It's a Stampede!!!! (The Finale)

So where were we . . .

Oh right! I had just gone back to the hotel after a fun night of rodeo action.

The next morning I woke up and was all gung ho to have one of the Calgary Stampede's famous pancakes breakfasts!!! It's right up there as one of those must do things. A lot of times they are free and held at different places around the city. The morning I was there the breakfast was at the actual Stampede. But it ended way too early for my sleepy self so instead we settled for the hotel's Stampede breakfast:


Do you read that never ending selection of eats? There were no substitutions and yes it read like a lot of stuff but I was still shocked when this appeared in front of me:


So much food!!!!!!!!! LOL

I ate the eggs, and yes the bacon (it had been so long since I'd had any) and the pancakes. I didn't even touch the beans or the sausage although I hear both were awesome. And I asked to get the corn bread to go since it wouldn't go bad on the drive home. Usually I don't like corn bread (at all) but this one was amazing. I had it with a little bit of preserves for breakfast the next day.

After my feast I rolled out of the hotel and headed down to the Stampede grounds with the fiance. On the schedule that day was the full on rodeo but we had some time to kill before hand. We ended up watching the World Blacksmith Championship. I bet you didn't even know they had one of those! :oP


Basically these are the Manolo Blahniks and Christian Louboutins of the equestrian world. Lucky horses indeed! :o)

After we finished watching the finale we headed to the Grandstand for the main event. Previous to the Stampede I'd gone to two separate rodeos and I enjoyed them both so I knew I'd have loads of fun during this rodeo.


For several hours we watched bareback riding, the one where they tie the little calfs, cowgirls riding really fast around barrels, and of course some bull riding. If you've never been to a rodeo I recommend it! And this is coming form a girl who isn't country at all!!!!


After the rodeo we headed back to our car but stopped briefly in Chinatown for more yummy eats. We may or may not have gone overboard when ordering! lol Okay massively overboard. But we packed the leftovers up and lived off of them for the next couple of days.


Shanghai hot and sour soup. Amongst the best I've ever had!!!


Ma po tofu (amazingly thick and delicious sauce), incredibly fragrant bbq fried rice, and an extra plain steamed rice.

lol Can you believe all that food was for only two people!??! Yeah neither could the staff! :oP In fact the above are all after pictures. Hahahha kind of embarrassing!

We barely managed to make in the dishes. We barely ate any of it it was just so much. But no regrets. You can't get Chinese food of that quality in my particular Rocky Mountain town.

After lunch the fiance and I headed back to the car and drove back across Banff to our little corner of the world. All in all I would say we had a completely lovely weekend! And so not bad for a spur of the moment trip (we decided we were going on Friday morning).


'Twas a lovely weekend indeed! :o)