Well, my cousin Marvin and his wife were trying to make the trip here, but with some bad luck were unable to come this year. I extended a welcome to some of my other relatives and Theresa and her brother's wife, Sharon from Florida, decided on the spur of a moment to make the trip. I had made a trip on the spur of the moment to Florida back in 2003. I met Theresa last year at the family reunion in Pittsburg, PA. Here is the story of their visit for a week.
They arrived on Friday and settled in. I made several dishes of Chinese food for our company. We did a small tour and went to IKEA, a home furnishings store, the biggest one in Canada right here in Calgary, Alberta. On the way, we stopped at Fish Creek Park. A mother partridge was being a school patrol blocking the traffic on the road as her kids popped out of the side of the road to cross it. There were around 7 kids and I don't think the mother quite had the right count as the last one kind of flew across the road as the traffic started to move again. It was hilarious and of course my video camera was not with me to record the event. It is still part of the memory regardless.
On Saturday we headed downtown on the Ctrain to explore the area and to see the shops of 9th Ave S.E.
A Ctrain travelling up 7th Ave, the Bus/Train only street downtown. Above is a +15 Walkway connecting many of the buildings downtown so that you do not have to walk outside in the winter.
We headed into Olympic Park after we got off the Ctrain. There was a Stampede breakfast going on, a tradition during Stampede Week here. It started to rain as we stood in a short lineup and they shut down the grill so we did not get the free breakfast... Oh well, such is luck sometimes.
The horses at the municipal building.
The old city hall with it's sandstone brickwork.
We got lucky and caught a route 1 bus almost right away to take us further down 9th Ave. to the funky shops. This was a cool shop on 9th Ave. S.W. with all the metal works.
Stopping for a picture with the wall of flowers. See Theresa's coffee cup?
An old water pump on display. Hey Marv...you would like this.
The flower garden at the Deane House.
The Deane House. Come on in for a cup of tea!
Crossing the Elbow River near Ft.Calgary. We had to deal with a bit of rain this day and each of us had an umbrella.
Theresa poses with a buffalo statue just outside of Ft. Calgary.
Heading back down 9th Ave to downtown.
8th Ave downtown is a pedestrian street for part of it.
Theresa and Sharon walking towards the canopy of trees right in front of the municipal building.
Sharon peeks around a tree back at the municipal building. See the horses in the background and a lion statue as well?
The interesting statues beside the Calgary Board of Education.
Theresa poses with the statues to show you just how big they are.
A closer up shot of Theresa.
We started to look for an eatery place and found this ceiling mirrors in a +15 walkway downtown. It made for a different kind of picture.
We were getting hungry and headed to find a restaraunt. In the downtown mall are these escalators which looks like a spooky picture for some reason.
Well, up those escalators we went to Devonian Gardens and the food court on the top floor just outside the gardens.