I mentioned recently (perhaps in my weekly newsletter? I honestly can’t remember), that when I travel the most memorable places and experiences aren’t usually what I expect. On our trip to Calgary, however, I knew exactly what I’d enjoy the most and loved it even more than I imagined. We arrived in Calgary just after lunchtime (though I hadn’t much to eat) after a 3:40am alarm, two flights, and my luggage deciding to enjoy a little more time in Seattle than I did. Huge argh! We got to the hotel as fast as possible, changed what clothes we could (luckily my mom got her luggage and had an extra long sleeve shirt for me), got some lunch, and headed down to await our sidecar tour pickup! Originally, we’d hoped to spend some time in Banff and Lake Louise, but with such a short visit, we kept our activities to the city. To get a small taste of Alberta outside of the big city, however, I opted for the foothills sidecar tour from Rocky Mountain Sidecar Adventures…
We were picked up a little after four and unfortunately got caught in a bit of rush hour (time enough to snap this fantastic photo though). We did eventually make our way out of the city – see it off in the distance two pictures down. We meandered on rolling, two-lane country roads and I snapped pictures left and right. I don’t know if the seemingly endless sky (that reminded me of our day safari in Botswana), the amazing clouds, or the pastoral scenes to our left and right captured my attention more. Needless to say the country girl in me loved it all…
After a little over an hour on the sidecar tour, we arrived in Turner Valley where we stopped at Eau Claire Distillery for a tasting and a tour. The distillery is in the old movie theatre and brothel. They’ve retained a bit of local flavor both from the two historic buildings but also with some Canadian distilling history. And while I’m not big on imbibing vodka or gin straight, I womaned up and handled the tasting they offered. The alcohols, however, were really great quality and I wanted to take them both home to whip into cocktails. Most exciting was their prickly pear spirit that’s just what you’d imagine – magical! They just started selling their products in the US – sadly only on the East Coast at the moment. When that prickly pear becomes available here in the Wild West, however, look out for some cocktail recipes!! And when they start selling whiskey, you know I’ll be planning a trip back with my husband at my side for an empirical taste test!
After the tasting, we headed back toward Calgary to watch the sun set over the Rockies in the distance. Nothing but a dream and the perfect thing to do in Calgary (no matter how many times you visit)!
I took all these photo with my favorite point + shoot camera. Almost all of these photos were taken as we drove along the road. Even with that movement and on the automatic setting, the color and detail it captured were amazing!!
Thank you to Visit Calgary and Rocky Mountain Sidecar Adventures for hosting us.
All opinions are, of course, my own!
