Calgary Stampede 2006 Recap

- Tuyet and I ended up dilly dallying (more so me than her) and we arrived East of the Stampede grounds (Ramsay) by 3:45PM.
- We decided to park in Ramsay at the Elementary school. They have parking there for $15 before 8pm and $5 after 8PM. We figured that we would end up paying $9 if we were to take the c-train from a station (2.25/person + round trip) and that's only an extra $6 and we'd have the car closer.
- After a short walk down a huge section of stairs (east of the Saddledome) we arrived at the Stampede grounds by 4PM.
- The heat was intense at that time so we decided to head inside and catch the 4:30PM show of Superdogs. We got great seats and the show was different this year (in a good way). The show never ceases to amaze me. The best part of the show for me (every year) is when the bulldog comes out! I'm definitely getting one of them in the future.
- After that we headed to the Roundup Center and did some hat shopping and looked at all the products the vendors were advertising. I was really interested in those self-customized novelty toilet seats but at $40 a seat I thought it wasn't worth it.
- Tuyet found herself a cowboy hat first and I think it took me nearly an hour after that to find one for myself that I liked. I ended up by a brown felt Columbia Renegade.


This is my hat. I love this hat, it's so comfortable and totally protects me from the sun!

- By the time we both had our hats, we headed outside but by that time the sun was less intense....boo.
- We ate some yummy montreal smoked sandwiches and later on in the night we hit up some corn dogs. I ate a regular sized corn dog while Tuyet opted for a mini one :D
- I played whack a mole and won on my very first try! For the past two years I have tried without any luck, but this year was my year for whack-a-mole, and I destroyed! I won a pink bear which I gave to Tuyet.



- We decided to buy a few tickets and go on a few rides. We went on a few spinning ones, the ferris wheel and the sky ride. To me the sky ride is a must if you are going to Stampede. Sure there's nothing really exciting about it, but I feel its a good place to take in all the sights and sounds of the Stampede. And plus you get to look down girls shirts :D

- We ended the night eating some texas fries and watching the fireworks. The fries were okay, there were like fresh potatoe chips, but the fireworks were awesome. But not as awesome as the fireworks on the last day of Stampede.

So that's my recap. For me the Stampede is fun but not as fun as it was when I was younger. Back then I went there to meet up with friends and hang out. Now I just like to go for the shows and vendors. Yep I'm showing my age. And I think I'd be a bit more enthusiastic about the Stampede as a whole if it wasn't so expensive! I think I managed to spend approx. $200 and all I have is a cowboy hat and a pink bear to show for it. At least I came out with something right?

Just got back!

So a few weeks back Tuyet told me to keep the weekend of July 8th free so that we can go "somewhere". Baffled but willing to co-operate I made sure I wasn't doing anything that weekend. Eventually the days rolled by and on the 7th she decided to tell me that she had booked the Polynesian room at the Fantasyland Hotel for a the weekend. AWESOME! Even more awesome is the reason why. It was to make up for the missed car show back on June 10th (I went to her co-workers super awkward wedding).

Anyways we left Calgary pretty late because we had to BOTH help our Dads out around the house. I helped my dad install a 40" LCD screen onto a wall mount and she helped her Dad clean out the gutters of her huge house (I think I got the better deal). So with all that we didn't end up leaving Calgary until 1PM. We arrived in Edmonton at 3:30PM and checked into our Polynesian themed bedroom by 4PM. It was amazing! I really liked the jacuzzi because it had this sweet waterfall that filled up the tub, and it would keep on running when you had the jacuzzi jets on. Here's a picture of the room:



We quickly unpacked after we arrived and headed into the mall to have a bit of a snack. After that we came back to our room to let the food settle for a bit and headed for the World Water Park at 6PM. Click here for a old but cool virtual panorama of the waterpark.

Here's another pic (more recent) of the World Waterpark:


The waterpark was so much fun! I haven't been to one since I was kid and I was enjoying every minute of it! We first played in the waves for a good hour but eventually got annoyed of everyones tubes running into us so we headed for the water slides. I ended up riding almost every single slide except for a few that were closed and ones I didn't have the "kahunas" to go on like the Sky Screamer. Here's a lay out of the park and descriptions of the slides. Click here.

Our favourite ride ended up being Nessie's Revenge. It was an advanced ride that was super fast and you would catch huge air off of the drops. It was so exhilirating that we ended up going on it 3-4 times! The bonus of this ride was the lineup was almost non-existant (some rides had about 15 minutes waits in the lineups). After we hit Nessie up one last time we went back and enjoyed the waves again until 8:45PM. Then we made our way back to the hotel to shower and made our way to Bourbon Street (inside the mall) for a late supper.

Bourbon Street was not bad at all. We ended up going to the lounge at Earl's and sharing a few appetizers while enjoying a few Caesar's and Bellini's. The meals and drinks were good but the only complaint I have is that they definitely cheaped out on the amounts of alcohol in our drinks. None of us felt a remote buzz and Tuyet didn't even turn red!

After that we went back to our room and hit up the Jacuzzi! Haha, talk about a water filled day. I was so tired by that time that the hum of the jacuzzi nearly made me fall asleep. With that we ended off the night. Ahhh what a day!

The next day we woke up nice and late and then did a round of shopping in West Ed. We didn't end up buying anything (we never seem to be able to buy anything from West Ed.). We got back into town around 8ish in the evening.

The trip was amazing and the thought put into this trip was above and beyond spectacular. I had so much fun, and I would recommend anyone who wants to get away for a day or so to try out the Fantasyland Hotel. The prices are a bit high, but the entertainment available at the mall and the convenience of it all makes it a great weekend getaway. I'd definitely do it again!







P.S for Tuyet: What an awesome weekend. Thank you so much for being so thoughtful for this trip. You definitely Rock(ed) my Kasbah!!!!!!

P.P.S. This is the first time I never sped excessively to get to my destination. Instead I kept it at a stead 120km/h for the entire trip. It proved to be a more comfortable trip this way, and a lot more fuel efficient!