Calgary, Alberta

Unfortunately, we ended up in Calgary right as the fires in Glacier and the rest of the NW peaked. The smoke was so think it limited our visibility to a mile or two and we decided to not go for the bike rides that we had planned along the river and through their beautiful parks. We ended up changing our schedule to leave Calgary a week early and head East with the hope of getting out of the smoke. As I mentioned on FB, we broke down an hour outside of Calgary and got a bonus two days in the city. The good news is that the coach was fixed Monday morning and we had clear skies on Sunday to do a little site seeing. Comparing Edmonton to Calgary, we liked the downtown area of Calgary better, but the suburbs of Edmonton better. It's an even race as far as we saw in the head to head challenge between the rivalry cities. We had a chance to meet up with a good friend from Boise for dinner at a great steak house while in town, which was a highlight and a much needed reminder of home. We went to the top of the Calgary tower on our one clear day for some amazing views of southern Alberta. We also were able to spend half of a day at the Heritage Park Historical Village to get a feel for the history of Alberta. We are looking forward to coming back to this area and will be anxious to visit for the rodeo.