O Canada

So being who I am and all, I spent the 4th of July in Canada. Calgary (pronounced Cal-gary (like the man's name) to be exact. We originally just wanted to get out of town and some people we ran into told us Calgary was a great place to go. So we loaded up the SUV (gotta love gas guzzling rental cars) and headed to the border. After a very unpleasant border crossing experience (why do they have to be so mean?), we made our way in kilometers to the hotel.

After a quick trip to the mall (you'll see why below) we headed to dinner at Bolero, a Brazilian steakhouse. I see the question marks on your faces, why would I be going anywhere near a steakhouse? Well I thought it would be a nice treat for MS (the boyfriend). So in this super cool dark dining room the feasting of meats began. I ordered chicken and vegetables but MS got the whole nine yards. For those of you that don't know: At Bolero the customer is in charge of the timing on our wide selection of churrasco(skewers) to be brought to your table by our Gaucho Chefs. Green means go and Red means stop. (from opentable.com) It is a very interesting way to eat and from what I heard (or didn't hear because his mouth was always full) it was fantastic.

Friday was the day to end all days...The Calgary Stampede. While we did not plan our trip solely around the Stampede, it was certainly a highlight. What is the Stampede you ask? Well it is 10 days of rodeoing, chuck wagon races, pancake breakfasts, livestock and horse shows, country music concerts and of course lots of rides and fair food. The entire city of Calgary "goes country" for these 10 days and that meant what for us? You guessed right, it was time to cowgirl & cowboy up! (Reference above trip to the mall)


So we got dolled up in our country best and hit the scene. Yes people, that is MS with a western shirt and hat...oh yeah and take a gander at the belt buckle!


Such a good sport and see, I finally got my cowboy:)

We saw the rodeo, ate some awful fair food, drank Bud Light (seriously I go to Canada dying for some decent beer and what are they serving....Bud Light!), danced to some country music (I tried to teach MS the two-step but it was like the blind leading the blind) and ended the day with some chuck wagon racing. It was a long day, but fun and certainly different than anything I've been to in the states.

And for the record, the generous and kind Canadians sang our (USA) national anthem prior to theirs in respect of our Independence Day. It was very touching and appreciated by all the Americans in the crowd.

Saturday we shopped (of course MS found 3 shirts I found nada), MS had his first ice cold Canadian (Molson Canadian) and raved at how yummy it was, we went up the Calgary tower which is 525 ft. off the ground and similar to the Space Needle in Seattle and finally ended the day at Bonterra Trattoria, an adorable Italian joint with a killer patio. I died and went to heaven with the butternut squash ravioli served in brown butter, cranberries and vanilla oil. While MS had the Ciopinno special which is an Italian seafood dish. And from the way he was licking the bowl, I would say it was very tasty. The best of course was dessert where we shared a flight of Vin Santo and I devoured a flourless chocolate torte and MS tried his hand at cleaning a creme brulee ramekin. All in all, a flawless dinner only interrupted by the mosquitoes who thought my legs were mighty tasty.

So thank you MS for a fabulous getaway. You are too good to me!