Hanging out in Calgary

My mom, Sophia, and I recently spent nine days visiting with my brother and his family in Calgary.   We went to the Calgary Stampede, drove to Canmore and Banff, visited the dinosaur museum in Drumheller, and did a bit of shopping downtown and Chinook Centre.

At the Stampede, we ate junk food all day, watched the Superdogs, lined up to "meet" Thomas the Train, and went to see the cows, sheep, and horses.  Sophia and I also spent time in the Buckaroos section, which is a kids area.  There were bouncy castles, play-doh, and a stage for kids shows.  As for the junk food, we had corn dogs for lunch and dinner, plus snacked on mini donuts, a humongous ice cream cone, and other fried dough food variations.  I have to say that there was hardly any evidence that just two weeks prior to our visit, the Stampede grounds were under water.  They did a great job cleaning up after the flood.

We enjoyed the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller.  This was the first museum I have visited with Sophia and yes, visiting a museum with a toddler is a very different experience.  Sophia was a little frightened of the big dinosaurs in the exhibits, so she kept pulling at my hand to walk faster and leave the room asap.  She would not let me read the exhibit descriptions in peace.  When I visited museums  in my pre-child days, I read everything.  I would even rent the audio guides, follow the audio tours and listen intently.  I realize now that I will have to wait for few years before I can enjoy a museum that way again.  However, I found it so fun to watch Sophia get more comfortable in the presence of the big dinosaurs and be curious about the things on exhibit.  I enjoyed listening to her comments and answering her questions about the things she saw.  We bought a little orange dinosaur stuffie (a triceratops) as a souvenir.

Paying 5% tax, as opposed to 12% we pay here in BC, makes shopping so much more fun!  I wish we had the same sales tax in Vancouver.  I'd go shopping in Vancouver more often if our sales tax were that low!

The nine days went by too quickly.  We had so much fun  hanging out with my mom, my brother and his family.  Thanks for being such gracious hosts!  Wish our visit could have been longer.  We'll just have to go visit again real soon.

Check out our pics from Calgary, Banff, and Drumheller.