Rabbits bigger than dogs.

So we've had quite a few Calgarian experiences since we've made it here. We've also learned quite a few things about this city:

1. The rabbits (or should I say hares?) out here are enormous.
We have frequent visits from them in our front yard due to the previous tenant leaving a large flower pot of what appears to be seed/rabbit feed. We are also gracious enough to let them roll around in our "front yard" (read: dirt) whenever they want. Despite our hospitality however, they seem to be unappreciative and are so inclined to knock over the damn pot almost every day. I have considered letting Rudy chase them, but was afraid he might get his butt kicked. Their back feet are the size of tennis rackets, after all. Or at least it seems that way.

Note: this is before it even got bad.

2. The weather around here is psychotic.
Picture it: one moment, you're sitting outside in your new backyard, enjoying a cold beverage when all of a sudden your warm and sunny day turns gloomy, and thunder begins to ominously roll in, the sky as black as night. All within the span of 2 minutes. Not 10 minutes later, HAIL bigger than golf balls (maybe nearing the size of an orange?) are pelting everything on the ground, including the car. About 15 dents in the hood later, rain pours down for about 10 minutes. Wait 10 more minutes, and voila, your back outside in the sun, with tiny frozen hail all around you.




3. The traffic, like the weather, is psychotic.
We no longer travel at any time, on nearly any road, between 3-5pm. I pity Ryan when he gets a job and needs to commute in the morning. Yikes. Bumper to bumper with stop lights every 20 feet. It's ridiculous. So much for a city planner, Calgary, great job.

Us at Stampede.

4. Stampede = Lots of cowboy boots and hats
And I mean LOTS. Alright, we got into the spirit too and bought some hats. We even made it down to Stampede three times. Although we were perpetually late to every event we wanted to see (or so it seemed), we still managed to have a good time and get into the good ol' Stampede spirit. We saw Theory of a Deadman play live the first night, amidst a bunch of stupid, drunk moshing people who were routinely pulled by their necks out of the crowd by the riot police. Just a good old night at the Stampede, I guess.

5. Crave Bakery, with two locations, Kensington and 17th Ave (yes, I've found and been to both), quite possibly may have the best cupcakes in the world. They're totally worth the $2.95 a piece. Oh, how I can hardly go one or two days without a Crave-o-licious.
You can even get them in 6 and 12 packs.
Do you think they'd cater the wedding? Hehe.
For all of you who have now decided you're definitely coming to Calgary to visit us, please let us know ahead of time and we can pick some up :)



6. If you're not supposed to do something, don't do it, because you will get caught.
Calgary seems to be a very secure city. Yellow light? You better stop, because if you accelerate to beat the red, you'll have a nice ticket mailed to you, courtesy of the Photo Radar.
Same with speeding. Think no cops are around? See that school bus/shiny black car/any kind of vehicle sitting on the side of the road? Yes it could be hiding a radar gun and camera recording your every move and sending your ass, yet again, a nice crisp ticket.
Jay-walking? BAM, there's a cop almost on every corner and you will be fined.
And finally, don't even think about driving through a cross-walk when someone's on it. Even if they're already through your lane, because all though you may not get a ticket, they will probably yell profanities or an angry, "thanks a lot!" (Ask Ryan, hehe).
Same with walking on bike paths. Bad idea, because it seems the cyclists all of a sudden just forget how to steer and act like they can't turn to avoid you. And again, most likely profanities will be yelled at you.
Jeez. But otherwise, it's a pretty friendly place. Honest.

7. Calgary is a pretty dog-friendly place.
Despite a whole lot of parks with NO DOGS signs, there are almost equal number of "off-leash areas" around the city. Including one right near our house which we walk Rudy to quite a bit. The park is all treed and hilly, with foresty parts (yes, foresty is a word) and fields. We also visited one a little more North called Nosehill Park, which is actually an environmental park.
Aside from dog parks, there are dog hiking groups and even an emergency Animal Hospital complete with an ambulance. Which I think is pretty awesome. They also have a holistic veterinarian and dog massage and therapy studio. Pretty much the best dog city, ever.

