Good times...

The kids and I have just come back from Calgary, which is a lovely city located in southern Alberta, the next province over from British Columbia. We were visiting our good friends, Tony and Belinda Horvat, and their kids Sam and Amelia. It was great.


Poor ole Ashley had to work so he stayed home with the dogs, but that was ok, because Tony was busy with work too. Belinda had many activities planned for us and we got to see a good deal of the city. We also had ample time to chat, which seems to be something that we can do awfully well together.

Calgary enjoys a dry summer heat. It was pretty warm when we were there; at one stage reaching 32 degrees. For us, who enjoy a milder, more humid summer, it was hot - although my attire (something that is frequently letting me down at the moment) was not helping matters; I roasted. I SERIOUSLY need to invest in some decent summer wear ahead of our arrival to Oz in late November - they are starting to get their Fall stock in over here already - Noooooooo!

On the outer rim of Calgary they have an amusement park called Calaway Park. It was pretty awesome, and fantastic for the kids. All you have to do is pay your entry fee and then you can go on all the rides you want. Olivia loved the carousel the most. They also had an easy guide at the gate, that let your child know which rides he/she qualified to go on, according to their height. It was really easy to see at a glance whether they were tall enough to ride any particular ride by themselves, thus saving rejected-at-the-front-of-the-line tantrums!


This week and last were Stampede week in Calgary. The Stampede brings a great cowboy atmosphere to the city, and many people are seen walking around in cowboy hat and boots. Belinda took us to a Stampede breakfast one morning, which was held in the closed off car park of a local shopping centre. There was a petting zoo and pony rides, show horses, cow milking competitions, country music bands and other displays, not to mention a sumptuous pancake and sausage breakfast to be had, all on the city of Calgary's tab - Thank you very much. It was great to be a part of that busy festival vibe.

Since it was hot, we headed to a water park in the afternoon, which was in downtown Calgary, through a beautiful park and over the Bow River bridge. All the rivers I have ever seen are murky brown and reasonably calm: the Murray, Murrumbidgee and BC's Fraser River included. The Bow River had a strong current - a really strong current. People raft on the river, but it is too dangerous to swim, apparently many people have drowned in it, and even rafting is pretty dangerous due to the current, but it was the river's colour that blew me away the most; bluey green. I couldn't get over it. I have never seen such a fresh clean looking major river before.

Belinda also took us to the mountains - Banff and Lake Louise. Any who are even remotely familiar of these areas, will know that they define the word "beautiful"; snow capped mountains; fir trees as far as the eye can see; the bluest tranquil lakes one can possible imagine, filled with an abundance of frigid glacial waters, and clean crisp mountain air. These are the scenes that inspire artists of all mediums, mountaineers, environmentalists and John Denver! We even saw a bear - yep its true, a wild black bear foraging for food on a hillside close to the road. Some fool apparently rowed his canoe off Bow Falls at Banff when we were there, but we didn't see it, Thankfully. The reports said that an English tourist was taken to hospital with a great deal of bruising - hopefully mainly to his ego - idiot.

While the trip to the mountains was fab, the drive with the kids was nightmarish. Alex kept complaining about sore legs (?) Olivia had to stop every 10 metres to go to the toilet and we had a 20 month old who was very tired - Alex and Olivia's antics were not helping in that regard, but we survived.
Before we headed back home on Friday, Belinda took us to Calgary Zoo, which is great. The Great Vancouver Zoo is not good, and I am saying that as politely as possibly, but this zoo is wonderful, with large modern enclosures, environmental programs and kids summer education camps. It also has a prehistoric Park, with life-size models of dinosaurs in amongst terrain similar to the environment it once lived. Prehistoric Park opened in the early 80's, and the models did look a little cheesy, but the kids went nuts over it. Alex was so excited to see all there fake dinosaurs, even though he said he would prefer to see the real animals before we got there.

I really enjoyed catching up with Belinda. It is difficult to talk on the phone while our respective children go ape in wanting our attention (yes Mum...I know!), so it was wonderful to have that chat time once everyone was tucked up in bed. It was also great to see Sam and Alex playing so well together again; they were best little buddies when we all lived in Australia, and when they got together it was like they met up only yesterday, rather than this being the second time in two years. All in all we had a tremendous time, and I am happy that I have at least seen SOME of the country beside our local vicinity since we have been here - would have like to have seen more though; another time maybe, but it'll have to be as a foreign tourist, as opposed to a ummm... errr Aussie checking out the local Canadian scene (?).

Anyway, would you believe a friend asked the kids and I if we would like to venture up to Whistler for a couple of nights with them next week - "sure, why not". Sight-seeing: when it rains it pours (pardon the pun).