Calgary Stampede

These blog posts aren't in chronological order anymore... oh well. A couple of weekends ago I was invited down to the Calgary Stampede with my friend Nicole. It was an absolutely blast! I won't say much, because its more fun just to look at some of the pictures and read the captions.


Click here for pictures!!
More to come...


But I will fill in some of the gaps of the story, not told by the pictures. I had the sense that the Stampede was a big fair grounds with all sorts of random

eat carnival food, go touch baby farm animals, people watch...

cowboy-like sporting events. This was not exactly the case. You have to buy tickets for the rodeo shows, and these tickets sell out weeks in advance. So I was unable to watch any of the torturing of various pigs and cattle. So in reality, the Calgary Stampede is not much more than a giant carnival. The thing that sets it apart from the giant carnivals in every other city, is how much the city of Calgary gets into it! It's bizarre. The whole town goes crazy for 2 weeks. Everybody wears a cowboy hat and dresses like a cowboy or a stripper-with-a-cowboy-hat. People even dress like this to work. Even at banks! It was funny, I went into an RBC to get some money, and all the staff were dressed like bank robbers. With handkerchiefs over their mouths and everything! But I digress...

So once you are actually on the fair grounds, you can do the following things: ride carnival rides, play carnival games (no thanks...), eat carnival food, go touch baby farm animals, people watch, or go to some of the free shows. I partook in all of the above, except for the dirty carny games. You know the ones where you always lose.

I hadn't had carnival food in sooooo long. It was fantastic. Beef in a bun, corn dogs, cotton candy, ice cold root beer. Once a year, everybody should eat some carny food.

I didn't go on a lot of the roller coasters, 3 perhaps. But we did go one one which took your picture as you drop down the tallest drop. And the picture is FANTASTIC. I can't wait until I scan it into the computer and post it. You'll see...

The free shows at the Stampede are impressive. For example I went to a Nelly Furtado concert for free. She only played for about an hour, but still. She played tunes from 3 or 4 of her albums. We got pretty close to the stage, but I couldn't really see much other than a see of cowboy hats in front of me. I took some shoddy video clips on my cell phone, but Nelly is only 3 white pixels :)

Well that gives you a sense of the Calgary Stampede. I'll post again when I have more pics up!