If you haven’t already, check
out Part I and II:
DAY 13 – Wednesday, 10 August 2016
Calgary
Wednesday morning we packed up the van again and said
good-bye to Amanda’s folks and aunt and uncle, who were all heading to the
airport in Calgary for their flights home to Windsor (Ontario) and London
(England), respectively.
We drove into Calgary and had lunch at Community Natural
Foods (and picked up some groceries) and then headed to…
Before we left I think this was
the one thing The Boy was looking forward to most. Both kids were pretty
excited about finally being able to check out the Sentry Box. I meant to take
loads of other pictures of the store – with the kids running around with their
eyes bugging out of their heads… but I honestly got too busy looking around
myself and didn’t get to taking any more pictures. After a couple of hours of
snooping around The Girl had gathered up a huge pile of stuff and blew pretty
much all her remaining money. The Boy and I had just spent the time taking it
in and determined to come back at some point in the next four days after
deliberating about what it was we really wanted (because there were way too many
fun things to get there and not nearly enough money in our pockets to buy it
all…)
After the trip to the ‘Box we
checked into our hotel (which was just 10 blocks away); The Nuvo Hotel.
It was a nice enough place – had
a kitchen we could make meals in and we were able to bring all our bikes up to
the room and it was right on the beltline and close to many of the places we
wanted to visit in Calgary.
The kids spent some time
checking out all The Girls treasures from the Sentry Box.
Supper out on the balcony.
After supper I think we wandered
over to the
MEC
- which was conveniently located 2 blocks away! The kids got new climbing
harnesses.
DAY 14– Thursday, 11 August 2016
Calgary
Getting bikes in and out of the Hotel was a bit of work – as we
were on the third floor and the staircase was rather narrow. It usually
involved me and Amanda carrying the kids bikes down and leaving the kids with
them, while we went back up for ours (and vice versa on the return trip).
On the Thursday we’d originally
planned to got to
Heritage
Park , but as the forecast was calling for rain, and Heritage Park is
mostly outdoors, we decided to go to the
Spark
Science.
Another convenient thing about
the Nuvo Hotel is it is right across the street from the 12th Avenue
South cycle track!
This was the 5th
Street Cycle Track. The thing that blew my mind about it was that they were
doing some work in the cycle track lane and – unlike Saskatoon, where, if work
was being done in a bike lane… or… a city vehicle just wanted to park there… or
whatever… cyclists would be S.O.L. and have to find their own way around – The
city of Calgary actually shut down a motor vehicle traffic land and made a
detour lane for cyclists.
The Cycle track dumped us off
within 2 blocks of the Bow Valley Pathway and the Eau Claire Market and the rest of the journey to Spark was
on pathways like this.
Spark Science Centre
Despite its accessibility by
bike – on bike pathways, completely separated from automotive traffic – and a
great many bike racks… we were the only ones who rode our bikes there that
day… and the parking lot was absolutely full… with cars circling hoping to find
a nonexistent parking spot…
Later when we were leaving, a
family came over and asked if there was a playground nearby. They were pretty
surprised when we told them we weren’t familiar with the area and weren’t even
from Calgary – they had assumed that since we rode our bikes we MUST have lived
in the adjacent neighborhood…
Science yo!
Honestly I think these Science
Centres are designed for a much younger audience. Not sure how much science was
learned that day. Everyone was pretty tired.
I actually ditched Amanda and
the kids to make a side trip to a nearby-ish store.
The path took me over the
Deerfoot and up a big freaking hill – which offered a pretty nice view of the
Calgary skyline
Things
Military. I was looking for something very specific… but that’s a
longer story, for another blog…
I met up with the Family as Spark was closing up for the day
and headed back to the Hotel.
We had passed this counter in
the morning as well. The picture looks like it’s reading 01 – but I’m pretty
sure it was 1201 when we passed – the number of cyclists that had rode past
that point today. When we rode by in the morning I’d been 661, The Boy, 662,
The Girl 662, and Amanda was 664. I asked her if I could back past it and then
come back up past it so she could take a picture of my going past it as it
clocked 666… but she wouldn’t go for it and told me to press on…
Rolling through downtown Calgary about 4:30. I would have liked to stick around here and see how many cyclists use this between 5 and 6pm...
11 August happens to be our
anniversary, so we went out for a special meal at
The
Coup to celebrate 21 years together.
DAY 15– Friday, 12 August 2016
Calgary
Friday we did actually make it
to
Heritage Park.
Despite my exhaustion at this point I was pretty excited as I hadn’t been to
Heritage park since… well… since I was younger than the kids are now! So… 35+
years ago!?
Again, most of the ride there
was on cycle track or multiuse trails. I think there was only about 4 blocks we
had to ride with automotive traffic. The ride along the Elbow River Pathway was
really nice.
It crisscrossed the river a few
times on pedestrian/cyclist bridges.
Snack time at the reservoir.
CAUTION: LOW FLYING AIRCRAFT –
not a sign you see everyday on a cycle path. When we’d approached this area
from the other direction it seemed really out of place – once we rounded the
corner and realized it was a hospital and there was a helicopter landing pad,
everything made much more sense – but before that I was utterly perplexed as to
what sort of Low Flying Aircraft I should be looking out for – buzzing us on
the trail.
At least there were a few more
bikes at the Heritage Park bike racks…
Just after we entered the park
some ominous clouds rolled in overhead.
Lunch – for the mosquitoes as
well!!
Checking out some of the
buildings.
Typical display in one of the
houses… WAIT A SECOND!?
TOY SOLDIERS!
MORE TOY SOLDIERS!
I’d really like to know what this "Safe Diabetes Remedy for
Diabetes" that they had on display in the 1910 pharmacy is all about!
Took a ride on the old steam train.
