#Canada150 #yyc

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#Canada150, Alberta, Calgary, Canada, Canada Day, Canadian, Diana Schwenk, Diana's Enormous Book of Quotes, Tourist in my own city

I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.

― John G. Diefenbaker

Yesterday, I rode my bike downtown to check out the Canada Day celebrations.

I took some pictures to share with you. Also, I would like to wish all my fellow Canadians a very Happy Canada Day. We live in a beautiful country and I feel so blessed to be Canadian.

The old picket fence and beautiful wild rose bush outside my front door

I had to get off my bike on Stephen Avenue due to high pedestrian traffic.

An Aboriginal man sketches the couple seated in the chairs.

They graciously let me take their picture.

I asked Jake if I could take his pic and he said sure!

Jake, originally from BC, is “breaking in on the busking scene,” he told me.

St. Patrick Island is my favourite cycling destination this summer.

Island Inlet

Nope. Not a statue.

~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES ~

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So…Yesterday, I Went To A Birthday Party…

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#IAmDowntown, #OCanadayyc, Alberta, Birthday, Calgary, Canada, Canada Day, Canadian, celebrate, Diana Schwenk, humour, Hump Day Chronicles, living in the moment, Tourist in my own city, Urban Living

*** WARNING. THIS POST IS A TAD LONGER THAN MY USUAL POSTS. BUT DON’T WORRY, I’VE INCLUDED A LOT OF PHOTOS TO DISTRACT YOU***

One, two, three, almost 4 Canadians…

“Sure,” they said, when I asked to take their picture. He told me he’s been in Calgary since 1992. “Awesome! I’ve been here since 1990,” I said.

Oops, look at me jumping into the middle of a story. Sorry about that!

Yesterday I went downtown to celebrate a birthday. Canada’s birthday, to be exact. She’s 147 and she’s looking ‘not too shabby.’

Anyway I asked this lovely family if I could take their picture because they looked so…

…well they looked so Canadian.

It was a gorgeous  sunny day, about 24c when I headed downtown. I cut through Central Memorial Park and saw this.

One of the war memorials in Central Memorial Park

I’ve always just assumed, by the clothing worn by this horseman, that this statue was in memory of those who served in WWI. Yesterday, I decided to walk up to the plaque and read it.

Would you look at that! It says, “In memory of the brave men of the province of Alberta who in the South African war of 1899-1900 gave their lives for their country’s honour.”

Hey Bulldog! Seems we’re loosely connected outside of the blogosphere 🙂

Bulldog isn’t the only blogger I was reminded of yesterday. This post seems to be following in the magical styles of Andrea who gives clear directions to would-be travelers when she visits other countries; minus the whole clarity thing she employs. And Ann who shares photos that complement the themes of her posts; minus the whole stay on theme bit she uses.

Stephen Avenue, downtown Calgary

Leaving Central Memorial Park, I walked 4 blocks north and turned east onto Stephen Avenue. This is what I saw. Canadians everywhere, in every direction!

It’s not very clear, but if you click on the above picture and squint at the bottom right hand corner, you can almost see the table with cowboy hats for sale. And that’s because starting on Friday we’ll be welcoming hundreds of thousands of tourists who will be coming to the 102nd Annual Calgary Stampede and Exhibition!

What’s that I am hearing? I continued east to follow the music and came upon these two guys…

These two guys were rocking the original Spider Man theme – it was amazing!

When they were done playing is the exact moment I spotted that very Canadian family in my first photo. So now that you’re caught up, let’s just move along, shall we? 😀

Olympic Plaza is located at the end of Stephen Avenue

A whole gaggle of Canadians were gathered at Olympic Plaza and asked by the emcee to sing Happy Birthday to Canada.

How bossy!

She also told us to tweet out about the goings on using #IamDowntown or #OCanadayyc so I tweeted this picture out.

I am so compliant.

Hey! Stop laughing!

I didn’t stick around at Olympic Plaza, deciding instead to head north again into the East Village.

Two Canadians on bikes in the East Village

Look at all those Canadian flags on the roof of that building!

5 Canadians heading west on the River Walk

I turned west and stalked walked behind this family. I snapped this picture because I’ve just always thought that photos of people walking away were cool.

I’ve seen family portraits like that, they’re awesome – you should do a family shot like that – seriously!

Why are you still here??

An electronic Canadian flag

Centre Street Bridge, Calgary Alberta

I stopped to shoot this picture because I was remembering that last year at this time, the Bow River was so high that it almost covered that arch. As a matter of fact, the place I stood to take this picture was under water last year. If you click to enlarge the photo you’ll see that there is also vehicle traffic at a lower level below the arch.

Along the River Walk

Oh Look! Another Canadian Family!

They’ve been in Calgary since 1990. They’re originally from Newfoundland, and although I’ve never been to Newfoundland, I have met many Newfoundlanders and they are, by far, in my humble opinion, the friendliest people on earth!

