A Week in Calgary

Melissa's is a favourite of locals and seemingly for good reason. They open at 7am daily and serve a wide variety of food and beverages. We arrived in the late morning and since the breakfast menu is available until 11:30 some of our group had breakfast. You can get a reasonably priced toast/eggs/bacon combo for around $6 or go a little more upscale for the crab and asparagus omelet (around $8 and excellent). The lunch menu expands into a variety of burgers, sandwiches, pizza, etc. My margarita was a little less frozen than I like but tasty none the less. The big breakfast was enough to feed an adult and a couple of small children. The chicken wrap was very good - although I was surprised it was served cold. The staff were extremely pleasant and many were definitely from other countries as they had as many different accents.

As a rule we like to go to Boston Pizza, although I wouldn't select the "South Trail" location again. In general Boston Pizza serves good American-style food including pizza, pasta, and various sandwiches. Our favourites include the Santa Fe Stromboli, the Chicken Ciabatta, and the Boston Brute. On this visit, however, they were out of ciabatta buns, which we didn't find out until around 15 minutes after we had ordered. Since our guest was on her dinner break this left little time to choose a substitution. The waitress suggested a substitution of toast which we chose for hopefully a speedier service. (It turned out to be regular bread not Texas toast which was not a good choice.) We were not offered a discount even though they had a lesser quality substitute. Calgary is a city that is struggling to find good employees no matter where you seem to go so you may not always get top notch service. Our waitress was pleasant enough but not too good, as she neither wrote down our order nor remembered it the first time and had to come back and ask again what we wanted.
In typical Boston Pizza style it took over an hour for us to finish our lunch. This is not the place to go if you are in a hurry.
Customers next to us had left quite a mess on the floor which sat for a good 10 minutes before staff started to clean (and they weren't even that busy).
Boston Pizza is a family friendly restaurant and reasonably priced (the food is anyways for around $10 for a hot specialty sandwich although the milk was $3, but the non-stop pop with the meal was only $2.59). Sports fans will like the TV's that have various sporting events turned on.

The Rose and Crown is a British pub on one side and a restaurant on the other. The restaurant was clean and the staff was very pleasant. The only drawback was parking; they have a small lot and, since the pub was quite full, it was hard to find a spot.
The menu has your traditional British items such as fish and chips (the fish was very fresh and highly recommended), bangers and mash, and steak and kidney pie. There were also regular items such as burgers and riblets on the menu. The childrens menu had very reasonably priced items (burger and fries for $6) that came with free pop.
The restaurant had a very relaxing atmosphere and real wood decor. The pub had TV's, pool, and darts for entertainment.
The place seemed to be frequented by locals, which is always a sign of a great place to eat.

You can't go to Calgary without going to the zoo. It is easy to find as there are many signs on the road telling you where to turn. There is also conveniently close public transit and LRT. The zoo is open year-round from 9am to 5pm daily. We went in March so it was a little chilly, although it is $1 cheaper than in the summer. There are some indoor exhibits that you can warm up in between the outdoor animal enclosures. If you can go in the summer it is probably preferred as there were a few animals that don't brave the Canadian winters. There are typical zoo animals such as bears, elephants, giraffes, and zebras. The zoo also has a prehistoric park and a botanical gardens. There are food services and a gift shop as well.

I highly recommend picking up a map when you come into the zoo. This will help make sure you don't miss anything as the layout is not circular. The map also shows where there are washrooms and eating places. There is good signage throughout the zoo. The zoo is actually on both sides of the Bow River so you have to cross the bridge to get to all of the animals that are not native to North America. Be sure to take your camera and good walking shoes. We spent several hours there and could have spent longer. Both children and adults should find the zoo entertaining.

IKEA is IKEA. What can I say. IKEA is the same no matter which one you go to, which is one of the great things about it. IKEA is great, and if you have never been you must go. It is a store with a variety of home furnishings and decorations, of which most are fairly simple and basic. This means that they shouldn't go out of style. Most items are fairly inexpensive which makes this place great for students and people just starting out. Some of the wall hanging and pictures are a little more pricey for the better ones, but well worth the price. The Calgary IKEA is in the Southeast part of the city, located conveniently right off the Deerfoot (#2 highway). There is ample parking.

When you enter IKEA you grab a cart and take the elevator upstairs to start. There are many different rooms laid out to shop possible design/decorating ideas. Grab one of the many pencils/papers available and mark down where to find items you are interested in (each item will have a tag that includes the price and where you can find the item). Make sure you write down the locations of furniture as it will save you lots of time trying to figure it out later or having to go back to the other end of the store to get the number. Throughout the building there are several children's entertainment spots to keep them busy while you shop. Follow the arrows on the floor as the path is a winding one and you want to go with the flow of traffic to avoid accidents.

IKEA has a large amount of furniture, bedding, kitchen supplies, pillows, vases, pictures, etc, etc, etc from which to choose. Plan to spend several hours if you have never been to an Ikea. On the ground floor, just before the exit it a large area that has rows and rows of the boxed furniture that requires assembly. The check-out is a do -it- yourself packing system which has free tape/string/paper by the exit doors to wrap up any breakables.

It also has a catalog and you can order online. But be warned not all items can be purchased online and delivered. Ordering online also means you miss out on the experience of going to IKEA. Everyone I know loves going to IKEA so if you haven't been you are missing out.

While in Calgary, we attended two Calgary Flames hockey games. The Flames play out of the Pengrowth Saddledome (555 Saddledome Rise SE Calgary). There is some parking around the stadium and public transit nearby as well.

For the game against Detroit, we had seats in the first row on the second level. These are great seats as there is no one in front of you to block your view and you are still close enough to be able to just read the names on the backs of the players jerseys.
The second game, we had box seats, but they were the higher level boxes so the view wasn't as good. Having box seats does give you the privilege of an outside elevator, taking you right up to the box level.
At least once, you should purchase a $5 program (Blaze)as there are good stats, stories, and information included. There is a number at the back of the program that can win you prizes, but watch the scoreboard TV screens for the numbers as they don't announce them. The 50/50 typically goes for 5 figures and there are sellers throughout the arena.
If you rarely attend hockey games, I recommend going for warmups. You can pretty much sit anywhere for warm-ups, so you can get a close look at the players, especially the ones who don't wear helmets during warm-up. When the Flames get on the ice for the game, and for every goal, be prepared for a blast of heat as flames shoot out of the scoreboard and a couple of other sites on the ceiling. Watching NHL hockey in Canada is always exciting and noisy. Fans are attentive and knowledgeable, which is a pleasant difference compared to some American games I have attended. There is typical arena food available such as burgers, nachos, ice cream, etc. Washrooms were fairly clean with a typical lineup, although there was a much shorter line for the box seat level.

The Banff Gondola is located at Sulphur Mountain, which is about 5 minutes from downtown Banff. The eight-minute ride to the top gives a breathtaking view of the area. It is not cheap—about $20 each—so in summer, many people hike to the top of the mountain.
The upper terminal at the top of Sulphur mountain houses a gift shop, restaurant, and the observation deck. The restaurant has good food and nice views. The observation deck gives you the spectacular views of the surrounding mountains, Banff, the Banff Springs Hotel, and some wildlife, if you are lucky. Be careful in the winter as the deck can be slippery.
At the gondola exit, there is a deck that leads to some hiking trails. One trail leads to the Sanson's peak Stone Observatory. Despite the chilly temperature when we were there, many people were making the trek.
If you don't feel like hiking to the top of a mountain, this is definitely the best way to get some spectacular photographs. I recommend going on a warm day, preferably not too windy, in order to enjoy it the best.