So, Stephen moaned about his back “o! my back!” and got the cushy guest room with the double-bed and the Gibson Girl and Scarlett O’Hara dolls. I got the Dora the Explorer theme room (which does have a very nice bay window, by the way).
In the morning, we went to Superstore with Bernadette and her amazing radio twins. “Mommy, I want that!” in stereo, all the time. ;-) In Calgary, the Superstores have self-checkouts. Cool. You can also pay with pennies if you want to. Way cool!
After unloading much of my spare change on a purchase of Limey, frozen pizza and bread, we hopped back into the funwagon and headed downtown for lunch. It took a while to find parking - we had to circle like sharks, and it doesn't help that 3/5ths of the people in town have oversized vehicles. Parking is $3.50 an hour, and $27 a day. Yikes!
After eating at Thai Express (darn, I wish we had one of them in town), and checking out the Devonian Gardens, we wandered out into the street. There are some nice walking streets - and there was a whole lot of Stampede stuff going on. Cowboy hats everywhere! Hay bales and rough wood decorations in the banks, on the street, in the restaurants. I wonder where it all goes when the Stampede is over?
We walked over to the Calgary Tower. It was a really lovely sunny day, so we got a nice clear view of the mountains in the distance. In the downtown district, there are a lot of tall buildings encroaching on the view. At times, you can't see the tower from street level, because it's hiding behind someone else's building. There is a new (to me, anyway) glass floor, which I did wander out onto. It would have been scarier if it were a bigger glass floor, but it still gave me mini-heebie-jeebies.
Once we left the tower, we then had to go to the Bay to buy Rebecca some shoes, since she’d decided to wear unyielding patent leather shoes that were too small. Doh! Poor Fashion Choices 101. She must have tried on at least 231 pairs of Crocs before we found a pair that fit her properly.
With Rebecca all shoed up in her new lime green Crocs, Sydney suddenly decided she wanted to take the train. Want to go on the train. The train. The train. I want to go. I want to go on the train. We tried to explain that the train did not run through the parking garage, but to no avail. Wahhhh! Too bad, so sad. No trains today.
At last, we’re back at the house, where the brats were hyper-activated and wanted to see and do everything. They were following us everywhere, asking the same questions over and over. Aargh! Kid overload. I shall only ever have dogs.
After a nice steak dinner (yum!), Bernadette suggested going to the Stampede. I was not sure. I didn’t want to see some poor little calf get roped. Not the rodeo, she says, indignant. Walk around and look at the rides and eat fair food. Oh. Yeah, I can do that.
So we go to the park-and-ride. Some pierced guy asks for 50 cents for bus fare. Stephen gives it to him; the guy takes it, but never goes to buy a ticket. Bernadette is convinced he’s now going to buy 50 cents worth of crack. We don’t care.
We we board the LRT, there's lots of Stampede-goers. Including several teenage girls dressed as Pocahontas – skimpy little “Indian maid” costumes, with a tomahawk in their hair(!), and a toy bow and arrow. Stephen thinks some of his northern coworkers would not be amused.
We get off at the Stampede site, and there are hordes of people. Hordey-hordey-horde.
$13 to get in. Suckers!
We head over to the casino (why not?), where we are promptly asked for ID. I laugh. And laugh. And laugh some more. And then show my ID. But it's not a very exciting casino. We leave with all of our money.
I discover an elephant ear and eat it. Bernadette is more interested in minidonuts. Stephen (channeling Dad) scowls at all the people. (Seriously: hordes.)
We walk around, look at the rides. Check out the Teepee Village, which is cool. Wander back, look at some western wear. I try on a pink cowboy hat, but am not sure that I want to buy a hat of plasticized pink. I try on a nice black felt hat, but am not sure that I want to pay $95. My indecisive hat-purchasing attempts are destined to end in failure.
We walk around and see the Saddledome, where there’s a military exhibit outside. Sadly, it’s just shutting down. Now we can’t climb into the tanks, or the fighter jets. Woe!
We go to see the horses. Big stinking horses. I mean, 2500 kg's big horses. Two blonde chicks were posing in front of a big horse while another cowboy took their picture. I had to point out to the one blonde that “the horse is eating your hair.” Eek! She leaps away, grabbing her hair.
Then we went to Kidsville, where we didn’t exactly cheat at duck pond fishing. Let’s just say that Stephen is observant; we had some insider information, and Bernadette went home with two stuffed animals for her brats.
We wandered through the merchant area, where they were hawking magic chammies, and incredible veggie slicers, and Stephen was now openly bemoaning his fate and wanting to go home. So, we pile back onto the LRT, then back to the car and drive home.
But when we get home, the garage door is locked. Onoez! It’s 11:30 p.m., everyone’s gone to bed, and we’re locked out. And Bernadette doesn’t have her keys. There is some discussion as to why someone would leave without keys. But why, she says, why would Gavin lock the door? Why? She calls him on the phone. Nothing. We ring the doorbell. Nothing. She knocks. Nothing. We go around to the back, and Fergie (the dog) starts barking. Still nothing.
Bernadette goes into the back yard, gets a toy ball and starts throwing it against her window, yelling, “Gavin! Wake up!” Thump. “Gavin! Let us in!” Thump. “How can he not hear us?” Thump.
Eventually, after about 10 minutes, he finally wakes up and lets us in. Yay! All's well that ends well - right? (There was some back and forth between Bernadette and Gavin about who was MORE right, but we'll leave that to them to figure out.)
