Calgary Stampede

Last Saturday, Nikhil, Tracy, Kurt, and I went to the Calgary Stampede. When we finally got there (we left around 2 hours after when we had intended to leave), we started out the day with some lemonade and some giant corn dogs. I don’t think they sell anything there that is not deep fried. Since it was so hot and sunny, we stuck to the livestock exhibitions at the beginning, which were indoors. We perused some of the Western wear booths to see if I could find Eliott a decent and reasonably priced cowboy hat. We couldn’t. We saw the Native American tipis and walked though the carnival rides and games.

It cost between $5 and $6 to go on a ride, so we only did one: the log ride. As a regular frequenter of La Pitoune at La Ronde, which this ride was similar to, I am well aware that the goal of this ride was to get wet and that it wouldn’t be the ride that would do it; I have also become very adept at splashing. The minute we got on, I soaked my poor unsuspecting friends behind me. They retaliated of course, and we were all dripping at the end. It ended up being me and Kurt in the front against Tracy and Nikhil in the back. All of our socks were still damp by the time we got home, which was 10 hours later.

After grabbing some more unhealthy food for supper, we walked over to the Saddledome for The Tragically Hip concert. Our tickets for this show came with admission to the Stampede. I don’t really know The Hip that well, but I do know all the stuff that plays on the radio. Nikhil is a huge fan, so when he found out they were coming, we had to go. The concert was very good. The sound was great, and the lead singer had a lot of energy. I think I could really get into some of their music. I will be ripping Nikhil’s c.d.’s shortly.

After the concert, we were supposed to pick Crisia up at the Greyhound station, as she was returning from Saskatchewan. She texted me during the concert to tell me that her bus had broken down an hour and a half out of Calgary. We decided to hang around the Stampede a bit, so between the four of us we got mini-donuts, popcorn, candy apples, and snow-cones. I almost caved and spent $5 on a spray gun game, so that I could win Eliott a ukulele; I finally decided that $5 for one chance in 11 was too much. Maybe I’ll get him one for Hanukkah.

After a rather long time, Crisia called us and told us that the bus still hadn’t arrived, so maybe we should go home, and she’d sleep at the bus station. We couldn’t let her sleep there, so we told her we’d come to get her. However, on the way to the car on the LRT, we found out that the bus finally came, so we went to the station (after Tim Horton’s and a lot of driving around and determining that Calgary is in fact rather sketchy) to wait for her. We got home around 3 am. I still had to water my mice when I got back, All in all, it was a very fun but long day.

Pictures are available here.

P.S. I finished Harry Potter yesterday. I will post soon with my thoughts on finishing the book.