Short trips from Calgary

Here is a list of some of the interesting visits we made around Calgary:

Banff town is in a valley of the Banff National Park. It is at the right distance from any place (Calgary/Golden/Jasper) and a good stop over for some delicious food or drink. For all the foodies, this is a go-to place as the town is filled with all kinds of restaurants, bars and cafés due to the high volume of visitors all round the year. People like us would love to just drive to this place as both the drive and the meal would be worth the visit. Being a tourist place, there is something for shopoholics too. Also, in winter, Banff is close to many popular ski lodges.

Lakes of Banff National Park: If heaven is a place on earth, it probably would be in the Canadian Rockies and Banff is in the heart of it all. This bewitching place is a must visit for nature lovers. This park is home to a host of flora, fauna and lakes. Be it the massive Lake Minniwanka, serene Lake Louise, pristine Bow Lake or the blue-green Moraine Lake, each comes with its own charm and grandeur.

Columbia Icefields Experience: One doesn’t need to fly or sail to Alaska to experience Glaciers. Situated on the ice fields parkway of Jasper National Park, Athabasca Glacier presents a unique opportunity to visit a glacier on specially designed vehicles. The trip from the base to the glacier also allows one to experience the glacier on foot once you reach the summit. Though the glacier is slowly receding over the past decades, the colossal Athabasca Glacier is still quite a spectacle.

Note: A Glacier is a perennial mass of ice which moves over land. It forms in locations where the mass accumulation of snow and ice exceeds ablation over many years. Glacier ice is the largest reservoir of fresh water on Earth. Glaciers move constantly. So every few years, they have to make a different approach road to the Glacier. Receding glacier is different from a moving glacier. (Source: Wiki)

Edmonton: This is the capital of Alberta province. The North Saskatchewan River flows right through the city, giving a panoramic view of downtown Edmonton. Though not many people like visiting Edmonton, we’ve always found it to be a pleasant place. We visited the Royal Alberta Museum and Muttart Observatory apart from checking out the Legislature and Old Strathcona area (including the very popular Whyte Avenue known for its resturants). There is a good arty feel about downtown as well. Edmonton houses 1 of the largest shopping malls in the world (largest in N.America) – the West Edmonton Mall. This mall hosts more than 800 shops, a hotel, an amusement park, a water park and other attractions – all indoors. We also managed to go for a late night standup comedy show as well. (Refer an older post on Edmonton here). 

Drumheller: Also known as the dinosaur valley, Drumheller has the largest deposits of dinosaur fossils in the world. The Royal Tyrell Museum here is considered as an authority on the subject and is often invited to other parts of the world during excavations, symposiums, etc. Allow for at least 2 hours at the Museum (we took 3), which has an excellent collection and is very well maintained. Apart from dinosaurs, Drumheller is also known for its unique terrain – the badlands and hoodoos.

Badlands is a type of arid terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded by wind and water. It can resemble malpaís, a terrain of volcanic rock. Canyons, ravines, gullies, hoodoos and other such geological forms are common in badlands. Badlands often have a spectacular colour display that alternates from dark black/blue coal stria to bright clays to red scoria. (Source: Wiki)

A Hoodoo (also called a tent rock, fairy chimney, and earth pyramid) is a tall thin spire of rock that protrudes from the bottom of an arid drainage basin or badland. Hoodoos are composed of soft sedimentary rock and are topped by a piece of harder, less easily-eroded stone that protects the column from the elements. (Source: Wiki)

Saskatoon Farm, Okotoks: A 45 minute drive from downtown Calgary, this place is a 1 stop shop for organic needs. The farm is mainly known for growing Saskatoon berries and hence you get ample of jams, sauces, pies, ice creams - all made from Saskatoon berries. The farm has a huge nursery selling seasonal & perennial flowers, plants and trees. They have an interesting shop sells bits and odds including garden accessories, paintings and furniture. They also sell farm products and their Saskatoon berry food items. Apart from all the above, they have a lovely restaurant on site. We had a scrumptious brunch here before we toured the farm.

