July 5th

Today we were up kind of early and on the buss before 8:30 AM.  We are headed downtown to the Olympic Plaza and to what they call Rope Square.  They were serving Pancakes with maple syrup and bacon.  What was kind of funny we are waiting in line for our pancakes and we see these clowns handing out napkins.

  They gave you the pancake in the napkin.  They mix there batter with a little maple syrup, then while cooling the pancake they put a strip of bacon on it and then flip it over to finish cooking the pancake.  It was really, good I ate two but should of went back for more.
We are down town today to visit the Glenbow Museum and take a ride up in the Calgary Tower to the Observation Deck.  The museum was great they showed a lot of history of Canada early days and everyone said it was well worth the trip.  But it isn't everyday that you go up into the Tower and a horse is riding in the elevator with you.

Yep! horse is getting on elevator.

Yes it does fit even with the girl holding the bucket, and you may ask what is in that bucket?  Nothing right now.

Horse and rider made it out and rider still on the horse.

OK, now the bucket has something in it!!!!
The cowboy is David Cowley and the girl holding the bucket is his little sister.  Do you think your little sister would do this for you!!!.  Anyway every year David and his horse "Tucker" (this year) come up into the tower on the first Saturday of the Stampede at 10:00 AM.    He said it is all in the horse having trust in you and you trusting the horse.

He really trust him but----

 looking at this picture I don't think that horse is going to get much closer.

I think he is not liking what he seen looking down.

What amazed me is that Cyndy got that close to the edge. David & Tucker are competing in the Cowboy Up Challenge at the Stampede and we are going to try and make it over to see them competing.  It was a something to see and we had a great time.  We had a great day and looking forward to going back to the Stampede tomorrow.

July 4th

Happy Birthday USA!!!!
Today we started our day off by heading downtown for the Calgary Stampede Parade.

We had some pretty nice seats, we were very lucky by the time the parade started we were in the shade of the buildings.  It was nice and warm and I am glad we did not have to sit in the sun.

The Parade Grand Marshall was William Shatner.

There were a hole lot of horse's in this parade, from small to large ones.

There was a lot of different kinds of floats and lots of marching bands.

They even had a few different Indian Tribes in the Parade also.

Even had a moose riding a little horse.

I had to look twice when this guy came riding by and he wasn't a small cow boy either.
It was just about noon when the parade got over and we headed to the Calgary Stampede for the rodeo, and believe me they did a great job of putting on a first class rodeo!!!

The horse's started of by getting rid of a few cow boys off there back, but before long the cow boys were ahead of the horse's.

As you can see they figured out how to stay on.

We seen the girls do the barrel races, and they could move those horse's around them barrels.

Then the bull riding was good, bulls one cowboys 0.

Not again, bulls 2 cowboys 0, but before long the cowboys started to stay on and I think it was bulls 3, cowboys 6.

This was great they had teams of kids, holding on to these little horse's and all they had to do was get one of them on the horse and ride it.  These 3 didn't have a change to do that.

These 3 did get one on and he made it for a short ride.
We had a great day at the rodeo and parade, everyone had a great day, but tiring.  Tomorrow is another day of exploring Calgary area.  We are going to the Olympic Plaza and the Olympic Park, should be fun.

July 3rd

This morning of our third Day of the Calgary Stampede.  We had a late start with morning coffee being served to the guest.

It was the start of a great day, sun was out and it looked like it was going to be another 5 star day.  Its great when we don't have to hurry and get on a bus for sight seeing.

To day Inez & Chuck celebrated 55 years of wonderful marriage.  They are a great couple and a lot of fun on this trip.  About 11:30 we all loaded the bus and headed of to Heritage Park.

This park is a history buff's great stop.  You step back in time at Canada's largest living history museum.  With more than 200 exhibits and attractions spread over 127 acres of lush parkland, Heritage Park Historical Village has a lot to offer both the history buff and pleasure seekers.  This is not a museum where history stays behind the glass.  The interactive exhibits, costumed interpreters, historic buildings and hundreds of working antiques are all just waiting for you to touch, smell, taste, hear, and see how the West was once.

These are just a few pictures of the hunderds we took today.

One of the places I liked the best was what they called gasoline ally.

They had over 50 plus different gas pumps.  We need a hole day here to be able to see everything.  If we ever do this again I would start this at about 9:30 in the morning.  Tomorrow we start the Calgary Stampede with the Parade first thing in the morning.

July 2nd

We started our second day of the Calgary Stampede Rally today and Cyndy and I are very happy at how things are going. We served them a great Dinner last night and everyone liked it.  We had Hamburgers, homemade Potato Salad, Macaroni Salad, Baked Beans, and a cup cakes with the Canada flag on them for Canada Day's.

We had plenty to eat and everyone enjoyed it.

  We left this morning for Lake Louise area for a day of Site seeing.

Everyone had room to stretch out and enjoy the ride.  With only 18 people on the bus for 56 makes it real nice.

As we got closer to Banff we started running into the Canada Rocky's and they are beautiful.  Even the bugs are getting into the picture. The weather was great and I think I even got a little bit of a sun tan starting.

After and hour plus on the bus it felt good to get out and stretch our legs and use the restrooms and get some great pastry from the Lake Louise Village.

Lake Louise was beautiful with weather like this.  There were a lot of people around getting pictures.

The Chateau at Lake Louise was build in the early 1900 for the rich that road the Canada Pacific Railroad to this great Tourist area.

Our next stop was across the valley from Lake Louise at the Gondola and Wild Life Interpenetration Center. The first thing we need to take care of is getting something to eat before the Gondola & Chair life ride.

Yep I got Cyndy in one of these on the way up.  She even took some pictures so I know her eyes were open.

This is the view from up at top looking back towards Lake Louise.

Now for the ride down.

Look it she is even smiling as we are riding down on a chair this time.

This is about all the wildlife we got to see today.  I think a lot of it had to do with the hot weather.

This was on many of posters all over the road showing the Canada Pacific Railroad heading into the rocky's for Lake Louise area.

We got this cool picture of the group at the Bow Falls.  you could feel the mist from the falls and it felt good.

Banff was also built along the rail line running through the Rocky's.  The people need some were to stay when they came to this great park in Canada. The bus drive told us the the rooms in this hotel start at $500.00 a day and go up to over $1500.00 a day.  I like my coach just fine for visiting these areas.

I just liked the look of this old dead fir tree.  We had a great day and look forward to more just like today with this fine group we are with.  Everyone seems top be doing great.