of July!

Canada Day

July 1 was Canada Day. I had to look up what we were celebrating on Wikipedia. Canada Day celebrates the joining of three separate colonies into one body - Canada - in 1867. It's a national holiday (of course).

We started the day with a short hike through the very beautiful Bowmont Park - just 10 minutes from our house.







And, to finish the day, we decided to try out the Canada Day festivities in Prince's Island Park.

Everyone was given a Canadian flag to hold.



Look at all the bikes! We're definitely not in Southern California anymore!




Local fruit for sale.



Or, how about some Canadian Jamaican food...



There's always one in the crowd...no matter what country you're in...



O Canada!

Signs of Summer

As you all know from reading this blog, it was a very long and cold winter in Calgary. And, because we are from warmer climates, I have been looking forward to summer since January. Apparently, most of June was rainy and cold-ish (in the 50's and 60's) - glad we were in California. But, when we came home, summer was in full operation! And, it is a beautiful thing here in Calgary - warm weather (70's and 80's), a rain shower here and there, lush green landscape and wildlife galore in the mountains. I cannot get enough of it. So, we have been really enjoying summer - and, winter is a bit like childbirth - you soon forget just how cold it's going to get. I am thankful for a great summer of travel, relaxing and enjoying beautiful weather. I will try to recap our summer adventures over the next few blogs - even though they were from July and August.

Can't Seem To Keep this Updated!

But, will try...again...later...

Norbert and Susan's Visit

We were so excited to welcome our friends Norbert and Susan to Calgary last week. They were so sweet to use their precious vacation time to come and visit us! We had a great time exploring Calgary. Thanks to Norbert for picking great sites for us!

First stop was Heritage Park.

This is a great historical venue - an old fashioned town with people dressed up in costume.

Katherine and Lauren tried out the "chores" from the 19th century.



Testing out the desks in the one-room school-house.



Riding the early 20th century fair rides.



The next stop was a day in Banff - hiking and seeing the sites.







Lake Louise



We even saw a couple of bears. This one was just off the road - really close.



And the bear paparazzi.



More beautiful scenery....



Looking good Susan!



The only way to keep Lauren happy during the walking tour was to give her dandelions to blow.



The week was punctuated with lots of bad-for-you food including poutine, gourmet donuts and a strawberry-rhubarb pie. Love that Norbert has such a sweet tooth! :)





We love you guys! Thanks so much for coming!

Haven't posted lately.....

Because we've been traveling! We left Canada on June 1 and flew down to Los Angeles for 3 weeks of what I am calling, "our staycation." "How," you might ask, "do you have a staycation 1500 miles from where you are currently living?" Well, I'm calling it such because we still see ourselves as Angelenos and we never had time to do fun things when we were actually living in Los Angeles. So, our staycation it was. We packed a lot into our 3 weeks including participating (sheena) in a wonderful wedding for a great couple....Katherine's favorite part was getting her nails done for the wedding.



Riding the train and horses at Griffith Park...




Enjoying the warmer weather...




Swimming lessons at the Long Beach JCC (Katherine)...




Disneyland...



A trip to San Diego and the Wild Animal Park (all of us)...







Seeing family and friends...











Beach time with friends...





Annual Conference and time with parents (Sheena)....









And, we went to my cousin's art show, Vacation Bible School, a Trustees' dinner at Oxy, a trip to the Griffith Observatory and much, much more. Whew.

It was wonderful.