Friday 11 July, we had tickets for the Calgary Stampede, billed as “the greatest outdoor show on earth”. It’s predominantly a rodeo including bull riding, bucking horses, chuck wagon races, bareback relay racing. But also includes a fun fair, agricultural animal show, craft stalls, lots and lots of food stalls and finished off with a stage show and fireworks.
Everything we saw about the Stampede said that the parking was crazy, and we had to drive in from our AirBnB, so we went early into the city, to a carpark a couple of stops away on the ‘Calgary Transit’ which worked out really well.
We had a long day, but a good day! The rodeo and events were crazy, the professionals trying to stay on a bucking bull for 8 seconds, and not get killed when they fall off is utterly crazy. They even start the children young, with a team competition, which seemed to involve them trying to catch a small pony by the bridle, only to be dragged around the arena !!!
Even the evening show was mad, there was so much going on on the stage at the same time it was really hard to keep up.
Saturday, we left Calgary for a 4 1/2 hour drive to Revelstoke in the Canadian Rockies, it is a stunning drive, via Banff.
In Revelstoke, we visited a couple of pubs/breweries, firstly ‘The Village Idiot’ which was a little too like a restaurant for just drinking, so we moved on to “Rumpus Beer Company” which was definitely more pub like, so we enjoyed a couple of drinks, and then some food from a truck parked outside.
Sunday, After only one night in Revelstoke we moved on to Kamloops, our AirBnB had a pool, so as soon as we checked in we hit the pool.
Monday (14 July) we had a vineyard and brewery tour, so nobody had to drive, we visited 2 Vineyards, Monte Creek and Sagewood and 2 Breweries Iron Road and Bright Eye, tasting plenty of wine and beer along the way. We ended up at ‘The Noble Pig’ pub with a couple of our fellow drinkers from Canada. We had a great day, and it was also a good choice to do as it rained most of the day.
Tuesday, We had a long drive back into The USA, there were warnings about a forest fire near the main highway, so we set off on our planned route, and monitored the situation, thankfully as the day went on the warnings were removed.
We crossed back into America at Nighthawk border crossing, we were expecting a small quiet crossing, and we were the only ones there, so we got straight through.
We drove to Winthrop, recommended by friends in the UK who had visited, we stayed at the AbbyCreek Inn, a nice motel by the river, and with a pool.
We had two nights in Winthrop, which is an old “western” town with covered wooden walkways. No surprise, we found another local brew pub, and spent both evenings having good beer and food!
Thursday, our drive was through the North Cascade National Park, back to Seattle. The views were amazing.
Once we got into downtown Seattle the traffic was awful, however we drove to our hotel, dropped off our bags, and friends, then took the car back to the airport. We had driven a total of 2,913 miles in three weeks !! More than doubling the original miles on the hire car when we picked it up.
After getting back downtown, via the Light rail system we went to ‘The Old Stove Brewing Company’ for drinks and dinner, it was crazy busy, and our friends had kindly queued up to get a table.
Friday, we headed to a glass exhibition by Chihuly, a famous local glass artist, we had seen some of his work in Kew Gardens a few years ago. We’ll let the photos speak for themselves.
We then had a few drinks at a couple of different bars, followed by dinner at Noi Thai restaurant.
Saturday, headed out to ‘Virginia Inn’ for brunch, then checked out of the hotel, thankfully we could all leave our luggage at the hotel. Our friends were flying back to the UK, but not until 8pm, so we wandered along the waterfront. Mid afternoon we said our goodbyes, and headed off to stay for a few nights with another friend, from our Central American trip last year, who also lives in Seattle.
Sunday, a lazy day, including brunch with friends of friends after they had competed in a Duathlon (Run & Bicycle ride). A great brunch with the “ best French toast in Seattle” !
Travurple 