8. No one in Calgary is actually from Calgary.
In fact, most people we have met are from Ontario. Almost everyone actually.
Walk in to a place, start up a conversation, and find out that person is from Barrie, Toronto, London, or even, LaSalle. It's almost creepy- you can't escape the Ontarians. One guy even went to high school with Ryan and Cortney at Sandwich, and we just started chatting while I was waiting in line.

9. Tim Hortons are not nearly as common as they are back home.
There is only one every 5-7 km I'd say. Makes it difficult to just "swing by Tim's" on your way back from anywhere.

And finally,
10. Nothing here is quick.
You can't just run to the store if you forgot an onion while making guacamole. Nope, you have to run to the Safeway down in Brentwood, off 16th and past Crowchild. Jeez. Makes me tired just thinking about it, and makes me wonder if you can have guacamole sans onion. It might be worth saving the time.

That's all I've got for now.

Travelling through time.

So, as our first official blog post, we feel that it is important to travel back in time to blog about our 4-day adventure that brought us to Calgary, after which we can update on where we are now.

So, on the days preceding June 31st, we packed all of our belongings into 24 cardboard boxes and sent them away on the Greyhound bus courier, with our fingers crossed that everything would make it safely. Then, on June 31st, we jam packed our car with most of our important things, said our tearful goodbyes, and took off for the great "out west", the thief of many wishful and employment-seeking individuals from back home.

Our first day was relatively uneventful, and long. What felt like forever just to get out of Michigan turned out to be only the tip of the iceberg, as we soon ventured into places and "towns" (read: population: 20) that we had never seen before, and most likely, will never see again. We talked, listened to music, and Rudy slept soundly in his carrier nestled between our two seats in the back seat. He woke occasionally, only to find we were indeed still in the car, and would promptly turn right back around and be quickly asleep.

We began to keep track of all of the states we drove through. On day 1, we made it Wisconsin, after passing through Chicago. We stuck faithfully to our CAA Trip Tik until Tomah, Wisconsin, when we had to detour to make our way towards Mt Rushmore. Our first night was spent in Sioux Falls, South Dakota after driving about 11 hours through Wisconsin and Minnesota. Yes, we were tired!

The next morning we awoke, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for our four hour trip to Keystone, SD and Mt Rushmore. After stopping at a gas station next to our hotel (we certainly mad

e it far!), we stocked up on gas, water, ice, gatorade and Ryan cleaned all of the bugs off of the front of the car. Then, we took to the highway.

When we began to see some actual hills and mountains, we got pretty excited. After seeing so much flat land, we were eager for a break and some time to stretch our legs. We drove up the hill to Mt. Rushmore, which was the first taste of mountain driving. If we only knew what we would drive through later!

We arrived at the monument and despite a strict "No Dogs" policy, we promptly loaded Rudy up in his backpack carrier and headed for the faces.

We always knew when other visitors had seen our live, smuggled contraband as the voices behind us would get quiet, and we would hear whispers "They have a dog in that backpack!" or "Is that a small bear on her back?" followed by giggles and pointing. Rudy was cool as a cucumber, and just hung out.

Mt. Rushmore. Each flag represents one of the states.

The faces themselves were neat. As we aren't too interested in American history, we spent little time actually reading about who they were, and what exactly they contributed, but we took a lot of pictures and thought about how much work it must have been to finish the carvings. After a short hike, avoiding park rangers and strategically positioning ourselves as to keep Rudy out of their line of sight, we made our way back to the car and back down to Keystone.

What a tourist town! We wandered around, at which point Rudy actually walked a bit, and sat down on the Red Garter Saloon porch for a drink and some grub. We even got souvenir glasses (to add to Ryan's ever-growing pint glass collection). We wandered through all of the shops and when we felt we had seen enough, we took again to the road (we weren't just sightseeing, after all! We had places to go!).

