I think that out of all the wacky places I went to during this trip, Calgary was the best. It was clean, it was friendly, it was exciting and it's the place where the angels came to Earth and started hosting brunch.
I was quite hungry on the morn of Sunday. I was told we were heading to Safari Brunch at the Calgary Zoo. I figured if it was a side-stop at a zoo, that there would be little selection, much like a crummy continental breakfast, with a few lunch-like options on the side. This is not what happened.
We entered the brunch room, and there seemed to be a holy glow emanating from the three tables of food that covered most of the gymnasium-sized room. Everything I had every imagined for breakfast, it was there. Everything I had ever imagined for a salad bar, it was there. (I seriously eat salad and enjoy it. Not to be healthy, but I'm more or less addicted to dressings and croutons. I once ate out a buffet's supply of ceasar salad.) But at the center of all this glory was the chocolate fountain, surrounded by fancy desserts I didn't know what to do with. (Long story short, I ate them.)
I had pancakes, waffles, danishes, cinnamon buns, eggs, sausages, bacon, fresh fruit (pierced with a stick and run under the chocolate fountain), two full-plate helpings of salad, adorned with every salad topping I had ever had, and some I had never had (like shrimp), and fancy little desserts that looked like gelatinous chocolate volcanoes.
One cannot pass up an opportunity to eat the Calgary Zoo's Safari Brunch.
For most of the rest of the morning, we looked at all the cool animals. As well as idiotic animatronic dinosaurs and the display of animals we've all seen at home.
But that was only the zoo. If one goes to Calgary, they go to see the Stampede, which we did. Not all of it, as it is a several-day event, but we did see the final times of the chuck wagon races. Of course, this took place at 7, and it was only 2 when we left the zoo. We opted to go check out the stampede sights, such as the rides (which we didn't do), the games (which we didn't play), the food (which we didn't eat), and the sky (which started a torrential downpour two hours from the event and didn't let up).
As a joke, I suggested we just sit and ride the train back and forth from stampede park until it was a more rational time. As much of a joke as it was, that's what we ended up doing. It became slightly tedious after a while, and we just went for beverages at Tim Horton's. I spoke up quick enough and got a frozen lemonade (SCORE!). As another time-wasting trick, we spent a little time in a closing mall, which contained an HMV (DOUBLE SCORE!). They were having a 2/10$ deal, of which most of the David Bowie CDs were included. I took part in this offer and got his first album, as well as a three-disc collection. In short, 4/10$.
After that, we went back to Stampede Park and found our seats. It was bloody cold up there. The seats were high up, and it had just finished raining. The track was the muddiest mud I've ever seen. Alan and John were having a game of guessing the winners of each heat; they were right or in second place every time.
After the races, as this was the final night of the Stampede, we got to see the Grand Spectacular. It was a show of singing, dancing, acrobatics, flying pianos and fireworks. I can't really explain more than that. It was spectacular; you just had to be there.
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