Zipline at Canada Olympic Park

Zipline & Bobsled at Canada Olympic Park
Sunday September 8 & Tuesday September 24, 2013



The actual goal here was just the zipline.  I went to Mexico in May and had the opportunity to zipline there, but decided to wait and do it in Calgary because of how special it is that these facilities are accessible to us.  They are remaining 1988 Olympic facilities. 

Checking out the website, I found that they had a summer deal: $100 for both the zipline and bobsled (normally $65 each), so of course I would be going bobsledding, too!  Also, the natural fit for this was my dad and he was all over it!

We went to the park in the afternoon on Sunday September 8th and got all suited up for the zipline.  First, we were going to do the practice run, then the tallest run, then the middle one that would bring us back to where we started.

We went outside to the practice run and my dad and I got right in there, volunteering to go first.  Flying through the air is fun!  Why hold back?






They told us how to hold our legs, what to do with our arms, when to brace, all the good stuff.  Then we zipped down the first line, laughing at each other as we went.





It's a great thing we wanted to go first, because the moment we got to the bottom, we found out that there was lightening in the area.  All zipline runs were shut down from that moment on.  The rest of the group walked to the bottom (it was only about 100 feet long) and missed out on any zipping that day.  They didn't know if the closure would last for an hour, or the rest of the day, so we were told not to wait around.  It's a good thing we were able to reschedule, because they were closed for the rest of the day.

Even with the closure, we were able to do the bobsled that day, which was great.  We piled into a van and got a ride to the top of the hill.  We went into the booth at the top and waited for our turn.  And waited.... and waited...

Finally we got our chance.

Again, I volunteered to sit at the front.  So it was me, my dad, two other people that we didn't know and the driver.  What a great job that would be!

We squished in and held on tight.  Our ride lasted about a minute and we got up to around 90km/hr on those 14 turns!  Again, my dad and I were laughing and hooting the whole way down the hill.  It was so much fun!

The park was able to reschedule our zipline for Tuesday September 24th.  We went in the evening, which was really cool with the evening light.  This time there was almost no chance of lightening (I say almost because it's Calgary.  You know what I mean), so we were excited.  We got all geared up and went out for the test run again.

Then they packed us into the van and we went to the top of the hill.  The second run is from the tallest point in Calgary; the top of the Olympic ski jump.  Heights make me a little nervous, but I felt completely comfortable up there.  We got all strapped in and then they released us.  We were so high up, but it felt completely safe.  My dad suddenly got a burst of speed and he flew past me so quickly!  The website says the run was 500m long, with a drop of 100m, with speeds up to 120-140km/hr.  It didn't feel like we were going that fast but it sure was an incredible rush!

We had one more run to go.  It went from the bottom of the second run back to where we had started.  It was about a quarter of the length of the previous one.  This time the instructors asked if anyone wanted to go upside down.  Of course we did!  They taught us how (basically just flip your legs up) and away we went.  It was so much fun to try it from a completely different view.  That one was over way too quickly!

And then we were finished.  It was all over way too quickly, but so worth it!  We went for greasy appetizers and beer afterwards, because that's the right thing to do when you've flown down a hill at over 100km an hour!

Go on a Walking Tour

Go on a Walking Tour of Downtown Calgary
September 21, 2013

In 2004 my wonderful friend, Nicole (see also: Wine Tasting), and I were in New York City.  We went on a free walking tour that lasted 17 hours but would have been longer if it hadn't been rained out by a hurricane.  I love that every part of that sentence is completely true! 

That trip had been my 4th time to New York.  While you certainly can't see everything in 3 visits, I felt like I had a pretty good handle on the sites, until this tour.  It completely opened my eyes to so many incredible things in NYC.  That city is amazing.  It's time for another trip, I think... k, hubby?

In any case, I discovered that there is a company in Calgary that offers a walking tour.  While it wasn't free, 17 hours, or rained out, it was certainly worth it.

Nicole came with me on this tour as well, which was really nice!  We started our tour in front of city hall, which is pretty cool in itself.  I love that there is a modern building and an original building that make up city hall!

We walked along Stephen Ave, noticing things that I'd never seen before, such as the original office of the founder of the Calgary Stampede and the statue of the Famous Five (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Famous_Five_%28Canada%29).

We went up the street and checked out the Family of Man statues.  This is a statue that I've seen so many times, but have never been up close to.

My camera has that feature that tries to recognize faces in the preview mode and it was doing that to a very specific part of the statues, which made me laugh! 

We kept going up the street and came to some really cool displays outside of the passport office and talked about travelers not knowing where Calgary is on the map.

Then over to the river where we discussed the floods.  The other two people on our tour lived in Calgary, but had recently moved here, so they were pretty interested in the flood stories.  They had just missed all of the crazyness.

We walked through the Chinese Cultural Centre.  There was a wedding going on that night, so they had the ballroom set up beautifully!  The roof of the cultural centre was incredible!