Next, we drove through rolling plains to Buffalo, Wyoming. If I remember correctly, Ryan's exact phrase when getting off the highway, our stomachs grumbling for dinner, was "This POS town is what they call Buffalo?" As yet another hick-town, we drove through unpaved streets, in search of something to eat and settled on a taco place, the name of which escapes me. We each took our turns ordering our food, and ate in the car in the driveway while Rudy got acquainted with some large horse friends next door to the fast-food restaurant (you know you're in the country, when?).

As the night began to fall, we decided we had enough time left to make it to the next town, Cody, Wyoming. (Read: Ryan decided we had enough time before it got dark to drive through a mountain range.) So, we had a treacherous night-time drive through winding switch-backs with deer-lined shoulders, crossing our fingers every time we saw a deer that it didn't decide to run across the road at the time we drove past.

In retrospect, we probably shouldn't have driven through in the dark, but we made it safely not to Cody, but to Worland, Wyoming. That may have been the first hotel that we were not supposed to have pets in, but we smuggled Rudy in anyway (obviously).

The GPS "detour" to the highway.

The next morning we were very excited to make it to Yellowstone National Park. This stretch was also when we learned that our GPS did not know all, and as we drove down a deserted, ATV-only, gravel road through a back field and began to feel a little "Wrong Turn" or "Deliverance"-ish, we began to think twice about any detours off of our map that the GPS had the bright idea to lead us in to.

What a drive though! We passed through Burlington, Wyoming too, which if you blinked, you would have missed and had a population of 250. When we came into Cody, we stopped for a bathroom break and at the drie-thru liquor store (oxy-moron?). We also had a bite to eat at Arby's.

Us at the Buffalo Bill Dam.

Heading toward Yellowstone, we stopped numerous times to take pictures as the landscape had stunning vistas and we were worried we might crash taking in the sights. We drove through a tunnel in the mountains, and came upon the Buffalo Bill Dam, where we stopped and took the little shuttle to a visitor's centre, with Rudy in tow, of course. He was a great little traveller, although we don't think he was as impressed as us with the sight-seeing. But with lots of treats and a safe ride in the back

pack carrier, he was content.

Looking over the Buffalo Bill Dam.

And then, we made it to Yellowstone. After paying our $24 entrance fee, and being told it was valid until July 8th (we were tempted!), we mapped out our plan of attack. We would follow the one road through the park from the "town" of Fishing Bridge, through Lake Village, along the shore of Yellowstone Lake, with water so cold (August surface temperature is 60 degrees F) that "swimming is discouraged even where not prohibited: such cold waters can cause potentially fatal hypothermia or hyperventilation within minutes" (Yellowstone brochure). We came upon the next village of Bridge Bay, and continued on the winding and breathtaking trip to West Thumb, where we stopped for gas.

Mr. Buffalo

Just upon our arrival, we saw a buffalo/bison making his way across a field, and despite our desire to get a closer shot, we paid attention to the flyer claiming "Many visitors have been GORED by buffalo" and decided against it. Ryan also made a snowball, which was bizarre as we were in shorts and t-shirts.

Old Faithful was next, and we followed the signs 27 km to the busy and heavily touristed Old Faithful area. We began to see the characteristic steam of air vents and geysers as we approached.

Old Faithful Inn

We knew almost immediately upon arriving that not only were we not going to have time before nightfall to make it to other accommodations that night, but that we were going to spend a lot of time exploring here. So we made reservations for the packed Old Faithful Inn, right alongside the famous geyser, where the lowest standard of room provided you with just a bed and sink, the toilet and shower would be down the hall in a common area for a whopping $149 a night. Ryan was lucky enough and managed to get us a room with a sink AND toilet AND shower, for not much more than that actually. After he signed a "We do not have pets" clause, we once again packed Rudy into his bag and took our things to our room.