Head-smashed-in-buffalo jump: A UNESCO world heritage centre which showcases customs followed by native Indians for 1000s of years. Due to their vast knowledge of topography and of bisons in general, they killed these bison by chasing them over cliffs and subsequently carving up the carcasses in the camp below. They would use the carcasses to make food, clothing, jewelry, items for trade. Though the cliff itself isn’t a great sight, the interpretive centre is definitely worthy of a visit.

Waterton Lakes National Park: Also called as Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, is to the South of Calgary and borders US. Infact the huge Waterton Lake is mostly in Canada (Alberta) and partly in the US (Montana). If you take a cruise around the lake, it is probably one the easiest borders to cross without paperwork (just kidding). This park is popular for wildlife including hosting a Bison Paddock. A variety of camping sites and hiking trails are available including Crypt Lake hike which is one of the most popular hikes in Canada!

On the way to Waterton or Head-smashed-in-Buffalo Jump (or Southern Alberta) and you have the time, it is worth dropping by the Aviation Museum in Nanton. This museum has a decent collection of war planes including Lancesters. The other place worthy of a mention is Cardston which is home to the Remington Carriage Museum. It is the largest horse drawn carriage museum in North America and gives a wonderful insight into travel before cars.

Apart from the above mentioned sights, there are a host of other national and provincial parks worth visiting. Apart from their sheer beauty, nature and outdoor lovers have plenty of activities they can choose from in these parks. Experiencing and exploring this part of Canada can easily take weekends off your calendar very easily.

Places of visit on map:

View Folks visit Calgary in a larger map

Folks visit Calgary

I have always lived with or been in the same city as my parents. Hence after moving out (read: after marriage), there were hardly any opportunities for either of us to stay over. Drop-ins and occasions were always there but it was a first time experience to have my folks staying over for long period of time and I was quite looking forward to it (I will ignore the one time they stayed at our place in Bangalore when I was recuperating from a surgery – it cannot be counted).

I was also a little anxious on how it would go. Firstly, I work from home these days. I would be busy with my work (teleconferences, emails, office internal messaging and MS Office – I’ve worked just using these 4 tools ever since I started working from home. It is amazing that I have had no issues in delivering what is expected of me ). But it meant no distraction or noise while I was working.

Secondly, I wasn’t sure how I would entertain them on a daily basis. They were staying for 6 weeks (Apr-May 2010). They have always been such social bees. I hardly knew anyone in this city we moved into just over 7 months ago when they arrived. Who would they call upon? What would they do everyday? Will I be able to work with them around? So many questions kept popping in mind.

Luckily for us Sharan works 10/4 so all weekends could be considered as long weekends. Hence we made an itinerary for 6 weeks with heavy-duty long weekends so that it took them most of the weekdays to recover from it :)

My folks took around a week to fall into routine. As expected, Mom took full charge of the kitchen. She was churning out different dishes three times a day - a gastronomical bliss for the rest. We managed to get Dad our friend’s spare laptop. He would get up late in the morning and then get on to his usual ‘computer’ing business. The only instruction given to both of them was that there should be absolutely no noise during my telecons – that means no using blender, pressure cooker, telephones or shower (they are really noisy in our guest bathroom), no talking loudly, so on and so forth. A difficult proposition but they followed it diligently :)

After my office hours, we would usually watch the telly for a bit, snooze for a while (yea I got into the habit, thx to them!) and then go for a walk by the river (weather permitting of course). Once Sharan got home, we would go out if there was a need (grocery, sight seeing, etc). But most days we would just stay at home watching a movie or a documentary or play Settlers of Catan – a board game we have got addicted to (also check: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Settlers_of_Catan).

We took them around sight seeing in and around Calgary from Friday through to Sunday. By the end of 6 weeks, they would’ve probably seen more Alberta than an average Albertan  . The net result was that my folks had hectic time (and I thought they would be bored), they got to see some really unique places and we still were left with some places of visit which they could go to - Jasper and Waterton National Parks were pretty much closed as it was still Spring and not completely opened after Winter Closure.


Some of the places visited with folks have been covered in this post - Short Trips Around Calgary

Grassi Lakes Hike (Canmore, AB)

It was a while since we had visited the mountains, which we seem to have fallen in love with since we first saw them back in Aug’09. We had seen the Rockies a few times in summer and in fall. We loved it each time. Winter was just about setting in and we wanted to check how the Rockies looked in snow. More importantly we had just invested in our snow boots and wanted to try them out to ensure we made a sensible spend. So we chose to go on a hike to Grassi Lakes - just off Canmore.

So we set on the morning of 22/Nov/09, a Sunday. We decided to leave early and have breakfast in Canmore town – we anyways had to go to the visitor’s information centre to confirm that the trail is still open after a heavy snowfall during the week. We didn’t get enough time the previous day to research on a restaurant, so we ended up walking down the main streets of Canmore in the cold before settling on a Coffee Shop specializing in Bagels. We gulped down the hot coffee and bagel sandwiches quickly. The information centre was closed, so we went to another centre in the outskirts. We got a confirmation on the trail and the helpful lady behind the desk gave us a couple of maps as well.

As we approached the base, we saw how well winter had set in the mountains. Snow was allover and the lake at the base was already frozen. There are 2 trails to Grassi Lakes which is found around 200 meters from the car park. We had read and were also told at the information centre that the more difficult route had all the views - of Canmore and the Bow Valley. The more difficult route is not really very difficult but one has to watch their footing. Though there is a series of stairs to make the climb easier, the snow and ice made the path extremely slippery. Moreover it had completely covered the path in many places and we were clueless on where to go next. We were lost for about an hour with no signals on the phone as well. At one point we contemplated on retracing our steps. But we got stuck in a particularly difficult spot.

The spot was difficult because a brook running down the mountain had frozen and the whole place was just ice. We fell several times between the 2 of us. The situation was more hilarious than we thought – am sure we looked like bowling pins getting knocked down regularly. We managed to catch a glimpse of a lovely and quite big waterfall over the next mountain amidst our falling act. Luckily an hour into this falling and searching madness, a group of hikers came along. One of them had been to the place before so knew the “hidden” path. We followed them all the way to the top.

There are 2 lakes (springs really) at the top and a beautiful view of Ha Ling Peak. The 2 lakes atop the mountain have been named after the guy who discovered it. The lakes themselves are a sparkling sight. The water is so clear that a good reflection of the mountains, tree and snow falls very well on it. A steep but short climb at the end of the upper lakes leads to a canyon where a genuine petro-glyph can be found on a large boulder. We heard that the area was popular sport climbing as well. We didn’t climb that part as it was getting late – we had lost a lot of time earlier on trying to find the path to the lakes. But it gives enough inspiration for a re-visit at least. We got back on the easy route after the interesting incident we had on the other route. This route was quite boring comparatively. It looked like a truck route and just cut through the trees blindly.

We were thankful to come back home and that too in one piece. But despite the episode we loved the hike – it was enchanting and charming nonetheless.

Here is a link to our album: http://picasaweb.google.com/akshatakaranth/GrassiLakesHike22Nov09

More information on how to access the trail and the trail itself can be found at:

http://www.trailpeak.com/trail-Grassi-Lakes-Trail-near-Canmore-AB-6066 or

http://hikealberta.com/hike/grassi-lakes-trail

Bow Pass and Mistaya Canyon

JJ wanted to go the mountains for the last time as a Calgarian and before he relocated back to London. JJ, Anne and we set out on a Sunday morning (18/Oct/09) having a quick Cafe Beano's coffee. It had just started snowing in the mountains. So we could see the snow capped mountains. But it hadn’t yet snowed enough for the Skiing season to begin. The tracks hardly had any snow.

We first went to Bow Summit which is a viewpoint for Peyto Lake and glacier. It’s on the Icefields parkway road within Banff National Park - around 30 minutes from Lake Louise. We drove up to the Bow Pass/Summit. The lookout point is a short trail from the parking lot. The path was icy and slippery. Sharan and I didn’t have shoes which could be used on this terrain. JJ being the English gentleman that he is, very kindly offered to help me walk. Sharan was on his own with his Camera. The viewpoint is that of Peyto Lake and Glacier. The lake is turquoise blue and shaped like a dog (or that’s what it looked like to us). It was stunning. We could also see the half melted glacier which forms the source of this lake. We hear it in the news and read it elsewhere but really the affects of global warming is clearly seen around these areas with glaciers melting. The lake is surrounded by lush coniferous forests. Behind the forest are the Rocky Mountains. The place looked absolutely enchanting. As we hung around having hot “Chai” (tea) brought by JJ in a thermos, it started to snow. So we quickly drank up and left for our next destination - Mistaya Canyon

Mistaya Canyon is also on the same highway as Bow Pass. But it’s further up and took us another 30 minutes to drive to that place. A trail off the highway led us to the Canyon. One cannot miss it as it is well sign-posted. Along the trail we saw the wrath of storm that lashed this region last year. Trees were uprooted and ripped apart. Mistaya Canyon is formed by the Mistaya River whose source is a glacier around Peyto Lake. The white water of Mistaya River roared down the Canyon and a spray of water surrounded the place. The Canyon was really deep and one could easily notice the path the river had taken, eroding and curving the rocks along the way. We hung around the place for a while enjoying views of this boisterous river in a tranquil background before heading back home.

We had seen the mountains in summer and fall. It was our first time in the mountains after it had snowed. The 2 places were exquisite in their own way and nothing like what we had seen before. I suppose it was a good day for JJ - to say goodbye to the mountains. I guess he’ll miss the proximity of the mountains the most for he'd be back for the skiing season(s) but that's a different matter.

More Information on these 2 destinations:

http://www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/ab/banff/visit/visit1c_E.asp  

http://www.colonialvoyage.com/viaggi/canadabanffpeyto.html  

Link to our Picasa album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/akshatakaranth/BowPassAndMistayaCanyon#  

First Snowfall

You’ve seen it in photos, you’ve seen it in movies, you’ve also seen it on (some) mountain tops but your first snowfall experience has to be unique. Seeing everything around you in white itself is exhilarating. You also let out your hand to catch the falling snow and then examine the structure of snow. You eventually make a snowball to throw it at something or someone. Everyone who has had a first snowfall must’ve done this. But the experience is still unique for all. 3 things took me by surprise - I really didn’t know snow was shaped and sized. Snow is extremely light weight (my science knowledge shows). The white around can hurt your eye.

Wet snow was predicted in and around Calgary for the 3-4 Oct weekend. Sharan’s office had organized an “away day” and we were to go to Rafter 6 Ranch in the Kananaskis countryside for this. The snowfall there was supposed to be heavier. So we left in anticipation, as we drove out of Calgary and neared the mountains; we saw patches of snow over the prairie grasslands. The ducks were still wading in the ponds and lakes though. So it’s not that cold to freeze we thought happily, warm that we were inside the car. As we continued driving, the snowfall started. I tried curtailing the grin on my face by looking sideways, outside the window. It was beautiful. Everything… every thing was white. It was indeed a calendar picture sight. But we couldn’t stop to take any photos as it was the highway and we were warned to take it easy on these slippery roads.

The ranch looked lovely as we approached it. Sharan and I quickly got off the car to capture the moments. The ranch had 2 main buildings and some cottages around. A chapel was to one end and horse stables at the other. There was a ring nearby for those who wanted to ride horses. Though we thought we were well dressed to embrace snow, we slowly realized the cold embracing us. We hurried indoors as we had to be up for a long day ahead.

All through the day we were busy with various sessions Sharan’s office had organized. But I was constantly staring outside the window – With the woods and mountains nearby, the horses running around, the view was very scenic anyways, the fresh and heavy snowfall just made it more magnificent.

Late afternoon Avanti and I decided we had enough of indoors and decided to go for a stroll outside. It had stopped snowing. I realized that everything was so white around me that I actually found it difficult to keep my eyes wide open. But still we played in snow, walked around the ranch, went by the ranch horse and donkey (only because the owner was with us), and took some pictures before heading back indoors – satisfied of being in/with snow. Hot coffee inside was equally tempting.

I may still be awed when I see snow again in the near future. But my true love for snow will show in Feb-Mar when winter is darkest, coldest and harshest.

Here are some moments captured:
http://picasaweb.google.ca/akshatakaranth/FirstSnowfall3Oct09#

Waterton National Park

The first thing anyone in Alberta tells you about Waterton is the wildlife spotting. So when Mujir and Avanti suggested we accompany them and Avanti’s mom, we happily agreed. Moreover Sharan colleagues let out the secret – it’s the pre-hibernation time for the bears so they’ll be out there gorging on berries before they disappear for winter. That nailed it for us. We have been fairly luckily in Bandipur and Panna in India. So definitely wanted to check what it was here.

As always we decided to leave early. Waterton is a minimum 3 hr drive (borders USA) and if wanted to make the most of the day in the place, we had to be there early. We got up late making others wait, so we were running around scampering for things. In all the early morning commotion, both Sharan and I forgot our camera – A blunder and not just a mistake we found out later.

We reached our 1st destination – a hiking trail just before Waterton Village called Bear’s Hump around 9:30. As we got off the car, we heard girls screeching and screaming. When I turned around to check what the hullabaloo was all about, it was our first bear sighting for the day. It was a fully grown black cinnamon bear 12 feet away, looking straight at us. Thanks to all the noise it scuttled away before Avanti or her mom could get the camera. That pretty much defined the rest of the day for us.

We happily started the ascent to the Bear’s hump. The board read that it was short but steep. Knowing our fitness level both Sharan and I got instantly cautious. The climb was quite sharp but we trudged along slowly. We reached the hilltop within an hour. And it was the windiest I’ve ever seen – Sharan was almost knocked off his feet, so one can imagine the plight of the rest J But it was all well worth it as the view of Waterton lakes (upper and lower) and the village was stunning. We missed our camera but 2 other point n shoots were available atleast for witness. The downhill hike was much faster as always but not as fast as it would be for the Canadians. We met several hikers who were on the way up when we were going downhill. The entire lot crossed us again and we hadn’t reached the base yet. Speaks a lot about our and their fitness and speed, huh?

We decided to have packed brunch on the banks of the river nearby. Though there weren’t appropriate seating available, we hungrily devoured the sandwiches. The mood got even better after a stomach fill. We decided to head to the village and see if we could get onto the cruise around the lake. On the way back from the river to the village, we saw that the car in front of us had stopped. We weren’t sure if it had broken down or they were lost, looking at maps. We were in the middle of nowhere – with the valley on 1 side and forrest on the other. The driver then pointed out to a nearby hillock. It was our second bear sighting for the day. It was another fully grown black cinnamon bear looking at down at the car in front of us – just 20 ft away. This time we were able to capture it on camera. Oh but there is a difference - it wasn’t our camera. Anyways, guess there was another bear nearby (we couldn’t see), so this one ran back into the jungle.

By now everyone agreed that luck WAS on our side - we reached Waterton village in time for the cruise. The cruise was quite good – the commentator was even better. But I’d not recommend it for the 2nd time. The 2 highlights of the cruise were –
A. Part of Upper Waterton Lake is in the US, so we crossed borders with NO FUSS.
B. Spotted bald eagles nesting.
The other interesting point we noted was that the 7 hour difficult hike up to Crypt Lake, the most popular hike of Waterton, started in the middle of nowhere and the only way to get to the starting point was this cruise.

Once we were off the cruise, we roamed around the main streets of the village. We spotted some wild deer roaming around just like us – that definitely was an unusual sight. It was almost 6pm and we hurriedly got to our next destination – red canyon. The drive up to the place was very scenic. But the canyon itself was disappointing because the river was almost dry. But it was definitely red – due to the color of the mud and the dusk. We headed to our last destination for the day - bison paddock. A vast space where wild bisons are found, fenced though. We saw more than a dozen of them – quite ugly creatures I must admit.

On the way back, just as we took a turn into the highway I spotted a coyote trotting along a farm fence (I thought it was a fox till I looked it up the next day). Unfortunately since it was the highway we couldn’t stop. And by the time others saw it, we had zoomed past L

We stopped at Pincher Creek Village for some gas and a quick bite. It also had gotten much cooler. We reached Calgary late evening, tired and sleepy. That was the end of a satisfying trip. All of us did have a smile as we went to sleep dreaming of bears but not bulls for a change.

More info on Waterton is available at:
http://www.watertonpark.com/
http://www.watertoninfo.com/

Photos: will be uploaded/ updated once I get the pictures from other cameras.

Johnston Canyon – Banff National Park

Sharan informed me that we would have the car over the weekend. Since the office rental car was shared between 4 colleagues, we had to wait for our turn to take the car. I suggested that we go to Lake Winniwonka (yes, sounds like it’s from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, isn’t it?). Sharan’s colleague Mujir had suggested Johnston Canyon. We finally decided to take a call after we reach Banff. We initially wanted to go on Saturday – but with all the cooking, cleaning, groceries, etc – the plan didn’t materialize. So it was Sunday, 20th Sep’09.

It was drizzling all the way through making us wonder if we chose the wrong day. It would be a good drive if not anything we agreed. We stopped at Lac De Arc (lake) – the 1st “viewpoint” you see when you approach Rockies/Banff from Calgary. After a couple of quick shots, we left to our next destination – Banff National Park gates to buy a pass. We now have a year around pass – given that we were going so often and with all the promised visits from folks n friends, we thought might as well.

On reaching Banff village we headed to the information centre. The lady said it was beautiful day to hike up the Johnston Canyon. The sun was coming up after all. So we took a map and headed for some breakfast. Once we got done with that as well, we headed to Johnston Canyon. The drive up to the trail was a long one – amidst dense coniferous forests. The sky cleared up and the sun was out in all splendor. With the fall having set in and all shades of green to yellow colors splashed across the place, it was beautiful. One could teach shading and mixing colors to aspiring artists from just here I think.

We finally made it to Johnston Canyon parking lot. Surprised to see that there were lots of hikers there, we started our ascent. The trail itself was well laid with wooden/metal railings on and off. This is something a trekker from India isn’t used to. The trail had the mountain towering on 1 side and the river down the canyon on the other. So sometimes it was great to have the railings after all.

The hikers were accommodating – followed “right of way” even while walking/hiking. Received an occasional “hi there” or “hello” (they got to be Brits – who else would say that in today’s world? But it’s great).

We saw many cascades all along the way. The water was crystal clear – well after seeing all those ads on glacier fed mineral water bottled, we can now say it could be true. In some sections the water was deep blue and in other sections it was turquoise blue – effect of the stones beneath we were once told. But Johnston Canyon has 2 main waterfalls – upper and lower. You hike longer for the upper. It’s also the bigger one. You need to walk through a cave tunnel for the lower one – very exciting. The ice-cold water just sprays at you. It actually is a welcome feeling after the hike for unfit people like us. Though the trail promised, sadly we couldn’t spot any birds except A raven.

We decided not to climb further up to Ink Pots as it would get late. So we headed back to Banff Village for a late lunch (or early dinner). We decided to try the tex-mex restaurant. It was worth it. With yummy fruitless Sangria (yes you get fruitless sangria here), quesadillas and salsa dips, it was a perfect ending to a wonderful day. A good drive, a good hike and good food definitely makes a good Sunday.

More details are available at: http://www.banff.com/hiking/johnston_canyon.shtml

Link to our picture album:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/lh/sredir?uname=akshatakaranth&target=ALBUM&id=5386734871504858417&authkey=Gv1sRgCI-V5KSFlKn9OA&invite=CNvXlscN&feat=email

Edmonton

The Labor Day long weekend (5-7 Sep’09) was just a week away and we weren’t even aware of it. After a frantic search, we nailed down on visiting Edmonton. Sharan’s colleagues assured him that it was a bad choice. “There’s hardly anything in Edmonton”. they said. But we were determined to go and more importantly, have a good time. Sharan did most of the research by burning the midnight lamp. I just booked the hotel from the shortlisted ones for 1N-2D due to the high costs of last minute booking. We packed our bags in the last minute as usual. Sharan took hazaar (1000s) print outs of maps (which was extremely handy in the end). Luckily for us the company car was also free.

We started around 7:00AM. With a couple of brief stops, the drive to Edmonton was more or less peaceful. We reached outskirts by 10:00am and headed straight to the Queen Edmonton Cruise (not quite straight as we lost our way inside the city). Since we hadn’t had any breakfast we ordered a sandwich and some coffee/beer (you can guess who had the beer) on the cruise. It was a pleasant day, with localities either jogging along the river, or musing over life at the banks, or even playing with their pets in the water. We spotted many ring billed gulls basking in the sun as well. The cruise lasted an hour and wasn’t really money’s worth (CAN$18/- per head, http://www.edmontonqueen.com/) as it was not only slow but the path was too short because of the slowness. We would recommend canoeing or kayaking down the river as a better option for those interested.

After the cruise we checked into the hotel (very good rooms) and quickly freshened up and headed to Whyte Avenue. This place seemed to have all the buzz. We chose to have lunch at a much recommended Greek restaurant called Yanni’s. The food was indeed outstanding but with a farily slow service. But I don’t really blame them because of the rush they had. We then headed to the Winston Churchill Square. It’s adjacent to the city hall and is a huge open space with beautiful landscapes. They also have a small open air amphitheatre and in evenings a large screen is put up for viewing movies on the square for free. Most of the time latest animation movies are played here. The art gallery is close by as well.

We then headed to the Beaumont Blues Festival after a short stop at the hotel for freshening up. The festival was located in a picturesque place – in the middle of farms just outskirts of Edmonton. There were grasslands till the horizon in every direction. It started to get cold in the evening with the open surrounding and wind. The festival had some stalls at one end, a beer garden at another end (surprising to see how popular Beer is despite the cold). Most people had got foldable chairs (a must buy for us now) and fleece rugs to keep themselves warm. Though we had a mat and fleece rug, we had to drink lots of HOT coffee to keep ourselves warm. Music was of superior quality. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. (http://www.beaumontblues.net/)

Next day, checking out of the hotel early, we went to a popular breakfast joint by the high level bridge in downtown Edmonton. The food was again note worthy. After a scrumptious meal, we walked up to the legislature building which is on the other side of the high level bridge. It was a very enjoyable walk across the Saskatchewan River and back. We then visited the famous West Edmonton Mall (WEM, http://www.wem.ca/). It supposed to be the largest mall in the world. I don’t have a doubt. Hosting over 800 shops, it also has an amusement park and water park inside the mall apart from host of other things (ice skating rink, sea lion show, a ship replica, etc). We strolled around for an hour or 2, tried a hand at adventure golf and saw the sea lion show. We finally reached the water world park. This park has some amazing water slides. Slides are marked as beginners, intermediate, advanced and dangerous. I tried mostly the last 2 categories. It was tiring to climb stairs for each of the rides but it was well worth it. The wave pool was also good and the hot tub relaxed our aching bones.

We left back to Calgary after a quick and short meal around 7:30pm at Funky Pizza (nothing worth talking about). We managed to keep ourselves awake through out the return journey despite being exhausted from all the stair climbing and adereline pumping water slides. And for all those people who said Edmonton would be boring, we had a splashing time.

Link to our photo album: http://picasaweb.google.ca/akshatakaranth/LabourDayWeekendAtEdmonton

Fact File:
Edmonton is the capital of Alberta Province in Canada. The Saskatchewan River flows through its centre dividing the city into half. Though known mostly as the home of the largest mall in the world, Edmonton has more to it than just the mall. The Old Strathcona area and Edmonton Oilers (NFL) are popular as well.

Getting there: Edmonton has an international airport. Greyhound Canada buses also ply to and from various destinations. Edmonton also has a small train station. Edmonton is 300 kms from Calgary by road.
Transport: Edmonton has city buses running every 30 mins and a 10 stop LRT. Taxis are plenty.
Attractions: Old Stathcona, Royal Alberta Museum, Murrat conservatory, North Saskatchewan River, Alberta Legislature, Edmonton Art Gallery, Ukrainian Heritage sites, Alberta railway museum and West Edmonton Mall (WEM)
Getting away: Red deer, Yellowhead Hwy & Elk Island National Park are nearby places of visit.
Know more from: www.edmonton.ca or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonton

First visit to the Rockies

Our new friends Mujir and Avanti were really keen to go out of town since they just got a car. We instantly jumped at the idea. Always ready to go somewhere, see a new place or do something different. So we met on Friday over some really sad Chinese dinner to plan it out. We decided to go for the GlobalFest’09 on Saturday and to Lake Moraine/Louise on Sunday.

We planned to leave early so that we could cover both the lakes and also get back into town to get ready for yet another work week. We finally left at 7:00AM. Our first impression of the Rockies was that they were really rocky. It reminded me of one of my most favorite trips - to Uttaranchal. The towering Himalayas seemed just as or rockier. There were hardly any snow capped mountains on this fine summer day, making it look more barren than ever I suppose.

