The Calgary Stampede! Yahoo!

This week my husband and I took our son down to the Calgary Stampede fairgrounds for the day. Having grown up in and around Calgary, we tend not to go to the annual event every year, but decided this year would we a good time to once again experience "the greatest outdoor show on earth"! The Calgary Stampede started in 1912 and is the biggest rodeo event in the world. It runs for ten days every July, with over 1 million people attending. There is also a midway as well as stage shows, agricultural displays, vendor market and First Nations exhibits. Free pancake breakfasts are held around the city all during the 10 day event, and often include country western bands and square dancing! Many people dress up in their western gear and cowboy boots and hats, and the whole city parties!

My husband and son went on several rides, but since I do not do rides, I held our backpacks of stuff while they experienced the thrills. Of course there was great people watching, which kept me entertained! They are the 2 on the right.

We saw the Superdogs show, which is always very enjoyable, checked out all the vendors, played some midway games, went to the agricultural displays, toured the lottery dream home and bought some lottery tickets for the big truck and boat prize. Check out this guy:

He was done up to look like bronze statue, and he kept extremely still, not even blinking an eye! It took awhile to figure out if he was real or a statue! Apparantly, among the new foods on the midway this year were deep fried jelly beans and deep fried oreo cookies! We stuck with the tried and true mini donuts and gourmet caramel apples. Of course my son got his fix of Dippin' Dots ice cream!