The entire area smelled like rotten eggs due to the sulphur of the geysers. There are about 30 geysers, hot springs, pools and "paint pots" in and around the Old Faithful area, and many more within a 3 km range. We walked all around the boardwalk, took pictures of the odd, steaming and smelly pools and springs, and wondered what it would be like to touch the surface. After a sign warning that it would be probably very hot and painful, we decided not to, but still wondered. We had the same whispering-pointing-giggling routine going on behind us the entire time as people noticed Rudy chilling in the back of his carrier. Again, he was cool as a cucumber.

Old Faithful erupting

We went on a hike to the Upper Lookout Trail to hopefully get a good view of Old Faithful erupting, but we failed to check the time of the last eruption before we ventured off. So after we made it up, we waited for about 15 minutes and realized, as stated in the brochure, that Old Faithful isn't really that faithful, as it only erupts every 40 to 126 minutes. We decided that could potentially be a long time to wait, and made our way back down.

Our tummies were grumbling by this point, so we went to the General Store and got some food and souvenirs. We planned to take the Mystic Falls trail on a hike to some pretty neat waterfalls, but after we couldn't find the entrance to the trail, we settled instead on a nameless path and began our hike. We hiked through meadows and fields, some forested areas and tight winding paths that we began to wonder whether we were going to happen upon a bear unexpectedly. We didn't meet a bear, thankfully, but we were lucky enough to come across a family of marmots, small endangered rodents who make a loud "PEEP"-ing noise that Rudy seemed to find very interesting. We turned back as to avoid being on the trail after dark.

We strategically smuggled Rudy back into the hotel, had about half of a drink and "tried" to watch Avatar on our laptop. About 10 minutes in, the fresh air and mountain exploring kicked in, and we were asleep.

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

The next day, we drove through the remainder of Yellowstone, which is a huge park. We first drove to Madison, through to the town of Norris and to Canyon Village, the closest town to the Upper and Lower Falls. We stopped at the Upper Falls Lookout, which is dubbed the "Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone." The canyon is enormous, is the point of highest elevation in the park (10 243 ft), and the views were incredible.

Buffalo eyeing our car

As we travelled along, we hit some traffic and thought the hold-up was due to the road construction until we saw three huge hairy beasts making their way down the same road, a family of buffalo! With the "visitors have been gored by buffalo" warning fresh in our minds, we drove slowly past the buffalo, snapping pictures and hoping our black car didn't resemble anything that they might want to ram or gore. It was soo cool!

Whinnie the Poo

With our eyes peeled for any sign of wildlife, Ryan quickly noticed a black bear right near the road, grazing and nosing through different bushes. He got pretty close to the car and we were able to get some pretty neat pictures. We also saw some pronghorns, which are similar to deer but have really straight horns and very neat markings. People all along the highway kept getting out of their cars to take pictures, despite it being prohibited to get close to the animals.

After about 2-3 hours driving in the park, we made it to the North Gate, and left Yellowstone.

The town outside of Yellowstone is Gardiner, Montana. We stopped here and waited in the LONGEST Subway line ever to get some subs. With an ETA in Calgary of only 8 hours according to our "trustworthy" GPS, we were anxious to get to our new home.

Rudy, happy we're almost home.

Much of Montana was mountain valleys, horses, wide-spanning grasslands and crazy ground squirrels. As perhaps one of the more entertaining parts of the trip, we drove through a stretch of road where so many itty bitty ground squirrels lined the road, perched up like prairie dogs, and chanced fate to make a mad dash to the other side. Although we narrowly avoided all of them, we were laughing our heads off as they ran, ran, hopped, ran their little bodies to safety on the other side of the road. There were probably 100 total that made the dash. That stretch was probably the highlight of Montana, aside from the mountain views.

As we approached the Canadian border, it seemed to take forever to reach. However, we finally did, and with little questioning through customs, we made it to Alberta! Our cell phones regained service and we quickly began notifying the world of our arrival. Yay!

We called our landlord to arrange to pick up our keys, and made it safely to the little house we had found 3 weeks earlier. With nothing but a flat futon mattress to sleep on (the frame was in the garage, and actually proved less comfortable than the floor), we cuddled Rudy up and fell asleep for the first night in our new home. :)