Calgary

Good evening!

We’re in Calgary right now. The drive from Canmore to Calgary took about 45 minutes so not much driving today. When we arrived, we immediately drove to the Calgary Zoo because on their website, it said that they have over 1000 animals. They did not disappoint. We saw tigers, elephants, giraffes, hippos, snow leopards, ostriches, kangaroos, muskox, and many more. It was definitely worth it. Jon would like to thank his dad for his zoom lens as it came in handy when taking close up shots of the animals. Even more so because we found a 2 for 1 coupon in an information/travelling book. He he. I guess there are pluses to hoarding. Anywhere i saw a visitor’s book, i would take it because you never know what you may find e.g. a good trail, good food, good coupons.

While we were looking at the elephants, there was a zoo keeper that was giving a presentation about them. He was holding up a ball of elephant poo (elepoo – ele like elle) made up of mainly hay (elephants digest about 50% of what they eat and the rest comes out in their poop). He told us that in india, some people use the elephant poop to make paper. It’s kind of a funny idea. They were selling some at their gift shop but it was expensive. A stationary set of about 10 pieces of paper for $14.99. I don’t know about you, but i don’t think you can convince me to pay $14.99 plus tax for poo paper. Maybe $4.99 but not $14.99. That’s like 12 items from the $1.39 mcdonald’s menu, as jon would say. Ha ha!

When we finished looking at the giraffes, it started to hail. Large chunks of ice were coming down hard and fast. It was an unbelieveable sight for the both of us. So it’s not just vancouver who has odd weather patterns.

After we had finished at the zoo, we drove to Eau claire market in downtown calgary. In several of our travel books, they mentioned this market. They described it as “brightly coloured warehouse...[with] specialty stores selling a fine variety of gourmet foods, contemporary arts, street entertainers, craft markets....” and so on. When jon and i arrived, it was a poor

After we had finished at the zoo, we drove to Eau claire market in downtown calgary. In several of our travel books, they mentioned this market. They described it as “brightly coloured warehouse...[with] specialty stores selling a fine variety of gourmet foods, contemporary arts, street entertainers, craft markets....” and so on. When jon and i arrived, it was a poor man’s version of tinseltown. NO JOKE! At least tinseltown has mcdonald’s, 7-11 and a starbucks. Eau claire market had not much. Most of the stores were non-existent and we
paid for parking ($3 for 1 hour). Boo!

We drove around downtown calgary to see where its main street was. Once we figured that out, we were trying to find cheap parking. Well we did find some, about 6 or 7 blocks away from main street and guess where we parked...at Eau Claire Market. After 5pm parking was $2. By the time we drove back it was 4 so we paid $5 plus tax to park there until the 6am the next day. We strolled along stephen avenue walk and 7 avenue. Stephen avenue is like granville street downtown. We saw lots of stores selling cowboy hats, boots, and such so we went to take a look. They had some pretty nice boots but some of them were over $200. I was thinking of getting a cowboy hat because it has a wide brim and provides excellent sun coverage. However, i have a tilley hat already. Jon said he will tape up the sides of my hat so it will look more
like a cowboy hat. Har har!

We took pictures of the calgary tower. Then we went to chinatown which is more appropriately called chinablock. It was very small. Jon did buy some cola candies there. It became quite windy during our walk around downtown that my tilley hat almost flew away. Good thing it had a chin strap.

We’re staying at the dorms in U of calgary. It’s quite spacious. We ate dinner not too long ago. We had frozen pizza and clam chowder soup. The frozen pizza turned out funny (part of the pizza started to form a large bubble) because we used a bad pan. It we delicious nonetheless. Jon and i will plan for the 14 and 15th. We will try to sleep early because we’re going to the stampede tomorrow!!!

Well boys and girls, have a good night!