The Steam Train.
Unfortunately just after we got off the train it started
raining.
Old fashioned one room school.
The kids actually tried to do some of the exercises on the
black board – only to discover the “teacher” didn’t know the answer to one of
the problems! So they erased their slate and drew pictures of dinosaurs.
More buildings, more rain.
The kids were pretty excited to see what this fort was
about.
Unfortunately they couldn’t climb up to the second floor of
the blockhouse. Seems like the ground floor was being used for storage.
Turns out it was supposed to be a Hudson’s Bay Company fort.
The two staff members in here were some of the most talkative in the whole
park. Though I wasn’t entirely convinced one of them had a firm grasp of
history he was spouting when he started referring to the king of England as
Louis…
Then the sun came out again and it was swelteringly hot…
Amanda and the kids playing on a teeter-totter.
There were a series of street scenes acted out throughout
the day.
HORSIES!
As closing time loomed the kids decided that rather than a
trip on the
S.S.
Moyie, they’d rather go for a few rides on the old fashioned
fairground. I remember this carousel being there when I was a kid…
I’m not sure I remember the Ferris wheel…
That’s The Boy with his arms up – and Amanda and The Girl
squished in there with him.
The ride back was pleasant enough and, conveniently, mostly
downhill!
I can’t even remember what we did that evening…
DAY 16 – Saturday, 13 August 2016
Calgary
Our last day in Calgary… we were
pretty much DONE with doing things… I had hoped we might be able to check out
the
Military
Museums... but decided it would just be too rushed to try and get
there in the morning and then hit a few other places we wanted to go and make
it back in time to head out to my friend Cory’s.
So we spent the afternoon
walking around the beltline in Calgary.
We checked out a really cool
little bike shop I’ve been wanting to see since it opened a few years back -
BikeBike! They kind of
specialize in bikes for just getting around and hauling stuff – no mountain
bikes or high end racing road bikes… and what did I find there…?
The Grail of my whole journey…
the elusive Surly Tuggnut! (unfortunately we didn’t do any more riding this
trip… But I have it now for when I DO go riding again – and hopefully this trip
has inspired us all to get outside and RIDE more!)
they also gave us some pretty stickers!
...and some that were kind of rude.
We also wandered through a great
used book store
Fair’s
Fair where we ALL found a couple books…
Then we had lunch in a park and
the kids and I headed back to the
the
Sentry Box!
(I remembered to take a few
pictures indoors… unfortunately I only took these two just inside the door and
before getting totally immersed in looking through all their treasure and
totally forgetting to take more…)
After The Boy and I spent all the money we were going to
spend we wandered back to the Hotel and met up with Amanda – who had gone to
get herself some new hiking boots at the
MEC.
In the evening we drove out to
visit my friend Cory (and his partner Martha) and were treated to a delicious
meal of grilled veggie sausages and… well… actual veggies. Afterwards we played
Roll
for the Galaxy.
I had hoped to meet up with a
number of other friends in Calgary (and play more games!) but it just didn’t’
seem to work out…
Day 17 – Sunday, 14 August 2016
Drumheller
Loading up the van again.
Horseshoe Canyon, Drumheller
Amanda was keen to go romping
about that canyon bottom, but by this point I was just DONE. Maybe if we could have ridden our bikes…
But that didn’t seem to be an
option.
Yeah, that would have been fun
to ride around. I wonder why bikes aren’t allowed. Probably some dipsh!ts
riding around like maniacs scaring the horses and old ladies and ruining it for
the rest of us…
I did agree to go check out the
Hoodoos.
Hoodoos
Hoodoos
Amanda and the kids were game to
try and climb the ridge. I said, “go ahead, I’ll sit down here…” That’s them up
at the top.
More expansive view of where
they were climbing.
The view from above that one of
the kids took. That’s me down there standing to the left of the great big motor
home. Taking pictures of the kids taking pictures of me…
Then we went and checked into
the McDougall Lane B&B – where we actually stayed 10 years ago when we’d
visited Drumheller. We even stayed in the same suite – which was in the
basement off the garden.
The Garden.
It is a lovely place.
Day 18 – Monday, 15 August 2016
Drumheller
Off to the Royal Tyrrell Museum.
We had thought of riding out to
it – it wasn’t too far, and there was a paved pathway all the way out… but we
didn’t… Not entirely sure why…?
Royal Tyrrell Museum
Kids taking pictures of displays
in dark rooms
Heading back through time.
Kids standing in front of the
primordial soup display.
Prehistoric undersea creatures.
Scary Prehistoric giant
armour-plated fish-like thingie…
The Grrrlz and some giant
dragonfly…
More concerning than a giant
dragonfly are the giant mosquitoes it must have been eating…
Talk about dinosaurs… or something…
I was running on empty at this point and all holidayed out. This could have
been a totally been a highly educational day of learning about PRE-history (to compliment the survey of world history we completed over the last two years)… but I was
just cooked and let the kids run wild and just look at the cool stuff and then
we went home.
Supertall giant dinosaur bones
of… some dinosaur…
Kids taking more pictures of
dinosaur bones.
Wasn’t this in Jurrassic Park…?
Triceratops!
Early big mammal thing.
Bones of other early mammal
things.
EVERYTHING in Drumheller is all
about Dinosaurs – just about every building or business has a Dinosaur in front
of it – including this Grocery store we stopped by.
Maybe this is a regular thing…
but I’ve never seen it before and it gave me a laugh…
And then next day we drove home
to Saskatoon – just in time to disgorge all our crap and return the rental van.
Phew!
Well I hope you enjoyed this
little summary of our 2016 Summer Vacation (I hope someone actually READS
this!). Stay tuned for, hopefully, more regular postings about bicycle related
shenanigans!
