This was one of those campgrounds. But it did had location going for it.
It was really close to the some of the venues from the 1988 Olympics. I passed the ski jumps every time I went to or from the campground.
In all fairness, maybe it was more appealing in the warm months. I was there in April and it was still pretty cool at times.
Since I was so close, I decided that I should head toward Banff. I didn’t know how far I’d get, but I headed Bart down the road.
I could see the Rockies rising up the closer I got.
I was getting closer.
And closer.
I was captivated by the trash cans I saw along the roads. They angled so that the passenger would be able to easily put the trash into the can. Not only were there trash cans, there were recycling bins right next to them! What a great design.
I pulled over to the Lac des Arcs Waterfowl Viewing Area. I didn’t see any waterfowl.
I did see some sort of factory. I wonder what they were producing. Cement, perhaps?
I imagine that they were doing something with the rock mined right next door.
There were mountains all around by this time.
I got to Canmore and saw a sign for a tourism office. Unfortunately, the office was closed, so I couldn’t get any information, but the rest rooms were open.
Hallelujah!
I saw a sign for an ammolite jewelry factory and showroom in town, so I decided to check it out. The prices were a little mind-boggling – especially for a dyed in the wool cheapskate like me. But, I pried open my wallet and bought myself a necklace.
Actually, I just bought the pendant. I had an old chain from my mother that I put it on.
It has some iridescence when you move it in the light. It’s a nice souvenir from Alberta, my mother’s birthplace.
I was a little tired of sightseeing and driving, so I decided to head back. I stopped for gas, and came across a Texas gate.
Interesting. I always called these “cattle guards”. Do you suppose they call them “Alberta Gates” in Texas?
Nah…
I decided to pick up some groceries and came across my favorite cookies.
Dad’s Oatmeal Cookies!
When I was a little girl and I would go to visit my grandmother in Crystal Beach, Ontario, she had a little carrier for me to put my Dad’s cookies in.
The cookies were on sale. If I remember correctly, they were about $1.65.
But, I was only in town for a short stay; I would do my best.
I headed into Calgary. I am partial to cities, and I wanted to get a glimpse of Alberta’s largest city. I do forget that cities are not hospitable environments for large pick up trucks. Even though I was under the height limit as stated at the entrance, I still scraped the roof of the cab on a beam in the parking structure. Luckily, no damage was done to the structure, although there were some noticeable scrapes on the roof of the cab.
I parked and left to stroll the streets and to see what I could see.
The Canadian Pacific Railway is headquartered in Calgary. It was incorporated in 1881.
But, I imagine the demise of the bonanza ranches contributed greatly to their success, as this poster from 1883 encourages settlers to head west.
They make it easy for people to ride their bikes into the center of the city. I thought these bike racks were clever.
This was the first time I’d ever seen a car sharing service in use. It sounds wonderful. Find a car, open it with an app on your phone, drive away and then just leave it when you are done. If you are interested in knowing more, Wikipedia has an article about this German company, and Car2go has a website.
Let’s see…Trains, bikes, cars…What am I leaving out?
Oh, yeah! Pedestrians!
I think it’s quite clever that these statues of pedestrians don’t get in the way of the real pedestrians.
There is just such a vibrance to cities. I do enjoy them. The new and the old blending together.
The Grain Exchange building seems to have been repurposed, but I’m glad they left their lovely carvings.
And of course any decent Canadian city would have a Hudson’s Bay.
I loved the arcades over the sidewalks.
I am sure it makes keeping the sidewalks cleared in the winter. But, since Calgary only receives and average of 51 inches of snow in a season and 13 inches of rain, it makes me wonder if the purpose of having an arcade over the sidewalks is mainly to increase the footprint of the building.
My destination was the Glenbow Museum, which had been recommended to me. It is an art and history museum – two of my favorite subjects! I took the elevator to the fourth floor to start my explorations.
They had quite the collection of military artifacts. I particularly enjoyed this suit of armor that was repurposed as a way to solicit donations.
There is a slot for inserting folding money.
But, I think this was the coolest feature. If I were a kid, I would have been begging my folks for some coins to place in Sir Galahad’s mouth.
But, I am a retiree and always watching my pennies, so they had to make do with my $16 entrance fee. I take some solace that $16 Canadian was only about $12.50 American.
I have seen my fair share of weaponry in all of my travels, so I didn’t spend a lot of time on the guns, sabers, cutlasses and so on. These medals did capture my attention, though.
My grandfather served in the Canadian armed forces in World War I, and he received the medal on the far right, the Inter-Allied Victory Medal. In fact, I ended up with it. When I emptied out my house to set forth on this journey, I gave it to my brother, Craig, who also knew our grandfather. Our grandfather died before my two younger siblings were born.
Further down in the museum, there were some splendid geological exhibits.
These iridescent specimens are ammolite, otherwise known as Canada’s gemstone.
It is formed form the mineralized remains of an upper Cretaceous fossil, the ammonite Placenticeras. They were hard shelled, squid-like marine animals that existed from the Devonian to the end of the Cretaceous period. They disappeared during the mass extinction 65 million years ago. Although ammonite fossils are found all over the world, only in Southern Alberta do they display the wide array and intensity of color, which is typical of the best quality ammolite gemstone. In 1981, ammolite was given the official gemstone status by the International Commission of Colored Gemstones.
