Lion King

We had the cheap seats - smack bang in the back row - but in the middle ! We saw the Lion King in theatre which had made its way to Calgary. Awesome show.

Shannon recommends seeing it in the back row rather than near the front (where he saw it in London), because he was distracted by the people playing animals, but from further away it wasn't so much of a distraction.

Calaway Park

We ventured off to Calaway Park, which is just outside of Calgary and is Western Canada's biggest outside amusement park (inside would have to be the west edmonton mall). Memorable parts of the day include:

- Anne winning mini golf by 6 strokes
- Trout fishing - where you pay $4 for a stick and bread crumbs to attach to the stick and you go fishing for trouts in a pond. We actually saw someone catch a fish. Apparently you get to take them home!
- Anne winning mini golf by 6 strokes
- Fairy floss

Lougheed House

Lougheed house is in downtown Calgary and is a mansion, which is now a historic site. Owned by a senator and his family, this grand mansion is on 2.8 acres and is surrounded by beautiful gardens.

http://www.lougheedhouse.com/

Lilac Festival

I had read about the lilac festival but had completely forgotten it was on last Sunday. But we managed to get there, after walking around downtown and realising that there was crowds on 4th street. 100,000 people were thought to attend the festival - and it was seriously nuts. Shannon hated it, because there was there was people everywhere and it was a struggle to get to any stalls due to the crowds. The temperature was less than 30 degrees, but there was so many guys with their shirts off thinking it was hot - ha!!

4th street was shut down and there was volleyball being played, with beer gardens overflowing. Awesome festival - voted best free festival in Calgary. busy, busy, busy! we didn't realise that many people lived in Calgary!

http://www.4streetcalgary.com/lilacfestival/

Heritage Park

Last Saturday, we made our way to Heritage Park (which is the equivalent but on a much larger scale, of pioneer settlement at swan hill). That particular weekend, also happened to be the 'festival of quilts' weekend - so that mean a lot of the "older" crowd, was there proudly displaying quilts. The park was surprisingly busy - although I believe the park is only open during the summer months.

Heritage Park is coined as Canada's largest living museum, over 127 acres. The park is split into different areas, covering different eras. There is also an amusement park, (complete with ferris wheel), a steam train that goes around the park, a steam boat that docks at the park and goes along the lake, tipees, restaurants, horses and we even managed to see a live deer wandering around the park.

The weather was perfect for a day out. Icecream weather - finally!

http://www.heritagepark.ca/

Royal Tyrell, Drumheller

The Royal Tyrell, is a dinosaur museum - which is fitting because Drumheller is the dinosaur capital of the world. It is quite impressive, because the badlands here have been home to many dinosaur bone findings. There is a room in the museum, where people continue to fig around the fossil remains. I never realised that this area was littered with dinosaur bones!

http://www.tyrrellmuseum.com/

The Hoodoos

Hoodoos are sandstone pillars that can be found throughout the badlands.

The name "Hoodoo" comes from the word "voodoo" and was given to these geological formations by the Europeans. In the Blackfoot and Cree traditions, however, the Hoodoos are believed to be petrified giants who come alive at night to hurl rocks at intruders.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoodoo_(geology)

http://www.traveldrumheller.com/hoodoos.html

Suspension Bridge, Rosedale

Drumheller

Drumheller is the capital of dinosaurs. I kid you not. There are statues of dinosaurs everywhere... on street signs, as icons for stores... everywhere!! You can't escape them. The photo above is the largest dinosaur in the world!!

http://www.dinosaurvalley.com/index.php

Little Church, Drumheller

Just past Drumheller on the way to Horsethief canyon, is a "little church"... which seats 10,000 people... 6 people at a time.
Bizarre

Horseshoe & Horsethief Canyon

drum

Over the long weekend, we visited Horseshoe & Horsethief Canyon.

As you would expect, Horseshoe Canyon is in the shape of a horseshoe. It is 3km long. Horsethief canyon got its name because it apparently was used by horse thieves in the old west to hide stolen horses.

Shan describes these canyons as baby canyons in comparison to the grand canyon. Breathtaking nonetheless.

Inglewood Bird Sanctuary

Today we went to the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary. Well we eventually we got there after being stuck in traffic downtown due to the Mothers Day Funrun! The temperature was perfect for it - 17 degrees. It was the first time Anne had been able to wear shorts outside since being in Calgary.

We saw a hawk in the sanctuary and the sanctuary being on the banks of Bow River was delightful.

Nose Hill Park

Last week, we visited Nose Hill Park, which is one of the largest parks in Canada & North America and is located in Calgary. The park is more of a grasslands - but it is ideal for cyclist and walkers. We saw a number of people walking around the park. The photos above show the view to the Rocky Mountains and the last photo shows a view of Calgary city.

The park today contains numerous tipi rings (see the photo above) - circles of stone once used to weigh down the conical-shaped skin dwellings of plains bison hunters. Cool huh?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nose_Hill_Park

Edgewater Casino Vancouver

On Easter Sunday - it rained a lot. We couldn't spend much time outside unfortunately. So we went the casino and lost our money (reoccuring theme with us and casinos)! The casino was very much geared to the asian market, as you can see from the statues and also the shuttlebus, that went from chinatown to the casino!

After the casino, we managed to find the skyrail and get to Metrotown which is BC's largest shopping mall. We spent the majority of the day there to escape the rain.

Vancouver Aquarium

To beat the rain on Easter Saturday, we went to the Vancouver Aquarium. The line-up was insane! Obviously, everyone else was trying to escape from the rain!