We’ve spent the last couple of days in Calgary on the last stop of our Canadian West Coast trip. We fly tomorrow from Calgary to Boston to start the East coast portion, and we’ve had a bit more of a chill out while we’ve been here in Calgary really to recover from all the hiking we’ve been doing.

Our Airbnb is really nice and comfy so it’s been a nice place to hang out, it’s got a huge TV so Lucy has been enjoying all the Wimbledon catch-up. There’s even a small home gym here so that was good to use after a few weeks pretty much without any gym to use.

We did have a long, busy day yesterday though going to the Calgary Stampede, our main reason for being in Calgary at the end of this leg. It’s a huge outdoor event that runs for a bit over a week (it was opening day when we were there), with a big stadium for loads of rodeo activities and shows during the afternoon and evening, then a large grounds area of music stages, midway games, fairground rides, food stalls etc. We got there around lunch time and it was really rammed, unbelievably busy around the food and drinks area which we had a wander around.

Thankfully it did quieten down later in the day, but it’s free to get in to the main park so as it was opening day and the weather was good, it’s not surprising it was very popular.

There’s some interesting food choices available there (yes i tried the maple glazed donut grilled cheese), but a massive selection so you can find pretty much anything you want.

Jo, we thought of you when we saw this pizza!

After lunch we looked round the massive indoor market with loads of stalls and stands (some western clothing, some random things like pots and pans, mops etc), watched some live country music in the ‘Western Oasis’ area, found a dualling pianos show going on in the Wine Bar/ball room, watched a (fairly cheesy) escape artist magic show, and just generally walked around the large grounds to see what was going on. They even had large areas for farming stuff, and all the thoroughbred horses and cattle etc that you could go and see.

In the evening we had tickets to the main Stampede arena show where they had various rounds of chuck wagon races, some team relay races (horses ridden at crazy speeds with no saddles, stirrups or any protective gear!) and an entertainment show after it got dark with music, dancing, a marching band, acrobatics, motorcycle stunts and fireworks.

The evening show was excellent, we really enjoyed all the races and relays they were good fun and very impressive. The evening entertainment was also really good!

As I said, we fly to Boston tomorrow, so more updates from there to come soon.

Si