"There ain't a horse that can't be rode, ain't a cowboy that can't be throwed"

July 10
Today we went to the rodeo! It was a rainy day at the Calgary Stampede but at least our seats were under an overhang. There were cowboys, bulls, horses, calfs, roping, barrel racing, broncs, you name it! After the rodeo we went out to eat at this Mexican place called...EL SOMBRERO!! All I could think of was my Statesboro people! :P



July 11
After hours of customs, airports, planes, and driving..we finally arrived back in Bowling Green.

"Courage is being scared to death - and saddling up anyway."

July 9
Today we left Banff and drove the hour and a half back to Calgary. We drove downtown and ate Subway and A&W for lunch and then drove to the Calgary Stampede. We watched several horse shows, drill teams, Belgians, wagon pulls, etc. and walked around the park and saw animals, and even this awesome ice skating performance. Around 6:30 we got "dinner" (Booster juices and a funnel cake ;) )and then went to another horse show. Around 8 we went to the outdoor stadium where at first there were Thoroughbred wagon pull races and then around 10 the real show began. There were fireworks, hundreds of dancers, motercycles, gymnasts, singers - one of the Canadian Idol winners - and a guy who was in Michael Jackson's film was there too!

July 8

Today we left our cabin and the final goal was to get to Banff, but during the drive through the National Park we stopped at several locations to see waterfalls and to hike.

We stopped in the town of Jasper and ate "lunch" (aka ice cream) and looked around the town, then continued our journey. We stopped to see this glaicer and also went to Lake Louise, and stopped in the town to get some food.


That evening we arrived in Banff and checked into our hotel (Best Western). After a nap, we then proceeded to walk around the town and find some dinner. The town was so cute! It didn't seem like people actually lived there! It's all surrounded by mountains and the downtown is full of people and cute shops and restaurants. We finally found this cute pub (Tommy's Pub) and had a yummy meal...along the way back to the hotel we got mint chocolate fudge for dessert!

Lots of Driving and Hiking

July 7
While my dad was giving his speech this morning, my mom, Sarah, and I went to Second Cup and got frozen hot chocolates and coffees :) We met dad back at the hotel, checked out, and then drove to where this man sells Belgian waffles in a van on the side of the road. I got a maple waffle with whipped cream and raspberry sauce...delicious. We then drove to Jasper National Park...about a 3-4 hour drive..Sarah and I watched Duplicity in the van. We arrived at our cabin and there were mountains everywhere! We drove to this place where we hiked partially up the mountain and then went in these hot and cold springs. There were 4 pools: one was super hot, one was pretty hot, another was super cold, and the other one was pretty cold. Later we ate dinner at the restaurant near the cabins and then went in the game room and played pool, ping pong, darts, fooseball, and shuffleboard for a while. While we were playing we watched a replay of the World Cup from that day of Spain beating Germany and there were these two German guys in the room who we talked to for a bit...we were all pretty upset with the result of the game :P

Cartoons and Vampires

July 6
Mom & me outside the art museum

We went to an art gallery in Edmonton today. They had these really neat exhibits and there was this whole thing on Warner Brothers and the Looney Toons. After the gallery we drove around for like 30 minutes trying to find a place to eat. Finally we went to this Italian place called Famoso where we watched the World Cup and ate a yummy meal :) After lunch, Mom, Sarah and I went to the theater and saw Eclipse and then shopped for a bit. Then we walked around downtown for forever trying to find somewhere to eat. We gave up after a while and got our car and drove to this place called Earls. It was really cute and trendy, and after a delicious dinner we went back to the hotel.

Shopping Day!

July 5

Today we went to the biggest mall in Canada...in North America...and one of the biggest in the world. They have a huge ship in the middle of it, a water park, ice skating rink, mini golf, over 800 stores, a Bourbon Street, a Chinatown, a Europe area, and more!! We shopped for a while and ate lunch at the huge food court at an A&W, shopped some more, and then had dinner in the mall at the Old Spaghetti Factory. After, we went to the University campus and watched this new National Geographic movie that someone there made.

USA: Independence Day. . . Canada: Not So Much

Since we are in Edmonton for one of Dad's meetings, he took off this morning to go to some conference for that while Mom, Sarah, and I woke up around 9:45 and walked across the Plus 15 ( this tunnel things 15 feet above the ground that connects our hotel to this shopping area) to eat breakfast at Tim Hutton's. We came back to the hotel and went swimming for a bit and then took showers...after that we drove to Elk Island and ate lunch at this cute diner and then went for an hour hike...there were supposed to be bison and elk and all sorts of things but the most interesting thing we saw was a beaver..so cute (: When we got back to the hotel we were still pretty full from lunch so we went back to the Blue Plate Diner for dessert (: