Canada Day Recap (Happy 150th, Canada!)

Canada Day is usually a pretty low-key affair around here. Since we moved to Calgary, we hadn’t gone to see the fireworks at all. In Sooke, we knew where everything was at, where to park, how to take the shuttle bus, and where to watch the fireworks from. Here, the fireworks are right downtown, making a quick return home afterwards difficult to imagine.

In the morning, I was perusing “things to do on Canada Day in Calgary”, and saw the listing for the Canada Day event in Cochrane. Since we live in the part of Calgary closest to it, I thought we could try that. The festivities didn’t start until 4:00, so we filled some time. Tammy made some Canada Day cupcakes, and we all played Settlers of Catanada…

Then the weather rolled in. Thunderstorms were all over the weather map, and a couple hit us. When 4:00 came, we decided to “wait and see”. We rented Passengers from iTunes and watched that. When the movie was over, the map was showing a last line of storms hitting us, but then nothing after that. Since Cochrane is “upwind” of us, I was willing to bet that the weather was already clear there.

And it was! The event was obviously recovering from the storms. I think a lot of the people had fled for homes or Tim Hortons, but there was music playing on the stage, a reptile petting zoo, and geese on the pond.

We wandered for a bit, but at 9:00 it was clear that we needed something to fill the time until the fireworks. We went to the Tim Hortons and everybody had a warm drink. When we got back to the festivities, Barney Bentall and the Legendary Hearts were wrapping up, and then it was time for DJ AVX and a neon dance party. That was a lot more fun that I expected. Tammy really got into it.

And then it was time for the fireworks, at about 11:15. We had a great view. The kids were impressed. Then we were on the road back home without too much trouble.

All in all, it was a successful day. We made the most of it.