The guides opted to take us to Livingston Place (I think that's where this was, but please correct me if I'm wrong) instead of the Devonian Gardens, because most people don't know about the beautiful green space on the second floor.  I sure didn't.  It was so tranquil and beautiful! 

They showed us a few other great spaces and then we ended off at the Bow.  We stood inside of the wire head art (really cool, but doesn't make much sense without a picture!) and then went inside.  I was surprised to find that the floors of the building don't actually
extend to the outer wall, so if you stand at the bottom right by the wall, you can see all the way up to the top floor!

This is where the tour ended.  It was a great experience and I learned a lot from our guides, who were obviously very passionate about the city and the history. 

It was a great day with Nicole and hopefully only walking tour number two of many!

Fly A Kite

Fly A Kite
September 13, 2013

I have childlike fun as much as possible.  If a kid would do it, I probably would, too.  Flying a kite was a suggestion from a friend, but it really fit my mantra!

I figured the best person to do this with would be my awesome, teenaged neighbour, Kelsey.  I was right.

On the day that we decided to fly kites, I realized that I didn't, in fact, own a kite.  Neither did Kelsey.  I didn't think this would be too much of a problem, but it was mid September, so I was wrong. 

I went to Walmart, Toys-R-Us and two dollar stores.  Luckily, the second dollar store had them, and in a two pack, no less! 

Kelsey & I went to the field behind the high school in our neighbourhood.  My kite went up straight away, but Kelsey's kept circling at high velocity, close to the ground.  Luckily, I had bought 4 kites, so we made the switch and her new one went up quickly after that.

A few people walked along the path close to us and commented on what a great night it was to fly a kite.  I couldn't have agreed more.  It was warm without a cloud in the sky, but with a bit of a breeze.  We really lucked out!

   
We hung out for about an hour and then the sun started going down.

Afterwards, it was time for some ice cream.

Om nom nom. 

Canoe on Lake Louise

Canoe on Lake Louise
September 2, 2013

When I was 15, my parents moved us to Calgary because of a job transfer.  I didn't think so at the time, but it was a great thing for me.

Calgary is so close to the mountains (only an hour to Banff).  This is pretty cool, except that I'm more of a beach girl - and I live in the prairies.  Oh well, some day!

In any case, Lake Louise is only an hour and 45 minutes away and I had never been there.  I've seen so many photos and heard so many great things about it, so I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to experience it for myself.

Luckily, two of my wonderful lady friends (Courtney & Tammy) were available, so we made a day of it.

When we arrived, we were blown away by the beauty of the lake.  As Courtney said, "It's sooo majestic!".  The water is the exact greenish blue color seen in all the photos.  It's absolutely gorgeous!

We were in the boat with the flag

The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise offers a tour called the Voyageur Canoe Experience, so I booked it a few weeks in advance.  We could have just rented a canoe and zipped around on the lake by ourselves, but the Experience was in a larger canoe with a few other people and a guide, which seemed like the better option.

We were told how to properly paddle, then we all got in, each row at a time. I was in the third row and the girls were directly behind me.  There were two odd girls in front of me who didn't seem to understand how to paddle in rhythm and another couple behind Courtney & Tammy.

We took the boat along the side of the lake till we reached the far end, which took much less time than I had anticipated and is approximately 3km from the dock at the hotel.  When we got to the far end, I put both of my feet in the water.  It was freezing, but so refreshing!  The water felt so clean.


Our guide got us singing, which was awkward.

We looped back around to the dock and let the odd girls out - they had a bus to catch - and then did another lap.

On our second lap around we got quite close to the front of the Chateau, which is gorgeous!  There were tons of tourists standing near the water who took photos of us.

Then back near the far end for a tranquil sit.  Sound waves reflect off the surface of water, so we could hear people chatting from all around us, but it still felt quiet and peaceful.  We sat in the boat for a couple of minutes, just taking it all in.

After that, we headed back to the dock.  It had been almost two hours!  I couldn't believe it!

When we were finished, we took our own tour of the Chateau (very much enjoying how fancy the washrooms are) and then made our way back to Banff, where we had supper.

It was a great day and it was made so much better by the company!

This is an experience that I would highly recommend!

And that's when Courtney got eaten by a bear

Gay Pride Parade

Attend a Parade
September 1, 2013



It's been a long time since I've been to a parade.  Calgary has three major parades to choose from: the Santa Claus parade, the Stampede Parade and the Gay Pride Parade.  This was an easy choice.

Though, it was made more difficult when Chris Hadfield was announced as the Stampede Parade Marshall.  I love space.  But the Stampede Parade is difficult for me to get to, what with it being held on a Friday morning during my busy season.

In any case, this picture pretty much sums up my feelings on gay rights:

Really, what I meant to say was 'human rights'

So, I was really excited for the Gay Pride Parade.  My beautiful friend, Jess, joined me and we took the train downtown (great idea, Jess).  The parade started at 12:00pm and we got there just a few minutes in advance.

