Alberta Road Trips: Millarville, Marv’s and a Really Big Rock

On a fine fall day, my friend Keoma and I headed out of Calgary for a bit of market shopping, soda sipping and rock climbing.

Millarville Farmers’ Market
Our first stop of the day was the well-known farmers’ market in Millarville. The outdoor market has a good combination of artisans and farmers/producers. My purchases included llama sausage (it was so unusual I just had to try it) and some gourmet soup from the Route 40 Soup Company.


Marv’s Classic Soda Shop
Keoma and I were both looking forward to tasting authentic sodas. I expected my soda to be similar to an ice cream float but it was pleasantly different - lighter and less sweet but still oh soooo good.

The restaurant is decorated in classic 50s diner style with lots of chrome, neon and pink vinyl. Each booth has a tabletop jukebox stocked with classic 50s music. We popped 25 cents into our jukebox and bopped as we were eating our burgers and fries. The highlight was when Marv pulled out his guitar and serenaded the customers.



The Okotoks Erratic
For the longest time I’ve wanted to visit the Okotoks Erratic, known as Big Rock. The idea that a gigantic rock is just sitting in the middle of the prairie with no other sizable rocks near it intrigued me. Although the rock wasn’t in the middle of nowhere (it’s right beside a farm), it was bigger and more impressive than I thought it would be.



The Scenery
An important part of any road trip is the scenery. And on this trip, the scenery did not disappoint. This was the perfect time of year to see the beautiful fall colours. Yellows and golds juxtaposed against the dark green of the evergreens and everything back-dropped by the mountains.



Road trips don’t get any better than this!

Chase the Chills Away with Autumn’s Hottest Drink

I can’t think of a better way to enjoy a cool fall day than by sipping the liquid heaven that is the drinking chocolate from Kerstin’s Chocolates in downtown Edmonton.

Kerstin’s sells two flavours of drinking chocolate – a dark chocolate with a hint of vanilla and a chocolate spiced with chili, cinnamon and other spices. Two very different, but delicious, tastes.

We also walked away with the seasonally-appropriate Chocophilia Pumpkin Pie chocolate bar. Imagine a blend of milk chocolate and pumpkin pie (in my opinion a better combination than chocolate and peanut butter).

So next time a chill is in the air, warm up with a concoction that takes hot chocolate to a completely different level.

For a similarly sublime hot chocolate experience in Calgary, check out Choklat in the Inglewood District.

Labour Day Food Festivals

Like squirrels storing up food for a long winter, Albertans will be stuffing their faces at many food festivals across the province next weekend. Here’s a lineup of some of the events happening on the Labour Day long weekend.

Fort McMurray's Fish Fry
September 4
Walleye, salads and blueberry pie. How can you beat that?

Calgary’s BBQ on the Bow Festival
September 4 and 5
Southern-style barbecue in southern Alberta. Chicken, pork ribs, pork butt and beef brisket grilling over slow burning wood or charcoal. What more needs to be said?

Glendon’s Annual Pyrogy Festival
September 4
The highlight of the festival has got to be the pyrogy eating contest. How many pyrogies would a pyrogy eater eat if a pyrogy eater could eat pyrogies?

What will you be stuffing your face with?

Sights and Sounds of Scotland: Alberta's Highland Games

I’ve heard it said that there are two types of people in the world – those who are Scottish and those who wish they were. Alberta’s many Highland Games offer a chance for Scottish expats and those who wish they had Scottish blood to experience the sights and sounds of Scotland right here in Alberta. A visit to the Red Deer Highland Games this past weekend allowed me to be Scottish for a day.

Pipe and Drum Competitions
The sound of bag pipes stirs the Scottish part of my soul. So imagine my delight at being able to listen to pipe music for an entire day! Most Highland Games host pipe band and individual pipe and drum competitions. Even without understanding the intricacies of the judging, it’s a pleasure to listen to the musicians. One of my favourite things to do is to wander around the grounds and eavesdrop on the musicians warming up for the competition.

Highland Dance
A popular event for many spectators is the Highland Dance competitions where dancers perform the fling, sword dance, reel and other dances. You have to admire the skill and discipline it takes to make such hard work look effortless.

Heavy Events
The heavy events are real crowd pleasers. Events like the caber toss, hammer throw, putting the stone and throwing the weight showcase the competitors’ strength and accuracy.

