Calgary Stampede

Saturday we went to the Calgary Stampede. This happened to also be mine and Aaron's 6th anniversary. We didn't have anything planned, just dinner that night. We took the train into the stampede grounds, Preston loved this part. The first place we stopped was the midway, Ashley had high hopes that we would be riding EVERYTHING! I am sorry but any ride that is assembled overnight by who knows who, no thank you. She and Aaron rode a few things then we headed to see Thomas and Friends. The kids were not impressed by the foam like Thomas figure on stage and the Sir Topem Hat dancing around. We decided to go to where the smell led us. Carnival food! Aaron and I ate beef that looked like it had been cooking for days, it was so good and juicy. Ashley played it safe with a corn dog. We also ate jalapeno cheese sticks. I was really impressed by the Stampede. There were lots of horses, cows and other animals. It was alot like the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. We left exhausted but knew we had to get our energy back up for our anniversary dinner. We got to the room, got ready and headed to a huge tent set up in downtown for the stampede. It was called Wild Horse Saloon and it was wild. Aaron and I surely were out of place with our wedding bands shining like beacons in the night. This place was for the young and single. We drank a few then headed to Caesar's Steak House. Now this was our kind of place......... classy, great steak and great atmosphere. This is probably the best steak I have ever had, and I have been to Ruth's Chris. Seriously I don't know what it is with the beef here but it's good.

Sunday
We didn't have anything planned we decided to just lay low and take the kids to see Toy Story 3. The nearest theater was in the Eau Claire district. Which is a really nice side of downtown. We left a few hours early just because you never know what our family will stumble upon. We just so happen to stumble upon the Turkish Festival. The food smelled so good that we couldn't wait for them to start serving. We all had some Shawarma, Doner Kebab, and Baklava.
The kids did great for their first movie theater experience. Preston said a few times "I wanna get outta here" but we told him we couldn't leave until the movie was over. We loved the movie but it was kind of questionable with some of the toys being rude, hitting and saying mean things. After the movie we looked at our map to see if there was anything else in the area we wanted to do before walking back to the hotel. There was a little island across the river called Prince's Island Park. I loved all the gardens and flowers. The weather is so mild here that there are a ton of flowers and gardens overflowing with greenery. Things that are shriveling up and dying in Houston are thriving and loving the weather here. Prince's Island just has a few nature trails and access to the Bow river, which was freezing cold. We walked back to the hotel through China Town and Aaron promised we would go back to China Town on Monday to eat real Chinese food............................... which we did.