Our first halt was Lake Moraine. The cold hit us as we got of the cozy car. I was shivering to the bone despite having a pull-over and a bandana. So we decided to start with a packed breakfast from home and HOT coffee from the café there. Soon Avanti and I got busy making sandwiches and little did we notice a squirrel quietly sneaking behind us to steal one of the sandwiches. Only when some of the other visitors squealed did we realize. We hastily tucked in our breakfast as the squirrel didn’t seem scared to take more. We then decided to take the walking trail around the lake. As we walked by, the weather seemed to get better and that’s when we realized the turquoise blue color of the lake. It was stunning. Apparently the rocks beneath the lake give the color effects. We soon heard a cascade/water falls nearby. We walked to the end of the trail to realize that the sound was of the white water river which fed the lake. The source was a glacier nearby. We walked on the wild side for a bit and for some photos before retracing our steps to the car.

Our second halt was Lake Louise. This was more “touristy” than Lake Moraine. There were thousands of visitors around. The lake was bigger than the one before. It was blue too – but a deep blue. The lake was surrounded by coniferous forests on 2 sides, glaciers on the 3rd side and we stood on the 4th. It was a spectacular view. We decided to return to this place every season as we are sure each season will bring in a different charm to the place. Hunger and huge crowds made us leave the place soon.

Our final destination was Banff Village. We basically went there just to eat. We found a quite French restaurant where we devoured our Fish n Chips, Veg Pizza (made on a bed of potato, not bread) and sandwiches gleefully. We did realize that Banff is a very picturesque place with lots of eateries and stores showing how important tourism is for the village economy. But we didn’t go around the village much as we had to head back home.

We reached back by 18:00, a day well spent in the Rockies. Hopefully the next time we visit, it would be for camping.

Here is a link to our photo album: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/akshatakaranth/LakeMoraineAndLakeLouise#

Calgary’s 2009 Global Fest

Calgary hosts an annual multi-cultural festival which includes a fire work festival in August. The first of its kind was back in 2003 and it has been growing ever since. Its main focus is to bring about a cultural awareness and the more obvious economic development for Alberta province. This year the fest was held 14-29 August. It had its customary firework competition as well. We managed to go only for the finale on 29th August 2009, which assured of cultural performances from different countries as well as a fire work display at the very end.

We decided to go with our new found friends Mujir and Avanti. Since the tickets weren’t available online, we bought them at the nearst Co-op store (a co-operative provision and grocery store). As suggested by the event organisers, we parked our car at a nearby mall and took the shuttle service provided to reach the place – Elliston Park, East Calgary.

The park was very pretty – developed around a large pond, they had put up tents (pavilions) for showcasing participating countries’ specialities, there was a separate set of pavilions dedicated to food – where each tent was allocated to a participating country. The food was surprisingly good. Though Sharan and I weren’t very hungry, we tried the food Mujir bought – South Indian Kababs (tasted similar to Empire Kababs) and Cuban Samosas (not sure what they are called). The organizers had put up 3 stages to showcase the music and dance of the participating countries. The atmosphere was vibrant – people were really enjoying soaking up the sun. There were many weirdly dressed people as well.

We parked ourselves near the stage in the beer garden. The most interesting dances were the Ukrainian, Russian and the Salsa dances. The MOST terrible was none other than Indian. While all other countries preferred their professional troupes to participate, our Indian association decided to put up a kids’ talent show like you would see in an apartment complex. The dancers had no rhythem, expressions, training and common sense. The “Punju Aunty” who choreographed the whole thing stood by proudly and animatedly prompting the next steps. GOSH! It was such an embarrassment.

After the torture, we decided to head towards the waterfront across which the firework display was set up. More than half of Calgary population seemed to be there too. The max no. of people we have seen since we came. People sat all around the water front. They were fully equipped with portable chairs, blankets and camera. We just had the camera. The display was spectacular – though we have seen lots of fireworks back home, this was something unusual – it was automated – not sure how. More importantly it was synchronized to music. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

At the end of the display, it took us nearly 2 hrs for us to get back to the car park and then home. Though it was a long day we were all excited about our trip next day to Lake Louise and Lake Moraine – our first glimpse of the Rocky Mountains.

Info: http://www.globalfest.ca/
Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/akshatakaranth/GlobalFest2009?feat=email#