Calgary Stampede
Have you ever really been to Calgary if you haven’t been to the Calgary Stampede? We planned our trip to coincide with the last 3 days of the stampede, but our flight was delayed a full 24 hours. Taking the “red-eye” we were careful to plan a rest day before we intended to head to the stampede. Well, our rest day, was actually spent home on the farm, doing what we do.
We arrived at our hotel in Calgary at about 4 AM. At 1:30 PM we had tickets to the grandstand show and tickets to a Blake Shelton concert that evening. So, after a couple of hours of sleep, we headed out to see what this stampede was all about.
The Superwheel is hard to miss. I’m not much for rides and certainly not for heights, but there are a few things that you have to do, even though they put you well outside your comfort zone.
Arriving at the stampede on a Saturday meant the grounds would be crowded and there would be line-ups for everything. We saw an opportunity to jump into the temporarily shorter line for the Superwheel and figured it would be the best time. Also, a good way to have a birds-eye view to see the grounds.
What I wasn’t expecting, was my first peak at the mountains. Between the skyscrapers, off in the distance, the unforgettable blue of the snow-peaked Rocky Mountains could be seen. That took my breath away…or maybe it was the fact that we were 150 feet in the air that did that!
Even though I was slightly panicked, we were able to scope out the grounds and get a bit of an idea of where everything was.
There are so many options for midway food, some things that were unfamiliar to us. Things like the turkey legs didn’t look overly appealing. Dill pickle pizza and anything to do with insects was not on my radar, but I had a few items I was looking forward to trying.
For lunch, I decided to get a colossal onion. I tried to convince my hubby to share it with me, but he was looking toward a poutine option, so I made a colossal attempt at the onion but failed drastically. Those are rather big, and it was great, but I really lost interest before the halfway mark.
We explored the grounds but we were disappointed that the isles of beef cattle were blocked off to all but exhibitors. We toured the industrial booths and the art show was outstanding. We caught a bit of the auctioneering competition, then off to the grandstand rodeo.
You watch the rodeo on tv and think you know what it feels like to be there…you are wrong. It was spellbinding. We were not in the good seats by any stretch but we were able to get a real feel for the events and thoroughly enjoyed watching the show.
We left the grounds to go to a sit-down restaurant for supper before returning to the concert. I was really hoping to be able to get some of those famous mini donuts and fresh lemonade in the Saddledome, but it was not to be. The concert was great and it was fun to see the crowd react when Blake was joined by his wife, Gwen Stephani. She was a definite bonus to the show.
Still craving the mini-donuts and lemonade, we made an attempt on the way out, but the grounds we SOOOO CROWDED after the concert, we only managed the lemonade…not donuts. The lemonade was not good at all. Such a disappointment when I was so tired. Not really a big deal, when I was more rested the next m0rning.
We headed back to the Stampede the next day. We decided to take the Skyride when we arrived at the grounds. It was actually a chair lift that went over the fairgrounds. It was nice, but not nearly as good a view as the Superwheel.
Then the hunt for Mini donuts was on. Also, I was sure that the homemade lemonade had to be different at some of the other spots, or why would it be something that people talked about? So, we found Family Squeezed Lemonade with the slogan, “when life gives you cousins, make lemonade”. They had an option for Raspberry Lemonade, and was that good! We found some mini donuts to go with it, and I was as happy as could be!
We wandered the grounds and watched some cattle penning. Then decided to leave the grounds for a sit-down meal again. This time we went to Minas Brazilian Steakhouse. This was quite an experience!
We returned to the fairgrounds for the final night of the grandstand show. What a show it was! Chuckwagon races, Indigenous Relay races (my favourite), a stage show including Dean Brody, and topped off with an incredible firework show that was synchronized with the stage show.
Our visit to the Calgary Stampede was complete. So glad we went…it was a worthy bucket list item!
