On the way to lunch with some old work colleagues we ran into some cheerleaders for the Calgary Stampeders Football Team. They said that if we would get up on a bench and do a cheer, they would give us free tickets to the upcoming Labour Day Classic game against the Edmonton Eskimos. Honestly, I don't need much incentive to make a fool of myself, so I agreed immediately. They gave us pom-poms and eye-black and showed us a quick "Let's Go Stamps" cheer to do.
Following on the success of our Baseball outing, I took Scott to the game. He had a great time... up until the end of the first quarter. Actually, he loved the lead-up to the game better than the game itself.
We took the train there, which he loved. Then we walked past a very alternative looking bagpiper-busker and across a pedestrian bridge that goes over the highway. I don't think he's ever been in such a crowd of people, and he was craning neck to look in every direction, looking very cute wearing his little red backpack. We walked past a barbeque trailer in the parking lot shaped like a fighter jet (he told me that it probably doesn't fly while it has food in it), and reached our seats in the stadium just as the fireworks went off right in front of us to welcome the home team onto the field.
A few minutes later, half-way through "O Canada", a CF-18 Hornet flew right over our shoulders and nearly shocked Scott right off his seat. The jet circled back around, buzzed the stadium again -- this time pulling back on the stick and blasting steeply upwards as soon as he got to our end. Scott was covered his ears and staring with a worried crease in his brow. Just after the big kick-off, the jet made one final pass, complete with barrel rolls, and we settled in to watch the game.
Calgary scored first, and we all jumped to our feet to witness the customary barrage of fireworks and the white horse galloping down the sidelines, the rider holding a big Stampeders flag. Scott loved it, except that the girls throwing out little padded footballs didn't have the range to get one to our seats. Sadly, that was the only time Calgary would score in the whole game, and most of the first-half action was on the opposite end of the field. Also, we were getting roasted by the full glare of the sun, so I had to make several concession trips to get beverages.
At half-time we abandoned our free seats on the edge of the stadium to take up a better position on the opposite, shaded side of the field, right behind Grandma and Grandpa M -- and they happened to catch a little football that they gave to Scott. With his new prize and a few games to play on my phone, he was able to hold out until the 4th quarter. Unfortunately, the Stamps couldn't hold out, and suffered a lopsided defeat, so we left before it was quite over.
On the way back, we saw a lady who was clearly abusing some sort of substances attempt to shut down the bagpiper (personally, I would mess with that bagpiper) and a fight nearly broke out. Once again, it seemed like the game was the least entertaining part of the whole experience.
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