Calgary before going to the rodeo!

We arrived in Calgary on the 15th and before going to the rodeo we had lots to do. First we went to Heritage Park which I would equate to Greenfield Village in Detroit, MI. The village has restored buildings, retail shops, tour guides and a car museum that just blew us away. Our tour guide was working there because her grandfather used to work there when she was just a child. One of the interesting stories was about the house pictured below. Like several of the other building this on was relocated from some place else in Alberta. The story has it that as they dismantled the bricks each one was numbered and when it came time to rebuild it they were placed piece by piece. The largest Jig Saw Puzzle I have ever seen. Inside it was extremely Victorian, who would have thought?

Just like Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo Calgary also offered a free pancake breakfast so our first stop down town was to get pancakes with bacon cooked in them which you eat like a wrap. No syrup but they were tasty.

Calgary is know for their Tower that is still one of the tallest structure in the city. When it was opened in 1968 it was the tallest but today the city has grown so much it is difficult to see the tower for the other sky scrapers.

The architecture of down town Calgary is pretty unique and the building below is a prime example.

An interesting historical note was that even well into the twentieth century women in Canada had very few rights. That was until fife women that became known as the Alberta Five took Canada to court which had to go all the way to London England before women of Canada were recognized as actual people that could do anything that a man could including holding public office.

The next post will cover the Stampede Rodeo. The town goes all out for this and we got to see two days of exciting rodeo competition and a closing ceremony worthy of an Olympic closing. The music, pageantry and fireworks made for a spectacular show and I admit that I had no idea who the performers were. I am guessing that was because they were all Canadian!