Spectators watch in amazement as each competitor lifts a caber weighing over 100 pounds and throws it so that it flips end over end. The sheer power required to lift the caber is impressive, but the rules of the caber toss make the feat of strength even more impressive—the athletes are judged according to the accuracy of their throw (the ideal throw is one where the caber lands in a 12 o’clock position to the thrower).

I’m fascinated by the event called throwing the weight for height. Its mild-mannered name belies the danger. Athletes must throw 28, 42 or 56 pound weights (depending on the category) over a bar with one hand. The catch is that the bar is directly above their head and is usually over 10 feet high! Watch the video below.


One-of-a-Kind Events
In addition to traditional events such as dancing and piping, some Highland Games offer events you might not expect.

The Grand Prairie Highland Games opens with a ceremonial Haggis Hurl. Female competitors stand on an upturned metal barrel and throw a haggis to their male partners. An annual tradition at the Calgary Highland Games is a soccer match between “Scotland” and “England. The Red Deer Highland Games is the only Alberta event to have a shortbread competition. After judging, the shortbread is sold to eagerly waiting fans (including me).

Massed Bands
There is no debate about what most people say is the highlight of the Highland Games—the massed bands performance. The sight of all the pipe bands marching down the field in unison combined with the extraordinary sound of that many pipes and drums takes your breath away.

Whether you’re Scottish or just wish you were, enjoy the sights and sounds of Scotland at these Alberta Highland Games:

• Fort McMurray Celtic Day in the Park
• Grand Prairie Highland Games
• Red Deer Highland Games
• Fort Edmonton Park Highland Gathering
• Foothills Highland Games
• Calgary Highland Games
• Canmore Highland Games

Mix it Up in Calgary's Inglewood Shopping District

Just like fusion cuisine pairs ingredients from distinct cultures to create new dishes, Calgary’s Inglewood neighborhood blends very different restaurants, shops and art galleries into an experience with a unique flavour.

In Inglewood, trendy clothing and furniture stores like Adorn Accessory Boutique and Circa mix with Crown Army Surplus and Olivier’s Candies. Restaurants like the Inglewood Drive In and the Harley Diner are at home beside upscale dining establishments like Capo and Rouge.

Even the stores themselves blend functions. DaDe is part art gallery and part furniture store. Jacqueline Suzanne’s Bistro and Antiquities and Serendipity Café and Home Decor bill themselves as dining/decor combos where you can have a bite to eat and scope out house wares to buy.

Located just south of the Calgary Zoo and mere minutes east of downtown, Inglewood also has bookstores, music venues and tattoo parlours among many other businesses.

So next time you want to mix it up, head to Inglewood.

My Inglewood Top Picks
Savour Fine Foods and Kitchenware
Arts on Atlantic Art Gallery
Choklat
Junktiques

Oil City Derby Girls Rock...and Roll

Chicks wearing fishnet stockings, roller skates and elbow pads can mean only one thing… roller derby.

Edmonton’s Oil City Derby Girls deliver mix-em-up action with bad-ass attitude. From the minute you hear the pounding music as you walk through the front door you know you’re in for a raucous good time. And when you see the skaters bumping and grinding their way around the track, you can’t help but get drawn in to the action.

Even if you don’t fully understand roller derby rules you’ll still have a good time watching the teams battle it out. And you have to like a sport where competitors are required to show off their “don’t mess with me attitude” through names like Dizz Aster, Bamm Bamm, and Lethal Lyn Jection.

The following video was taken from the “suicide seating” section of the venue. Enjoy!

Upcoming Oil City Derby Girls home games are June 12, August 14, September 18, October 16, and November 20.

Other Alberta teams that belong to the Canadian Women’s Flat Track Roller Derby Association:

• Edmonton's E-Ville Roller Derby
• Calgary Roller Derby Association
• Red Deer Belladonnas
• Medicine Hat's Gas City Rollers
• Wetaskiwin Rez City Rollerz are just getting established.

Behind the Scenes of Lethbridge's History

History is more than buildings and antiques. It’s also about the people who came before us and the experiences they had. From May 1 to 9, we have the opportunity to learn about our collective past by attending Historic Lethbridge Week.

Hear from a Japanese Canadian who was placed in an internment camp during World War II and learn about Canadian war brides. A screening of a 1945 Oscar-winning movie and a 1940s dance hall party will help you re-live the fun side of the war years.