See that little girl in the front? Did you notice her totally awesome over-the-shoulder-hand-bag? Well, when I told the family I was a blogger and asked to take their picture, she immediately insisted on putting my business card in her purse when I offered it. ❤

As I was walking away, I asked myself, “What kind of Nut Job asks complete strangers if she can take their picture?” Oh well…it’s not like I’m going to change that about myself any time soon. 🙂

Just a Canadian girl sitting by the river with her Canadian dad

I took a picture of this Canadian, who was taking a picture of another Canadian

Another flock of Canadians…

Everywhere I went, every direction I looked, every time I turned around, I saw one or more Canadians.

Was there a convention in town or something? 🙂

~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

If you’re a Canadian, how did you spend Canada Day?

And if you’re not a Canadian, how did you spend Canada Day?

Come Hell or High Water

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Alberta Strong, Calgary, Calgary Stampede, Canadian, Chris Hadfield, community, Diana Schwenk, Events, Hump Day Chronicles, living in the moment, memories, Southern Alberta Floods 2013, Stampede 101

Y A H O O!

A Stampede selfie for your amusement

Well we did it folks!

Stampede 101 went off seemingly without a hitch, although I’ve heard it said that it’s sort of like when your in-laws visit – we kind of had to sweep some stuff under the rug and hope they don’t look too closely.

But from my vantage point the Calgary Stampede and Exhibition 2013 was a great success in spite of recent floods!

Not only did the show go on, but the Stampede raised over $2,000,000 through the sale of ‘Come Hell or High Water’  T-shirts in support of flood relief!

My BFF and I checked out the Stampede grounds on Thursday (Sneak A Peek night).  Admission was half price so a mere $8 got us in.

Sure the Saddledome was closed (with water levels still sitting at about the 8th row of seats)  and the lower level of the Big Four was closed, but other than that, it was business as usual.

My first stop was Lammle’s  to get a new Cowboy hat – featured in the selfie  above. (Last year’s hat grew bigger or my head shrank – I’m not sure which) 🙂

Then we checked out the midway where you can get anything you can imagine deep-fried including butter!  I didn’t try it but was super curious about how one would go about doing this, so this roving reporter (that be me)  had to check it out knowing you would want to know as well.

Deep-fried butter is made by coating frozen cubed butter with batter and deep-frying it. Mmmmm 🙂 not for this cowgirl!

The midway also housed all the rides. As a chicken (I’m not ashamed to say so)  I watched as others rode the incredibly frightful rides.

When it came time to eat, my BFF opted for deep-fried Mac -n- Cheese from one of the food trucks and I went for Poutine the food of my province of birth.

After a good {A-hem}  meal, it was time to check out the booths in the BMO Centre (Perfect timing as it had started to rain)

Always the question-asker –  I really can’t help it, I swear – I managed to (unintentionally)  piss off a few of the folks doing demonstrations of their products.

Like the guy who was selling mats to wipe your feet off on thus preventing people from dragging mud through the house; to which I asked why don’t you just take your shoes off? [insert chirping cricket here]

And the lady who was selling a 3-step jewelry cleaner and demonstrated it to us. I told her I had been looking for jewelry cleaner recently and when I couldn’t find any I googled it and came up with this 1-step baking soda, tin foil, boiling water thing, how cool is that? [Apparently it wasn’t that cool.]

I hadn’t noticed at the time, but they weren’t impressed with my helpful tips, or so my BFF gleefully told me later. I’m glad I’ve been able to be a constant source of entertainment for her over the years. [Can you see me roll my eyes?]

~

On Friday, the official start of Stampede 101, the Stampede parade took its usual route starting on 6th Ave. and finishing on 9th Ave. I think there were over 700 horses in the parade and lots of floats.

But here’s the exciting thing.

Guess who was this year’s Parade Marshall??

Give up???

It was Col. Chris Hadfield!!

You know?

The super cool Canadian Space Commander who tweeted from space!?!!

I gotta tell ya, between this and the brilliant organization of flood relief from the Mayor’s office and the selflessness of volunteers trudging through mud and water to help out, I was just brimming over with that ‘Wild west Calgarian pioneer, Alberta Strong, Canadian spirit that says two World Wars and the Great Depression never caused us to cancel a Stampede so why should we let this flood do that’  pride!

Can’t you just see me with my hand on my chest, (IN A PATRIOTIC WAY!!!)  standing tall and proud?

Well there you have it – those are the two official events I took part in. The Stampede runs for 10 days in July every year and has been doing so since the first one in 1912.

This year over a million people came through the turnstiles. If you think of the Stampede grounds as a city, that would make it the 3rd largest city in Alberta.

One of my absolute favourite things about these 10 glorious days is how freakin’ good looking everybody becomes in cowboy gear. I’m thinking we outta seriously consider dressing this way every day of the year!

Well the Stampede ended on Sunday. Calgary is a bit quieter now. I have to admit I’m a bit sad about that. Many are back to wearing their fruit of the looms high up and their pants down low with the crotch somewhere around knee level. Alas, life is back to normal.

~

There is still a lot of work to be done to pick ourselves up after the flood. The true cost of all the damage may not be understood for years to come but I have no doubt our western pioneer spirit will triumph and together, just as in the days of old, we will come out stronger than before!

If you haven’t seen it yet, check out Col. Chris Hadfield’s version [performed in space]  of Space Oddity below.

~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

What’s your favourite event in your city?