Shea and I lived in Calgary for about three and a half years right after she graduated from nursing school.
It was an amazing city to be young in with tons to do – restaurants, bar, attractions.
As we prepare for another return visit (the first time back since Sasha was born), here are my Top 5 Highlights of our time in Calgary:
Bow River Float
A couple we knew organized about a dozen people to rent a huge raft then we spent the afternoon leisurely floating down the Bow River. It was a perfect day – beautiful weather, swimming in cool rushing water, drinking filter water via one survivalist’s purifier, going past the Folk Fest which was on that day (but unable to stop due to security patrolling the river) and, best of all, river patrol didn’t stop check us until *after* our cooler was empty! I think part of the reason we only did it once is because it felt like it would never be that good again.
Calgary Flames 2004 Stanley Cup Final Run
A team with one superstar player (Iginla), one superstar goalie (Kiprusoff) and a bunch of scrubs went on a Cinderella-run, knocking off every single Division champion on their way to a narrow loss in the Stanley Cup Final to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Just amazing to be part of the growing energy with each game and series won. And living only a few blocks from “The Red Mile” (a strip of bars and restaurants), joining hundreds (and eventually thousands) streaming out of our buildings onto the Red Mile after every game.
The Bronto
Soon after we arrived, when my parents came to visit, my cousin who is a Calgary Firefighter, arranged to take Shea and myself, my parents and his dad up in “The Bronto”, a bucket truck that (I think) was new to the Fire Department at the time and lifted occupants 50 meters into the sky! (It was a different time – we were safely harnessed in but I wonder if any firefighter could get permission to take civilians up like this today?)
Will Ferguson
I got to meet a lot of famous writers during my ten years in the Canadian book industry (and even managed to use my connections to get Margaret Atwood to put a special inscription in a book I gave to my brother-in-law at an evening when she was only signing her name.) But one of the best known writers I met was also one of the nicest – Will Ferguson is the kind of guy who would make sure to personally drop off an Australian edition of one of his books so you’d have a unique door prize at an event, get on stage on short notice at a “Freedom to Read” Event when a scheduled writer couldn’t make it and blast “Paperback Writer” by The Beatles before an appearance at WordFest!
Hop In Brew
We had lots of favourite places in Calgary but our ultimate favourite was an amazing little hole-in-the-wall pub that was basically next door to where my office was. It had craft beer (when that was still fairly rare), a curmudgeonly owner, amazing pizza, not a single TV in the building (even during the Flames’ playoff run mentioned above which I thought was pretty commendable when we even ended up watching a Flames’ playoff game at The Palliser, Calgary’s ritziest hotel, one evening after the Alberta Book Awards ended!
We didn’t have many plans for our week off in August (ten days counting weekends on either end) but a chance conversation with a library patron has us heading to Calgary for a few days.
We’d been talking about visiting the Calgary Zoo to see the pandas since they were announced as coming. But we weren’t in a rush until I got talking to a patron while helping her print out a plane ticket to Cowtown. During that conversation, she mentioned that the adult pandas are there for awhile yet but apparently the baby pandas are going home this fall.
Shea and I talked and figured we could hive off a few days from our 10-day break to hit Calgary before going camping.
Although we lived there for three and a half years from 2001-2004, we’ve only been back a couple times since leaving so are looking forward to another return visit.
We haven’t been to Regina Folk Fest for a few years since we got our RV and now tend to be camping every weekend in the summer.
But since it was the RFF’s 50th Anniversary this year, we decided to cut camping short this weekend so we could catch at least part of the festival. Shea and the kids caught a ride out to our campsite on Thursday then I whipped out Friday night after work, spent the evening and half of Saturday there before coming back in for the Saturday evening of the festival.
It was a great evening and made me realise how much I miss the Folk Fest. (A fond memory from a few years ago – CTV was doing vox pops about the festival and approached me. I didn’t have much time to think about it so blurted something generic and dumb then as the camera guy walked away, I literally chased him down and said “Do you mind if I do that again?” On my second try I said “I think that if every day was like Regina Folk Fest, the world would be a better place!” I was happy to see they ended up using my quote to close their piece that night!)
I have a few other thoughts about the Folk Fest, Garth Brooks, politics and some other interconnected issues but instead, I wanted to make an observation about…amateur photography.
It’s pretty hard to take decent photos with an iPhone at the best of times but I remember hearing the light at dusk called “God’s Lighting Rig” as that’s a good way to guarantee good lighting.
I’m an atheist but happen to believe that’s true and was fascinated to see this effect magnified even further by the light reflecting into Victoria Park off the windows of a nearby office building.
I managed to capture Sasha enjoying the music and reminded me of that quote I gave CTV – how it was great to be among a large group of people who had a vibe of love, inclusion and joy. (Well, most of them – we had a couple people move our lawn chairs when we left our spot to go for food and we had a drunken Seth Rogan-soundalike behind us holding court for a while. But overall, great evening!)