;-)
In the morning, we went to Superstore with Bernadette and her amazing radio twins. “Mommy, I want that!” in stereo, all the time. ;-) In Calgary, the Superstores have self-checkouts. Cool. You can also pay with pennies if you want to. Way cool!
After unloading much of my spare change on a purchase of Limey, frozen pizza and bread, we hopped back into the funwagon and headed downtown for lunch. It took a while to find parking - we had to circle like sharks, and it doesn't help that 3/5ths of the people in town have oversized vehicles. Parking is $3.50 an hour, and $27 a day. Yikes!
After eating at Thai Express (darn, I wish we had one of them in town), and checking out the Devonian Gardens, we wandered out into the street. There are some nice walking streets - and there was a whole lot of Stampede stuff going on. Cowboy hats everywhere! Hay bales and rough wood decorations in the banks, on the street, in the restaurants. I wonder where it all goes when the Stampede is over?
We walked over to the Calgary Tower. It was a really lovely sunny day, so we got a nice clear view of the mountains in the distance. In the downtown district, there are a lot of tall buildings encroaching on the view. At times, you can't see the tower from street level, because it's hiding behind someone else's building. There is a new (to me, anyway) glass floor, which I did wander out onto. It would have been scarier if it were a bigger glass floor, but it still gave me mini-heebie-jeebies.
Once we left the tower, we then had to go to the Bay to buy Rebecca some shoes, since she’d decided to wear unyielding patent leather shoes that were too small. Doh! Poor Fashion Choices 101. She must have tried on at least 231 pairs of Crocs before we found a pair that fit her properly.
With Rebecca all shoed up in her new lime green Crocs, Sydney suddenly decided she wanted to take the train. Want to go on the train. The train. The train. I want to go. I want to go on the train. We tried to explain that the train did not run through the parking garage, but to no avail. Wahhhh! Too bad, so sad. No trains today.
At last, we’re back at the house, where the brats were hyper-activated and wanted to see and do everything. They were following us everywhere, asking the same questions over and over. Aargh! Kid overload. I shall only ever have dogs.
After a nice steak dinner (yum!), Bernadette suggested going to the Stampede. I was not sure. I didn’t want to see some poor little calf get roped. Not the rodeo, she says, indignant. Walk around and look at the rides and eat fair food. Oh. Yeah, I can do that.
So we go to the park-and-ride. Some pierced guy asks for 50 cents for bus fare. Stephen gives it to him; the guy takes it, but never goes to buy a ticket. Bernadette is convinced he’s now going to buy 50 cents worth of crack. We don’t care.
We we board the LRT, there's lots of Stampede-goers. Including several teenage girls dressed as Pocahontas – skimpy little “Indian maid” costumes, with a tomahawk in their hair(!), and a toy bow and arrow. Stephen thinks some of his northern coworkers would not be amused.
We get off at the Stampede site, and there are hordes of people. Hordey-hordey-horde.
$13 to get in. Suckers!
We head over to the casino (why not?), where we are promptly asked for ID. I laugh. And laugh. And laugh some more. And then show my ID. But it's not a very exciting casino. We leave with all of our money.
I discover an elephant ear and eat it. Bernadette is more interested in minidonuts. Stephen (channeling Dad) scowls at all the people. (Seriously: hordes.)
We walk around, look at the rides. Check out the Teepee Village, which is cool. Wander back, look at some western wear. I try on a pink cowboy hat, but am not sure that I want to buy a hat of plasticized pink. I try on a nice black felt hat, but am not sure that I want to pay $95. My indecisive hat-purchasing attempts are destined to end in failure.
We walk around and see the Saddledome, where there’s a military exhibit outside. Sadly, it’s just shutting down. Now we can’t climb into the tanks, or the fighter jets. Woe!
We go to see the horses. Big stinking horses. I mean, 2500 kg's big horses. Two blonde chicks were posing in front of a big horse while another cowboy took their picture. I had to point out to the one blonde that “the horse is eating your hair.” Eek! She leaps away, grabbing her hair.
Then we went to Kidsville, where we didn’t exactly cheat at duck pond fishing. Let’s just say that Stephen is observant; we had some insider information, and Bernadette went home with two stuffed animals for her brats.
We wandered through the merchant area, where they were hawking magic chammies, and incredible veggie slicers, and Stephen was now openly bemoaning his fate and wanting to go home. So, we pile back onto the LRT, then back to the car and drive home.
But when we get home, the garage door is locked. Onoez! It’s 11:30 p.m., everyone’s gone to bed, and we’re locked out. And Bernadette doesn’t have her keys. There is some discussion as to why someone would leave without keys. But why, she says, why would Gavin lock the door? Why? She calls him on the phone. Nothing. We ring the doorbell. Nothing. She knocks. Nothing. We go around to the back, and Fergie (the dog) starts barking. Still nothing.
Bernadette goes into the back yard, gets a toy ball and starts throwing it against her window, yelling, “Gavin! Wake up!” Thump. “Gavin! Let us in!” Thump. “How can he not hear us?” Thump.
Eventually, after about 10 minutes, he finally wakes up and lets us in. Yay! All's well that ends well - right? (There was some back and forth between Bernadette and Gavin about who was MORE right, but we'll leave that to them to figure out.)
;-)
Comments
Post a Comment