Friday saw us going to the Opening Parade for the Calgary Stampede 2010. We got downtown nice and early but found the streets already packed with multiple thousands of people all vouching for a good spot to watch.
The parade itself was quite impressive with a large number of cowboys, First Nations (Indians), Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Army, etc. We loved seeing the huge wagon horses groomed in very intricate ways, as well as all the other quirky wagons, carts, cars, etc that went by. We even had a main battle tank from the Canadian Armed Forces pull a 360 right in front of us!
After the parade and a bit of a detour on the C-Train we made it to the Stampede Grounds. The day was warming up rapidly, and ended up being well over 30 degrees so we were throwing back the water, lemonade and the odd beer. There was sooo much to do and see in the grounds but I will run over a few of the highlights:
There was an Ice show in one of the stadiums which we watched, it was incredible! There was a band playing all old rock'n'roll while famous skaters did their thing on the ice; Winter Olympic gold medalists Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir even skated.
Watching New Zealand compete in national blacksmith contests, seeing the miniature horse chuck wagon racing, being able to play with the Canadian Armed Forces toys: machine guns, torpedoes, even sit in the cockpit of an F18 Hornet fighter jet.
It was a full on day to say the least, but we cannot wait until this Friday when we do it all over again, but this time go into the Grandstand to watch the Rodeo and Night Show.
THE PARADE
Royal Canadian Mounted Police:
Budweiser Wagon:
Kirsten the Cowgirl:
Very well behaved bull:
First Nation Representative:
STAMPEDE:
Giddy'up:
Smartest idea saddling a torpedo? Hell yeah!:
See I'm not the only dummy:
Real rednecks:
One for home:
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