First time after 3 years that I got to experienced Calgary Stampede! It is an annual event here in Calgary (more of fiesta in my native land) but the theme of this event is cowboys, horses, wearing cowboy clothes and hats, etc. It is a 2 week event beginning every 1st friday of July. It is a non-holiday event however, most of the offices (especially in Downtown) were participating in the parade so pretty much, every one is either on vacation leave (to give time to go to events) or companies are more lenient to employees and allows them to watch the parade or go home early so they could enjoy this event. As always, Calgary is decorated in accordance to the theme of the event in which you could find cowboy hats or horses in every establishments or sometimes as simple as a "Yahoo" text in the windows of some offices.
You could find free breakfast sponspored by companies or groups anywhere you go. In fact, in our community, they had 2-day FREE breakfast in our neighbourhood. But, I wasn't able to attend to these since they held it on a weekend and they usually starts at 9am (which is I am still on dreamland during this time). And If I remember it right, they held the 1st FREE breakfast on the day of my birthday (which is we went out of town).
The funny thing is, you could see people wearing checkerd polo shirts/blouses with boots and cowboy hats everywhere! It's like a costume party on a summer. We somehow did our "costume" part by wearing a hat. Didn't have the guts to overdo it =)
Just before the Stampede came to an end, Noel and I decided to go and experience it. We went to Stampede ground near the Downtown and we enjoyed ourselves (along with Ella) playing games (we actually won 2 LARGE stuff doll for Ella) and just watching everyone in their cowboy costumes. It was really FUN! There were rides for everyone, foods are overflowing, and it was over crowded that I guess half of the Calgarians are there to celebrate! And not to mention that the temperature that time is over 20C! Super H-O-T! Overall, it was fun and my daughter loves it! Looking forward to 2010 Calgary Stampede!
