Kids Day at the Stampede

[July 9 2014]

When you go to the Stampede grounds on Kids Day, you are guaranteed three things: 1) Free admission until 9:00am; 2) A free pancake breakfast until 10:00am; and 3) Lots of kids until at least 5:00pm.



We met up with the cousins at the grounds early for the breakfast. We have been doing this for years and I can't say that I've EVER seen such a long line up for the breakfast. Still, it is part of the experience and we couldn't skip it. The Arizona cousins had to witness for themselves the cool pancake-batter dispensers that they have devised to keep those flapjacks flapping at a steady pace. Another interesting sight is when the guys get out the industrial drills and the big construction buckets to mix up several gallons of pancake batter in a jiffy.



I don't know if the kids ever eat much of the breakfast, and R can't really eat any of it, so I usually get a double or triple dose of sausages and pancakes. The kids usually hang onto their juice boxes, but this year they had actually run out of juice by the time we got through the line. Fortunately, there were some storm troopers that we could take pictures with that made it all seem worth it. I noticed that the storm troopers were wearing white cowboy boots, which seemed appropriate.



We did all the standard Kids Day things, including SuperDogs and the Aggie Tent, plus we saw this awesome acrobatics routine from China. In the Aggie Tent, we weighed the children on a cattle scale (Katie is 34 lbs) and experienced what it would be like for a cow being immobilized for injections.







Scott became great friends with his second cousin Dallas, and they went everywhere together.



As usual, one of the favourite things was to see the buskers perform on the steps of the Saddledome. This year it was a percussion group that played on various household items like pots, pans, garbage cans and the kitchen sink.



Scott loves to play big brother to his little cousin Elijah.



Yes, Terry Stokes is STILL playing the Coca-Cola stage at the Stampede. There are no variations to this hypnosis routine, but it is still an audience favourite, despite references to the Roadrunner and the Wizard of Oz that feel very, very dated. At least he threw in a reference to Justin Bieber to help connect with a younger demographic.

Katie and Grandpa

[July 9 2014]

Stampede Parade in Bowness

Given last year's fantastic experience with the Bowness parade, we decided to do it again this year. Instead of our spot across from Bow Cycle, we plunked down on corner where Mary's Corner Store used to be (the store was demolished because of flood damage in 2013). Just as expected, the candy came in ridiculous quantities. There was much more candy than I expected, in fact.



It was a great spot and a fabulous parade, although the children next to us were perhaps a bit more aggressive about collecting candy than we might have expected. Who can blame them, though? Candy is worth fighting for. Almost worth dying for. Certainly worth crying for. And our kids cried just a little.

However, they eventually figured out that they could still get their share of treats if they were quick and they didn't give up.



I just wondered why so many groups give out freezies. Sure, they are delicious and cold, but by the time you fling one across the dusty pavement, it is hardly watertight anymore, so you end up with a coating of sticky mud over everything as it melts. Our kids eventually started leaving the freezies for the frenzied neighbours.

One vintage pickup went by and the driver shouted to us "There are shirts in the back!" I don't have to be told twice to take something for free, so I hopped up out of my chair and helped myself to an "I HEART BOWNESS" shirt from a cardboard box in the truck bed. I certainly do HEART Bowness, so this is a great outcome.



I should note that the Calgary Round-Up Band was in the parade. My sister A was Flutist First Class in that same marching band back in her woodwind years. She had an official jacket with her name on one sleeve and "flute" on the other. My little brother T decided to wear her jacket to elementary school one day, when he was in about grade 3. He hiked up the sleeves and didn't worry about the length in the body. He wore it with confidence and made all the other grade 3 children jealous, I am sure.



It is good to see that the band marches on, leaving a legacy of jackets for another generation of grade 3 brothers.

Stampede 101 - Grandstand Show

Believe or not, I had never been to the Grandstand Show at the Calgary Stampede until this year. I had no idea it was such a great show.