We waited for David's Tea to open (a must!) and made sure to get in there right away.  While waiting inside, I made a comment to Jess about all of the great little rainbow flags that the other attendees had.  She said that the downtown Winners location was handing them out for free, which is fantastic.  I commented that it was too bad we didn't get there earlier to go down and get a couple of our own.  About 5 minutes later, one of the guys who had been in the tea store during our conversation came back in and offered me his flag.  He said that he'd heard us talking and had an extra, if we wanted it.  It was so sweet and really set the tone for the rest of the parade!

There were tons of people (around 30,000) and the energy was incredible!  People were constantly cheering, dancing and smiling.  People standing next to us were instantly our friends.  It was a very loving environment.


As for the parade itself, I guess I expected mostly colorful, fluff kind of floats, which there were, but I was surprised at the number of businesses and churches (yup, churches) that were involved.  It was really cool to see so much support, especially from unexpected places.

When the parade was over, attendees walked in the street behind the floats.  Of course, I was all over that. We walked all the way to Shaw Millennium Park, where they were holding a festival celebration.  There were a lot of exhibit stands, music and people dancing.  We didn't stay long, but really enjoyed the atmosphere.

It was an exciting and high energy experience.  I'm really glad I chose this parade!

Graffiti Knit

Graffiti Knit
August 31, 2013

My gran taught me how to knit when I was only a few years old.  I was so young that I don't remember learning, so to me, I've just always known how.   She was so talented and I'm so happy that she gave me knitting.  It's something that I do almost every day.  It's calming and makes me feel close to her.

In the spring I completed my level one knitting instructor certification, which was pretty cool.  Want to learn?  I can teach you.  :)

Pre-graffiti'd pole

I'm also an avid yogi and I love my studio, so a pole right outside of it seemed like the perfect spot to hit.  I started this project in April, finished in May and then let it sit on my knitting shelf for a few months.  Of course, it really pulled at me.  I hate the feeling of needing to get things done. 

Finally, on Saturday August 31st, I woke up with some motivation.  It was a great time to do it, because there were a lot of class cancellations that weekend (being a long weekend), so there weren't many people around to see me. 

I parked my car right next to the pole, rolled down my window, blasted the Cat Empire and got started. 

Part way through

There were a few people around, but not many walked past me.  I figured that someone would stop and ask what I was doing, or just want to chat.  I'd be all over that if I saw someone attaching yarn to anything!

About ten minutes into sewing, a car pulled up beside me.  I got excited to chat.  They asked for directions.  REALLY?  DON'T YOU SEE THAT I'M ATTACHING 5 FEET OF YARN TO A POLE?  Apparently not, because it was completely unmentioned.  Odd.

Sewing is my least favorite part of knitting, but I really enjoyed being out in the sun, doing something that would hopefully make others smile.  Attaching it took about an hour.

The finished pole

This seems like one of the more laid back, less exciting things on my list, but I got a real thrill out of it!  Afterwards, I ran a few errands.  While out in public, I felt like I had this great secret!  I had just done something really cool and I wanted to tell everyone, but isn't part of graffiti not getting caught?  Of course, it's not the same, but still... I'm feeling a little badass over here.

A few days later, the yoga studio posted a picture about it on facebook.  They loved it!  It got over 70 likes and a bunch of comments on it.  How cool!

For now, they don't know it was me.  Let's let this be our little secret, okay?




Want to see more graffiti knitting?  Check out these pictures:

http://goo.gl/xGoG7C

Attend a Wine Tasting

Attend a Wine Tasting
Saturday August 3, 2013

Nicole is one of my favorite people.  She is Australian and has lived there till recently, so it's such a treat to have her around!  Nicole is an excellent person to drink wine with, partly because she coordinated wine events in Australia, so has a lot of great wine knowledge and partly because she's so much fun!

For a few months in 2004, Nicole lived with me and every Monday night we would see if we could drink more wine than we had the previous Monday.  We once drank 4 bottles of wine between the two of us.  And the wine was usually pretty bad; typically only costing about $8/bottle. 

We like to drink nicer wine now.


Nicole married Rich, a great guy from Calgary.  So, we made it a date night.  We were able to buy groupons for the tasting, which took place at a shop on McLeod Trail called Enoteca.  The store is mostly wine, but they have a few other things as well.  In the back they have a little room for wine tastings and events. 

We got there a bit early and looked around for a little while.  Then we posed for this awesome picture:

Classic Rich

There were two people running the event.  They had 3 wines for us to taste and lots of cheese and crackers.  They spoke a lot about the wines and where they came from, which was great, but they waited for quite a while before giving us our first taste.  Once we got the samples, everyone in the room seemed to perk up a bit. 

The tasting itself was about an hour.  It was casual and fun.  When it was over Nicole, Rich and I made sure the remaining bottles were empty.

Chris (hubby) and I bought 2 bottles of wine.  One that we had tried in the tasting and one of Chris' old favorites.  Nicole & Rich bought the rest:

Afterwards, we went down the street to a pub for supper and some more drinks.  The evening was a lot of fun and I'd love to do this again!