I was back in Calgary after my trip north. My dental round two and Grom order, round two awaited. My car had to be sold. But there were delays as per the norm it seems these days. I had some time to play Calgary tourist in my hometown, at least the time I had was too short to make an trip out. Adventures in my old stomp’n grounds awaited.
The Bow (right).
My dentist is in the downtown core, so a train ride in was selected for that trip. Parking is expensive, plus I don’t like driving down there. The main core of skyscrapers in Calgary is impressive – there are several iconic buildings, like The Bow.
Hallway in the +15 system
One overlooked tourist attraction is Calgary’s +15 – named for the fact it runs about 15 feet above the street level. It goes through many downtown skyscrapers and features gardens, shopping and enough coffee shops to serve an ocean of coffee. There is even art, like this lighting wall, along with more formal bits scattered about. It is a great thing to visit, especially on a poor weather day in the city.
The concrete jungle predominates though, to the point of this patio resorting to fake lawn on the railings to try and make some sort of green. Planters do grow downtown – but this is green year round!
Another pathway system worth exploring is Calgary’s cycling pathways. While this looks stark, it is keeping the golf course balls from hitting anyone on the pathway here. The Bow river is to the left here. The section of path I was on is newly opened – I was riding it for the first time exploring one of the last remaining missing connections to be built along the river. If only it had existed while I had been working – my bicycle ride would have been ten minutes shorter with this more direct section along the river. Oh well, at least I got to experience it once while in the city.
Looking north. LRT will be right over the tunnel here.
There is even a tunnel section on this part of the pathway – spooky stuff! It is there for the CN rail line above, plus they have built enough room right away for the Green line LRT Calgary has been preparing for the last three years. This tunnel is quite aways away from peopled parts of town, but I’m still not sure about it from a crime or homeless perspective. Hoping for better, but won’t be surprised if there are issues.
In my old hood, Marlborough Mall celebrated 50 years of existence while I was in town. They had some festivities for that, including an old car show. I toured around with my friend Doug.
You can see us together here in this circus mirror of a Chev hub cap. Wide angle mirror glory!
The Calgary zoo is not overlooked by most tourists and is worth seeing. It is still recovering from floods in 2013, so there are fewer exhibits than there used to be. But what is there still makes a good day trip, or half day if you rush through everything.
I was happy to see that their mascot dino Dinny had been restored. He is the last remaining specimen of the original dinosaur park, representing what they thought a brontosaurus looked like in the 1930s, in life size. He was at one time a Calgary icon, featured in many tourist guides as a must see. He had faded in recent times – I am glad to see him restored to his former glory as he represents many fond memories of zoo trips past for me.
In the butterfly greenhouse
The Calgary zoo also has a pretty impressive set of gardens outside. They tend to get missed by those focused on the animals. I don’t mind, as I can wander among the flowers in peace. The indoor greenhouses get more traffic, but feature tropical plants and butterflies at certain times. Those greenhouses were my winter refuge to let me forget about the cold and snow, at least for a few minutes in warm humid tropical greenness.
I’ll leave the zoo with a picture of my favorite animal, the Monitor Lizard. In Junior High, I was tasked with writing a report on what would be the must unusual pet you might like to have. I scoured the library encyclopedias, looking for strange beasts, and found the Monitor Lizard, the largest of its kind, known to occasionally eat small children. They could be a source of inspiration for dragons. But it would make a cool pet, no?
The fall colors were finally starting to kick in – late this year in Calgary, in fact everywhere around Alberta. I took a walk to the one substantial sized park in east Calgary – Elliston park. It is former garbage dump with a runoff pond that you might call a lake just looking at it. The east part of Calgary certainly doesn’t get the nice stuff, but this is at least OK. The “lake” is a fair size and take a bit to walk around. 
This historic display talking about past farming pioneers is cool, and the windmill is a bit of history I remember as a common sight as a kid in the countryside. Even then though, they were mostly unused having been replaced by electric pumps for water.
I returned to my parking spot, coming up to the old park I used to play in as a kid. The fall colors here were nice, but I was hankering to get out. I had finished my last round of errands in town. The motorcycle now had the adventure tires – no sliding on loose terrain now! I had sold the car – a sad day, but I wasn’t going to keep a car I was only using while I was in Calgary. I was ready to head out to the Rocky Mountain Foothills of Alberta and spend the fall boondocking in the spots I had found, and hopefully find some more spots. See you next time, out in the woods!
