First Week in Calgary

We have been in Calgary for ten days!  Jim attended the Global Petroleum Show at BMO Center on the grounds of the Stampede last week.  The show this year was the largest show so far with over 63,000 attendees from 95 countries.  A career fair is held in conjunction with the GPS, where 6,000 people stood in line and vied for oil and gas jobs.  And, no, I didn't attend the career fair.  I'm not ready to be un-retired yet.  Thank you.

During the show, Jim always takes some of his clients out for a round of golf at one of the beautiful courses near Calgary.  From what I've seen so far, they are all beautiful courses.  Not cheap, but beautiful.  Any-hoo, guess who got to play golf with the clients?  Yup, yours truly.  At the last minute a client couldn't attend so I filled in.  Holy Cow!  You cannot believe the majesty of the golf courses... I mean the mountains... here around Calgary.  We played at Silvertip in Canmore, just south of Banff.  Every hole had views of the surrounding mountain ranges.  Even though you would hit your ball in the fairway, (not me, of course) you would still be standing above or below your ball due to the course being laid out on the side of a mountain.  It adds a whole new dimension to your game.  I felt like a mountain goat trying to clobber that little white ball.

Since we are so close to the mountains, we are planning to do a new hike every weekend.  We bought the guides, we bought the bear spray, so now we're gonna use them!  Seeing as it was Father's day this past weekend, we took it easy and only did the 9km hike.  The trail was called Jumping Pound Ridge.  Don't ask me why it's called that.  I'm sure some sign told us why somewhere along the trail, but I can't be bothered to stop and read every sign, can I?  There are lots of trails named after Inuit Indian stuff, so I assume it probably has some thing to do with that.  This particular trail is a multi-use trail for hikers and bikers.  We were the only hikers on the trail.  Lots of mountain bikers though.  After my mountain biking experience in Austin, where I hit a tree root on a back country trail and slammed full force into my handle bars, I've decided that mountain biking is not for me. I'm more of the "lazy-roll-along-at-your-own-pace" type of biker.   And I usually do this on paved bike trails that don't have much of an incline.  Unfortunately, the paved bike trails here can't help but have an incline.  We live at the bottom of a hill they call Mount Royal, so to get anywhere, you have to go up hill.  Darn.   In the weeks to come, I'll be blogging the "Mini Series of Hikes," and you will be seeing lots of pictures taken by Jim. Thank goodness somebody knows how to use a camera.  

We couldn't be with the kids on Father's Day, but they sent Jim an awesome Father's Day basket full all kinds of goodies.  Really made his day.  Thanks, kids!  We love ya!  We'll be seeing the kids in two weeks for Jim's birthday.  Yup, we'll celebrate the 4th of July together here in a country that celebrates their Independence on July 1.  They'll probably still be recovering from their own party because these Canadians do love to party!  I knew I was going to like it here. :)

Picture Time!!!!!

See what I mean? Mountain goat golf.

Amazing views of "Three Sisters Mountain" from the golf course.

There's those "Three Sisters" again!  The Silvertip clubhouse in the foreground.

Seriously! Can you believe those mountains behind Jim? "Three Sisters" on the left.......some other mountain on the right.

Father's Day hike at Jumping Pound ridge.

Manpri?

Old people in mountaining gear?

More of Jumping Pound ridge.

Jim and his Father's Day present from the kids.