I was particularly captivated by this collection of rocks. I stood there and watched them for a while.
Huh? They look kind of dull.
Just wait until the black light turns on.
Isn’t that something?
It kind of reminds me of when Konnie and I went night time scorpion hunting in Phoenix back in 2016.
Who knew that scorpions would glow like that?
I went on to the art area. The first work of art that grabbed my attention was this piece by Vancouver-based artist Adad Hannah. It was created in Saint-Louis, Senegal in 2015-2016 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the wreck of Medusa, which was a French frigate.
It was based on The Raft of the Medusa, which hangs in the Louvre. It is by the French painter and lithographer Theodore Gericault.
The Medusa, which was en route from Rochefort, France to Saint-Louis, Senegal, ran aground off the coast of Mauritania on July 2, 1816. On July 5, at least 147 were set adrift on a hastily constructed raft. All but 15 died in the 13 days before their rescue. Those who survived endured dehydration, starvation and practiced cannibalism.
In order to create his modern representation, Hannah spent five weeks in Saint-Louis. He spent his time researching, building, rehearsing and recording the “tableau vivants,” or living pictures. The set was created locally in Saint-Louis using salvaged, dismantled pirogues, architectural detritus and other elements found while roaming around the island of Saint-Louis and the adjacent fishing village of Guest N’Dar. He had a cast of over 50 locals from Saint-Louis who took part in staging the work of art.
I could say more about this work of art, and more about Senegal. I spent five weeks there in 2003 as part of a Fulbright program. In fact, I even spent time Saint-Louis. But, there is more to talk about. I shall continue.
This painting is titled “Hermit Mountain, Rogers Pass, Selkirk Range”. In 1886, William Brymer (1855-1925) was given a pass by the Canadian Pacific Railway as part of their artist’s pass program. The railway was completed in 1885, and connected eastern Canada to British Columbia.
John Hartman, a landscape painter from Ontario, painted “The Gap at Night” in 2003. In the information about the painting, they say that he “paints more than he sees. His energetic, impressionistic style adds depth and color to what might other be a conventional representation.” He gifted it to the museum in 2008.
This painting has the beguiling title of “Untitled [prairie highway]”. It is also undated. It was painted by self-taught Canadian artist William McCargar (1906-1980). It was donated in 2000 by Murray and Mari-Anna McCargar, who I presume were his children. William McCargar began his painting hobby with paint-by-number kits until his neighbor, artist Ken Lochhead, encouraged him to throw away his kits and develop his own style.
I like this painting because I imagine it was much like what my mother saw around her hometown of New Norway when she was growing up.
This 1999 work of art is called “Banff Globe”. Bill Vazan (b. 1933) created this photo of the Sulfur Mountain gondola observation tower. It’s a chromogenic photograph on paper. Just in case “chromogenic” isn’t in your vocabulary, this is what I came up with as a definition as it pertains to photography: “denoting a modern process of film developing that uses couplers to produce black-and-white or color images of very high definition.”
Sulphur Mountain is significant as it is the beginning of the Canadian National Parks system. An area on the northern slope of Sulphur Mountain was set aside for public use in 1885. This area, the Cave and Basin Hot Springs was the beginning of what is now Banff National Park.
Saskatchewan sculptor Victor Cicansky (b.1935) is an enthusiastic gardener and much of his work features gardens and garden produce. “The Creation of Corn and Tomatoes, 1993” is a work in fired clay and glaze that is described as a “gently humorous work, with a pointing muscular arm reminiscent of the arm of God in Michelangelo’s painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.”
I continued my trip down and came upon the section devoted to the First Nations. I looked through the exhibits, but I was getting a little museum-weary.
And I started running into field trips!
The students were well-behaved, but, well, field trips – been there, done that. I poked around a bit more and then headed out.
I stopped for a bit of refreshment. I was the only person in the diner. I think it’s a good thing that I only had something to drink. I worry when no one else is in a restaurant. Does everyone else know something I don’t? Is the food fresh? How long has that ham sandwich been sitting there?
I came across this 2004 sculpture by Jacqueline Metz and Nancy Chew. The title is “between the earth & sky/measuring the Immeasurable”.
It is describes as a “mythic landscape”. A cone of local rundle stone, which they describe as minimal yet sensuous, is a reference to the mountains. It took a little digging for me to find out what rundle stone is. It turns out that it is stone quarried from Mount Rundel in Banff National Park, and it is a fine-grained sandstone that is used in southern Alberta for landscaping and building.
So, on top of this “minimal yet sensual” cone of rundel stone, two bronze figures stand, back to back, looking forwards and backwards through space and time.
Uh, okay…
It’s always fun to see what stores set out in front of them. Actually “shopping” can be fun and economical, if you approach stores as if they were museums. They are there for you to enjoy, but don’t touch. (Or buy anything.)
McDonalds!
What would be on a TV in a McDonalds in Canada?
Hockey, of course!
I enjoyed my burger and beverage and got ready to head back to the campground.