Demonstrations of Sumi-e (traditional Japanese painting style), Bonseki (art of creating landscapes on black lacquer trays using white sand, pebbles, and small rocks) and Ikebana (flower arrangement) get you in touch with your artistic side.

Other events such as cemetery tours and a peek at the Galt Museum’s collections vault allow a glimpse of often unseen parts of history.

Experience the stories behind the places and things that represent Alberta’s history during Historic Lethbridge Week.

Other locations in the province also offer similar historic festivals:

• Edmonton and Northern Alberta Historic Festival, July 9 - 18, 2010
• Doors Open Edmonton, July 9 - 11, 2010
• Historic Calgary Week, July 23-August 2, 2010

Out of this World, But Close to Home

While most people are yearning for the days to get longer in the spring, I want the long dark nights to hang on for just a little longer. That way I can enjoy the night sky at the Rothney Astrophysical Observatory (RAO).

If you thought world-class observatories were only found in Hawaii or California, think again. The RAO is in our back yard. The observatory, operated by the University of Calgary, is less than 10 minutes from the city limits.

Stimulate Your Mind
The RAO hosts monthly open houses featuring university researchers speaking about astronomy-related topics. Recent topics have highlighted the northern lights, radio astronomy and the southern skies. The agenda for 2010 includes the Hubble telescope and First Nations astronomy.

Interactive displays in the interpretive centre are designed to interest children, but even grown-ups will be fascinated by the transparent globe that shows the movement of the Earth and constellations.

See With Your Own Eyes
At the open houses, volunteers set up portable telescopes on the observation terrace so that visitors can see Saturn’s rings, a nebula or even the International Space Station with their own eyes. The volunteers are very patient with newbies (like me) who don’t even know which end of the telescope to look into!

Experience the Research Telescopes
The interpretive centre and the portable telescopes are interesting, but the absolute highlight for me is the research telescopes. Like most people, my experience with telescopes is limited to portable varieties. Not many people get the chance to see big research-quality telescopes.

The coolest part of the experience is that visitors are allowed to get close to the telescopes. At the Clark-Milone telescope you can stand inside the dome and see the telescope mount swivel as the telescope focuses on new coordinates.

At the Baker-Nunn telescope you can climb up into the dome to see the telescope if you like. The Baker-Nunn telescope was originally used to track spy satellites during the Cold War. Now it the only telescope in Canada and one of only a few telescopes in the world to track asteroids on a collision course with Earth.

The ARCT telescope is Canada’s largest infrared telescope. With a primary mirror diameter of 1.8 metres, it is also one of the two largest optical telescopes in all of Canada. In the darkness of the dome it’s difficult to get an idea of what the ARCT looks like, but if you stand below it as the mounting structure moves, it sure sounds big.

If you can, try to attend an open house when the telescopes are available for public viewing. The next open house is April 24. Alternatively, you can book a private tour during the day to really see what the telescopes look like.

You don’t have to travel far to have an out of this world experience.

An Afternoon at the Calgary Farmers' Market

What a nice way to spend an afternoon. Tasting food samples, talking with enthusiastic vendors and browsing through stalls filled with interesting craft items. I like the idea of supporting local farmers, producers and artists and what better way to do that than visiting a farmers’ market.

The Calgary Farmers’ Market has the most diverse range of ethnic specialties I’ve seen at a market. Greek, Indian, Cuban, Ukrainian, Mexican, Italian, Chinese just to name a few. I walked away with a variety of dishes from around the world.

I was also surprised at the lineup in front of Simple Simon Pies. Customers were waiting 2 people deep and about 10 across just to place orders for Simple Simon’s meat and fruit pies. After tasting a sample I could see why. Another highlight was the kettle corn from the Sugar Creek Kettle Corn Co. The light, fluffy popcorn with subtle hints of sweet and salty made it the best kettle corn I’ve ever tasted.

The market is also filled with passionate and knowledgeable vendors. I was so impressed with the Old Country Sausage Shop’s commitment to keep fillers, binders and MSG out of their products that I purchased some of their Moroccan sausage. After talking with the folks at Patsy Clark Farms I decided to be adventurous and try Ostrich burgers.

In addition to food products, the market also offers a selection of craft items like painted glassware, jewelry and art.

By the time I left the market my bags were filled with goodies. The only thing I would have done differently is leaving time at the end of the afternoon to stop for a beer at the nearby Wild Rose Brewery.

