Day 12 - Medicine Hat, Alberta to Calgary, Alberta

Wednesday 15th June (Central Time)

We were awake so early this morning that we were on the road by about 7.30 and heading towards Calgary.

The prairies continued but they seemed to become more rugged and hilly, it still came as a surprise when Calgary appeared on the horizon. It has several very tall buildings that really stood out and then behind it we could see the mountains.

We arrived in the city by 10.30 which gave us plenty of time to visit the Glenbow Museum. They have a large collection of First Nation artifacts and we wanted to visit the archives too.

My grandmother's cousin emigrated to Canada in the 1920's and she worked with the Sarcee tribe helping them to keep their families together and to preserve their way of life during a time when white men were trying to control them.

She was the first white woman to be invited to become a member of the Indian Association of Alberta and was adopted by the Sarcee tribe. We know she was presented with a ceremonial headdress which was draped over her coffin when she died. We have been trying to trace the headdress and thought it was in a museum.

The ladies in the archive department were very helpful but unfortunately there in no record about the headdress.  However it was interesting to see their collections of her papers, her life history and some letters concerning a book she was planning on writing.

We were also able to catch up with two friends which was nice.

Dominik used to live near us in Nova Scotia and it was fun to meet up for lunch and to catch up on news. Also we walked some of the Camino with Carol and her husband Steve, unfortunately Steve was away but we spent a fun afternoon with Carol and took her geocaching in the evening.

Our home last night!

Wow! 5066km

Yep! Still on the prairies.

We stopped at a Benny's for breakfast - this was a real option for breakfast.
Maple smoked bacon and vanilla ice cream, yummy!

Some hills.

We saw a lot of these small oil wells today.

Some real cowboys. I was so excited I nearly forgot to take a
photo so it's a bit blurry. 

Mountains appearing on the horizon.

Everything in Calgary seemed so big after the flatness of the prairies.

Calgary tower

We went up to the viewing tower and Gary took this photo
through the glass floor!

Great views

I can't believe that he stood on it!

I can do the looking up but not the looking down

A beautiful metal horse sculpture

They have trams, but we didn't get to play on them.

Calgary is the only place in Canada where we know people.
We had lunch with our friend Dominik and stayed over night
with our Camino friend Carol.

We took Carol geocaching on the hill and she made 2 great finds!

A view across Calgary to the mountains from the top of Nose Hill,
near where Carol lives.