13 July - Wednesday - Calgary (Shopping and Shooting)

G'day All,

Today was all about a girls day out and  boys day out. Penny and Samantha spent the day shopping and doing some catch up mother / daughter while Gary and Oliver went to the range for some action.

The Girls Day Out.
We dropped the girls off at where Samantha works and they headed off on a shopping spree and lunch at the nearby mall. Not quite sure what they got up to but there seemed to be a hot feeling coming from the credit card in my pocket as the day progressed :-) A good day for a long awaited girlie catch up with a nice lunch.

The Boys Day Out.

After we dropped the girls off Oliver and I headed to the Milo about an hour and a half south-east from Samantha and Oliver's place and home of the Calgary District Target Shooters Association range. A nice range with 6 multi-purpose bays consisting of 5 with a depth of 25 meters and 1 with a depth of 50 meters all varying widths. Rifles ranges at Milo are 50, 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 meters and we only had one other party at the range for the first hour or so and then the entire range to ourselves. Weapons used for the day included;

Left to right - 12 Gauge Shotgun, 5.56 Rifle and 9mm Luger Pistol

308 Calibre precision rifle

Lots of fun had with targets on the short range and then some times runs with shotgun, rifle and pistol at various targets.

Me with pistol

Me with shotgun

Me with the rifle

Oliver with the pistol, complete with smoke and ejected shell

Oliver and the shotgun

Oliver with the rifle and a chance capture of the muzzle flash.

After the short range we hit the long range targets 300m, 400m and 500m with the precision rifle with both of us consistently hitting the 8" targets after sighting and allowing for wind. I was particularly chuffed with my grouping on the 500m range with 4 within a 10cm circle and one almost dead centre.

All said and done we had about 4 and a half hours on the range and went through 700 rounds of ammo. It's a good thing Oliver makes his own or it would have been a very expensive day ;-)

On the trip home we stopped at a few locations so I could grab a couple of landscape photos.

Silos surrounded by canola

Oil pumping jacks in the canola fields

Wide screen scene

After such a big day, on the way home we indulged in a burger and the thickest milkshake we've ever had from Peter's, a Calgary favourite.

Thickest milkshakes ever . . .

That's all for today but we are heading North tomorrow for a visit to the Yamnuska Wolf Sanctuary and a hike at Grassi Lakes about 45km south of Banff.

Cheers
Gary and Penny

12 July - Tuesday - Calgary (City Tour)

G'day All,

Today was a relaxing day seeing some of the sights in down town Calgary. Everybody is still in boots and hats in support of the stampede which runs for 10 days so about another 5 days to go before they are shelved ready for next year's stampede. It's not the norm to be in boots and hats :-)

Samantha and Oliver were our tour guides for the day but it was a bit concerning when the phones came out with google maps loaded :-). We jumped off at 3rd Street station in the city and made our way down Stephen Avenue, more cowboys and cowgirls than the eye could see due to the stampede. Stephen Avenue is a mall akin to Brisbane's Queens Street mall.

Stephens Avenue

Are our tour guides lost?

We caught a bite to eat, huge falafel wraps that were big enough for two to enjoy, which is what we did. From there we were looking for the Devonian Gardens a large indoor park and botanical garden located in the down town core of Calgary on the Stephen Avenue pedestrian mall. It is completely enclosed with glass and covers 2.5 acres (10,000 m2) or one full city block on the top floor of The Core Shopping Centre (formerly TD Square).

Devonian Gardens

From there we walked through some of the Plus 15 or +15 Skyway network in Calgary. It is the world's most extensive pedestrian skywalk system, with a total length of 18 km and 62 bridges. The system is so named because the skywalks are approximately 15 feet (approximately 4.5 metres) above street level.

Part of the +15 Skyway network.

Our next destination was the McDougall School building, an early twentieth-century, three-storey sandstone building with an attic storey. The designation covers an entire block in downtown Calgary. Constructed in the Beaux-Arts style, McDougall School features a symmetrical sandstone facade with columns, ornate window trim, carved decorative finishings, and an entablature bearing the building's name.

McDougall School Building

From here we headed for the Prince's Island Park, an urban park in the city of Calgary, developed on an island on the Bow River, immediately north of downtown Calgary. It was named after Peter Anthony Prince, the founder of the Eau Claire Lumber Mill. The park was built on land donated in 1947 to the city by the Prince family.

While in the park we could also see the Peace bridge. The Peace Bridge is a pedestrian bridge, designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, that accommodates both pedestrians and cyclists crossing the Bow River in Calgary and opened for use on March 24, 2012 at a cost of around $25 million. The bridge was built by The City of Calgary to connect the southern Bow River pathway and Downtown Calgary with the northern Bow River pathway and the community of Sunnyside. This connection was designed to accommodate the increasing number of people commuting to and from work and those utilizing Calgary's pathways. The bridge is reportedly used by 6000 people a day and due to its design has been called the chinese finger trap bridge by some.

Chinese Finger Trap or Peace Bridge?

Along the way we saw a few other buildings and sites.

Suncor Towers

Jaume Plense is responsible for the giant head that stands 12 meters tall in front of The Bow building

The Calgary Tower is a 191-metre free standing observation tower.

Clever Horse cut-outs promoting the Stampede.

After the tour of the city it was another chance to catch up on some washing, downloading photos and a nap before heading over to Oliver's dad, Donald, for another dinner and a chance to meet up with Roger (Oliver's brother). Another great meal, this time a traditional Chinese menu, absolutely first class. From there back home to relax and finish this blog before bed.

Cheers
Gary and Penny

11 July - Monday - Calgary (Drumheller)

G'day All,

A bit of a damp day but it was road trip day to Drumheller. Dropped into a local coffee shop (Euphoria) for breakfast and a coffee and set out for the 2 hr drive to Drumheller.

Samantha's breakfast - waffles with a "small" coffee.

Road Trip - Oliver looks asleep and Sat Nav Sam is on duty

Canola fields all abloom

More canola

Driving through the farmlands presented a sea of canola contrasting with the sky and fields of green, then over the last hill the scenery changed dramatically as we entered the badlands.

And then we entered the Badlands

Drumheller  is a town (formerly a city) within the Red Deer River valley in the badlands of east-central Alberta, Canada. It is located 110 km north-east of Calgary. The Drumheller portion of the Red Deer River valley, often referred to as Dinosaur Valley, has an approximate width of 2 kilometres and an approximate length of 28 km.

Welcome to Drumheller

The town is littered with dinosaur structures, nearly one on every street corner, they are everywhere,  I gave up counting after 50 . . .

Today we went to the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology a museum that hosts Canada's largest collection of dinosaur fossils. It boasts 375,000 visitors a year, the largest of all provincial museum attractions. This is a well laid out museum that takes you on a journey through each world era with what seems like an endless collection of fossils and reconstructed skeletons from the tiniest creature to the T-Rex. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and got lost in there for 3 hours which only seemed like an hour.

Royal Tyrrell Museum

A great day out but the day wasn't over yet, a quick dash into Drumheller town as the storm hit to visit the huge T-rex with a lookout from its mouth.

Who's a big boy then?

View from the top with the storm in full swing

From the car on the trip home

It was now time to head home and head for Big T's, a BBQ ribs venue, for dinner and they didn't disappoint with a great feed at low prices.

Pulled Pork, Half a Chook, Ribs, Brisket, Beans, Salad and Corn Bread, what more could a man ask for?

Chilli Cheese Fries would top that meal off!

We headed home with full bellies after that meal (lucky we share plated) and played a couple more new board games before hitting the sack for the night. A day in the city of Calgary tomorrow.

Cheers
Gary and Penny