Calgary's Heritage Park 2014

Heritage Park Spending the day at a museum is something that I love to do, especially when on holiday. Add to that working for museums and life is pretty spectacular. Sometimes, field trips can provide wonderful insight and professional development. Better yet, they provide a window into the history of our past.

While in Calgary, I had the opportunity to explore Heritage Park. Heritage Park is a museum that functions as living history site. What does this mean? It means that the museum is set up to engage the visitor. From costumed interpreters, to the smell of baking, horse drawn wagon rides and the whistle of the steam train, you are invited to go back in time. There are gardens to walk and houses to visit. In each place, you might be greeted by the ladies of the house or the gentleman attending to business. At the fur trading post, you can discuss furs and at the teepee, there might be the opportunity to chat to the Blackfoot people.

My favorite part of visiting Heritage Park is the live theatre performances on the streets. They have short skits that engage visitors into following the stories of old time residents. This year, it was all about black gold and trying to strike it rich. They are also experimenting with cell phone technology to add interpretation into buildings like the school house. Everywhere you go on site, there is something to do and someone to talk to. If you are there before 10:00, you can have breakfast, or you can go the bakery and have a cinnamon bun or try your hand at making ice-cream.

 Things to note:
• Don’t assume this is a short visit. If visiting with children, plan to spend the entire day here.
 • Pack a picnic in a back pack
• Watch the street theatre
• Try the midway rides that are now free with admission
• Bring money for ice cream and the bakery. Yum.
• Wear comfortable shoes and plan your day around the train if needed. The Moyie is a nice quiet relax on the water too.
• Talk to the interpreters, they will make your visit special.

Royal Bank

Gasoline Alley

Talking with the Smithie

Street Theatre

View from the Midway

Best of all, go early so that you get the most out of your day.

Calgary on Dwellable

Summer Road Trip 2013: Calgary and Calaway Park

Calgary during the summer is a vibrant city that has tremendous energy. Despite the flooding, the city opted to go forward with Stampede: Come Hell or High Water. After much debate, we chose to avoid Stampede and spent a day at Calaway Park with friends instead. Keeping in mind the ages of the children involved and the need to spend time with friends and Grandma, this made more sense as Stampede is definitely an all day commitment. So, after chilling out Thursday in a lovely back garden complete with trampoline, and developing a bad case of Kitchen Envy, our hosts went golfing and we went for Breakfast with Grandma at Cadence in Bowness.

This is the strangest part of the Calgary/ Fort McMurray 2013 flood for me. I realize that so many areas have been devastated by flooding, especially High River. The issue is that in many of the flooded communities, the outward cleanup makes things look fine, when they are not. High humidity leads to mold and so many of the hardest hit areas will not have flood insurance. If you are constructed on a known flood plain, there is no help for you. Yet, when driving through Bowness, where you know people have lost everything, there is not one shred of evidence available on the main strip to see that they need help. It was disconcerting, yet flood relief signs in business windows are everywhere. The community is strongly supporting their community by donating proceeds from sales to the relief effort, and so we ate breakfast at Cadence. Not only was it fabulous and a great place to meet up with Grandma, it felt right.

After breakfast and shoe shopping at the thrift store WIN where the girls came out with lots of shoes and I came out with shell shocked eyes having discovered that my eldest has a ladies size 5 foot, we drove out West to Calaway Park. We had never been there before and once the girls realized it was an amusement park, we were sunk. Admission was paid and off we went.

It was a quieter day for Calaway Park thanks to Stampede. Through-out the day, we went on rides that drove, bumper cars, the log ride and spun, dropped and gamed to our hearts content. Picnics were eaten and mini-golf played. The lines were short and the coffee delicious. I will say that this place is better for the older kids as they are rigid with their height and age restrictions, but nevertheless, it was a fabulous day out.

After that, it was just enough time to have dinner in the backyard oasis and pack up for the next adventure. Idaho.

Calgary on Dwellable