Calgary

Calgary was a lovely city that had just experienced some heavy snowfall by the time we arrived, which meant that we didn’t want to travel much that afternoon. That in itself was unfortunate as the hotel was decidedly old and cheap. The pool in the basement was nice though as was the hot tub at the end of the pool. Again, the girls and I enjoyed these while Ash stayed in the room to watch more television.



Calgary Tower in downtown Calgary

 After a swim we all toddled through the snow to a Vietnamese restaurant next door to the hotel for a meal that was really too big for us– but we didn’t want to leave any food. So, with very full stomachs we returned to our room to sleep it off. We all enjoyed the mango bubble tea.

Megan checks a Teepee



Bison on display

Before heading out of Calgary for our next destination (Canmore) we decided to visit the Glenbow Museum. This was a wonderful museum - even for the kids who I was worried might have had enough of them. There are 4 or 5 floors of vastly different exhibitions: Indian-European contact history, Canadian identities, ancient Asian art, a huge collection of art - both modern and old, an exhibit by Brian Eno (better known as a musician), a warfare gallery covering most periods of history, a rocks and minerals gallery and a discovery room with hands on activities for the kids relating to the galleries and their displays.



Moose going through underbrush, Carl Ungius




Shiva Bhairava 10th century AD




Barbwire sculpture for Calgary Stampede




In the contemporary gallery.




Squire training.




Gem display.




Fossilized amonite.




Quartz display item.



Megan working on her artsterpiece.



Ash creates a mini art slide for display.




Ash's art slide on display?

 It ended up with Jill and I cajoling the kids out of the museum - they were having such a fun time - and I admit that we didn't really want to go - but we didn't want to drive in the dark on roads through the Rockies even less!

We liked Calgary as a city - not sure exactly why - it just seemed prosperous, clean and modern. There was certainly a lot being built around the city that we saw, much of it to improve the flow of traffic.