R's parents got tickets for all the adults and we had a night out at the Stampede. First we saw the chuckwagon races, which are a crowd favourite. I met a guy this summer who races chucks. He was saying that the horses are all racehorses who aren't quite fast enough to win horse-races, but they are still dang fast. Pretty exciting stuff. It also reminded me of the Youth Cultural Festival that we did at the Corral back in October 2012 when the new temple was dedicated -- they had some kids doing a mock chuckwagon race in that and they were drifting and powersliding all over the place, and that was just with teenagers pulling the wagons. I can't imagine what it's like to out there real horses and all that speed and thunder.



They wheeled out the stage for the Young Canadians performance when the sun went down. Apparently, the hydraulics in the stage got wrecked in all the flooding, but the re-worked the choreography and it was still massively amazing. A lot of it was suspended high above us from pulleys, so no flooding issues there. Maybe most impressive was the group of Chinese ballet dancers and acrobats who were defying death and danger to stand on round balls while balancing multiple dancers above them. Amazing.



Huge fireworks display at the end. I had seen the fireworks before. In fact, R and I had stayed at the grounds late one night last year to enjoy the fireworks from a bench on the Stampede grounds. However, it is a whole different experience to combine it with the musical performance that is happening on the stage.









I didn't eat any of it because it seemed ridiculously expensive, but they had chocolate-dipped bacon strips available for sale. They also had chili peppers dipped in chocolate. In the end, I ate a red velvet funnel cake which made me feel very, very ill later on.



This is living. This is Stampede.

Stampede 101 - Kids Day

Consistent with tradition, we went to Kids Day for the free admission and the free pancake breakfast. Uncle Brad and Auntie Katie were in town so we had a really big group. It seems you have 2 weather options for Kids Day -- Scorching Heat or Torrential Downpour. We got the former again this year, but it was still a great time.

Breakfast


Guns




Tank


Jailwagon


Deep Fried Snickers


Stampede Royalty




Water Show


Stampede Band


Making Believe


Horse Riding


Cow Riding


Roller Coaster


Too Little to Ride


Kids Midway








Since we had free admission with our Grandstand tickets, we went back the next day to hit up the things that we had missed on Kids' Day. The buskers are always a favourite. The crowd was a bit lethargic, so I tried to make up for it with my enthusiasm. The performer appreciated my efforts enough that he interacted with us quite a bit during the show and let us pose for a picture afterwards. His show was outstanding.

Justin Case




But that wasn't the only show in town. Katie got to go up on stage to perform with the "Little Buckaroos". She learned a little song and got hat to wear for the performance. When her turn came to sing into the microphone she did fine, but afterwards we think she got a bit scared that she might have to do it again and decided to pull the chute and get out there. Really cute all the same.

Katie in the Little Buckaroos

Stampede Parade in Bowness

The scale of the Calgary Stampede Parade is impressive. Marching bands come from all over to participate. You can get up at the crack of dawn to nab a good spot and then guard it from interlopers until it all wraps up mid-morning. You might get back on the train eventually, once the crowds start to thin out.

Or you can just go to the Bowness Parade the following morning to see a scaled-down version with easy parking, front-row seats, and massive quantities of candy.



Yes, candy.



The official Stampede Parade is a sugar-free affair, but our kids came home from the Bowness parade with more candy than Halloween. It was crazy. We are almost scared to go back, because we are worried about the kids' health.



Another highlight of the parade was the Helping Hands. The LDS group had contingent of youth volunteers who came out and marched. We knew most of them, so they gave us extra candy.



Afterwards we hit the pancake breakfast, where we recognized even more LDS volunteers serving up the food. It was fine, but given that the proceedings were high on gluten and low on kiddie games, we will likely just take our goodie bags and run when the parade wraps up next year.



We [Heart] Bowness

Stampede 101 - Opening Day

It was touch-and-go there for a bit at the end of June, but they managed to put the city back together in time for the 101st Stampede. Some people were saying that it was inappropriate to have a big hoe-down like this while so many were suffering. Personally, I thought it was awesome to see how the people of this city mobilized in massive scale to help those in need, and the Stampede was just another show of strength and humanity. The recent events gave the Stampede MORE meaning. Made it more of a statement about what kind of people live here.

The grounds showed a few scars and bruises, but to me this place has never looked better.

Parade


Opening Day


Flood Damage


Midway