The Hunt is on for Easter Activities

With Easter on the horizon, I’ve been thinking about activities that families can do to have some fun for Easter. Many major attractions in Alberta have kid-friendly events planned during the Easter weekend.

Calgary

• Munch on Easter Brunch at Heritage Park and participate in a scavenger hunt and traditional Easter egg decorating. Sunday, April 4
• Kids can meet Peter Rabbit, enter the colouring contest and enjoy face painting, crafts and games at Fort Calgary’s Spring Fever. Sunday, April 4
• At the Calgary’s Zoo’s Easter Eggstravaganza, families can enjoy treats of many kinds - entertainment, the Cadbury scavenger hunt and personalized cookie treats. Friday, April 2 and Saturday, April 3

Edmonton

• An afternoon of old-fashioned fun awaits at Rutherford House. Taste cookies baked in the wood-burning stove and find historically-coloured Easter eggs. Sunday, April 4
• At Fort Edmonton Park’s Sweet Treat Hide and Seek, kids can exchange eggs found on the Easter egg hunt for treats. There will also be storytelling, a petting zoo, and a rabbit jumping demonstration. Saturday, April 3

Grand Prairie

• Grand Prairie’s Muskoseepi Park is the site of an Easter Eggstravaganza with a bunny display, cookie decorating, games, Easter egg hunt and a visit by the Easter Bunny. Saturday, April 3
  

Lethbridge

• Dye eggs and snap photos with the Easter Bunny at the Galt Museum’s Annual Eggstravaganza. Saturday, April 3

These activities are sure to keep you hopping.

Go for Gold in Calgary

For those of you watching the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and thinking how cool it would be to try some of the more daring winter sports, I have a tip for you. You can live your Olympic dream at the venues from the 1988 Olympics in Calgary.

Canada Olympic Park, site of the 1988 bobsleigh and luge events, offers the public a chance to experience the course that many Olympic athletes compete and train on.

For an insanely adventurous experience, try the luge. A skilled luge athlete will teach you the finer points of propelling yourself down an icy track and then let you give it a try.

If you prefer someone else to be in the driver’s seat, hop in the bobsleigh. A professional driver will pilot you down the course at speeds of up to 120 km/hr.

Tickle the Ivories at Cantos

How many museums do you know of that let you get within an arm’s length of the items on display let alone touch them?

At the Cantos Music Foundation in Calgary you can do more than just visually appreciate the keyboard collection from a distance. You can observe the inner workings of the instruments up close, listen to your talented guide play the keyboards and even play them yourself.

See
The craftsmanship of many of the older pieces in the collection is not found in keyboards made today. Wood inlay, mother of pearl, intricate carving, and real tortoiseshell and ivory keys are examples of old-world artistry. Two of the oldest keyboards, the 1560 Virginal and 1679 Couchet Harpsichord, have painted scenes on the underside of the lids.

Some of the more technological items have clear exterior cases so you can see the inner mechanisms of the instruments. The clear casing of the Robb Wave organ lets you see the six-cylinder car engine that the organ was constructed from.

Sometimes you won’t believe what you’re seeing. On the transposing piano the entire row of keys slides sideways. Who knew pianos could do that?

Hear
Cantos showcases the evolution of keyboards and you can hear the diversity. The difference in sound from the string-like notes of a Baroque harpsichord to the techno beats of 80s dance music synthesizers is amazing.

You’ll recognize the sound of the Mellotron M 400 featured in The Beatles’ song Strawberry Fields Forever and the distinctive sound of the Theremin often used to make sound effects for 1950s sci-fi movies.

Play
The most remarkable thing about Cantos is the opportunity to play many of the instruments on display. Broadway aficionados will appreciate the rich sounds of the Rhapsody in Blue grand piano honouring George Gershwin and lovers of old-school blues will go wild over the Hammond B3 organ. You can’t pass up the chance to touch a piece of history by playing the 1875 Hammer dulcimer or the1876 Steinway grand.

Sensory Explosion

Of all the items in the collection, the Kimball theatre organ best combines all the sensory elements of the Cantos experience into one delightful package. Feel the rush of air from the pipes. Hear the astounding range of sounds that the organ can make including tweeting birds. See the xylophones and cymbals move as the keys are played.

Experience Music
By allowing visitors to explore the collection through sight, sound and touch, Cantos provides a tangible connection to the experience of music.

You can connect with Cantos through drop-in tours, private tours, and customized tours.