We both slept in after the long day yesterday. I woke up at 10am (which was really late for me) and did other stuff (10 min ab workout, packed) while he slept in. I ended up having to wake him up when it was close to check-out time so he’d have enough time to get ready. I had to get a late check out for us to get out of the room in time (and it still wasn’t enough time). I think at this point in the trip, our driving was starting to take a toll on him.

We decided to go to downtown Calgary to see it since we didn’t have time to see it before. The drive up to Banff from Calgary was also only an hour and a half, so we weren’t stressed at all with getting into Banff. Since I was going to be living in Banff for the summer anyway, I knew I could always come back to Calgary if ever we missed anything that day.

As we were driving downtown, we were instantly hit with views of the skyline. We had to find street parking downtown, which was thankfully only $1.50 an hour on the weekend (so much less than Toronto!) We left the car on the street and started walking to everything. The weather in Calgary was sunny with some blue skies, which was a (good!) stark contrast to the rainy weather in Edmonton.

#1: Calgary Tower

We didn’t go up to the tower, but we took pictures outside. I think what made it more spectacular was the weather since it was the perfect temperature and there were a perfect number of clouds in the sky. It was gorgeous and I’d call it the CN Tower of Calgary.

#2: Stephen Avenue Walk

This was the pedestrian-only street of Calgary which was pretty empty when we went. We passed by the Glenbow Museum on the way here, but it was closed due to covid. We also passed by an entrance to the Telus Centre, which had been turned into a mass vaccination site. The streets would’ve been filled with people in normal times and patios would’ve been all over the sidewalks.

#3: Bow Tower and the Wonderland Sculpture

We passed by here and this was so cool to see up close. The blue skies definitely made this building look more majestic. I was surprised at how big the head actually was since it looked minuscule compared to the building.

#4: Olympic Plaza

We walked over to the plaza and passed by Centre Street, which was the main street downtown. There were a group of homeless people on one side, and people just scattered throughout on the steps eating, hanging out with friends, reading, etc. There were a couple of huge Canadian Geese too that I found fascinating. We sat there for a bit and took some pictures, then we left. We passed by statues of the Famous Five which I found interesting since they were an important part of Canadian history.

We decided to take the tram to the next destination after we realized it was free downtown. I love taking public transit in different cities just to see how the locals get around. It was really clean and the trains came pretty frequently which I was happy about.

#5: Devonian Gardens

We walked through Stephen Avenue Walk again and turned into a huge shopping mall (The CORE Shopping Centre). I didn’t know where we were going and was confused at why he was taking us to one knowing that I didn’t like to shop (especially while travelling). A lot of the stores were closed too. We went up to the top floor with the food courts, and I was even more confused since he knew I didn’t like to eat food court food when travelling. He took us to the far end of the top floor, and we were instantly greeted with a huge indoor garden. There were benches throughout, and it was massive. The garden was beautiful and had so many plant varieties. We took some pictures, took it all in, then left.

#6: Chinatown

I wanted to go see Calgary’s Chinatown since it’s cool to see my heritage in different cities and Hohyun wanted bubble tea (win-win). The street was filled with a lot of red and Chinese lettering on the store exteriors. Even the street signs had Chinese on them. Hohyun went to Coco’s to get bubble tea and we both noticed that the drinks were slightly more expensive than what we were used to in Markham.

We left afterwards when we realized that our parking was about to expire. As we approached the car, we noticed a large gathering set up in front of the bank. Given covid, we didn’t want to get too close to the large group of unmasked people but was curious about what was going on, so we ran into the car and tried to figure it out. We believe that it was an anti-vax/anti-mask rally since we saw a guy with a “Jesus is the vaccine” shirt.

#7: Stampede Grounds

We knew we had to come here since it was one of the tourist attractions of Calgary. The Calgary Stampede is held here every year, and at the time, we didn’t know if it would happen, so we wanted to at least be on the grounds where it would’ve happened. (Fun fact: We ended up going to Stampede a month and a half later.) We didn’t stay long and just drove around and took a few pictures.

#8: Scotsman’s Hill

When Hohyun searched for “best places to see the Calgary Skyline”, this came up. We parked on the street of a nearby neighbourhood and walked to the hill. The views were fabulous and I was speechless. I had a blast taking pictures and was mesmerized. The weather made the view 10x better. There were also wooden stairs that led to the Saddledome.

#9: Fort Calgary Historic Park

We parked at a playground near the historic site then started walking on the Riverwalk through Fort Calgary Historic Park. There were great views of the Bow River along the way, and we saw people pass by us on their tubes and boats from time to time. Near the beginning of our walk, there was a bridge connecting the park to St. Patrick’s Island which I really liked. There were many people there either on walks or cycling. We were trying to get to the Fort Calgary Historic Site but it was a lot further than we realized. I was a bit tired and didn’t want to continue to the front of the building since it was probably closed anyway, so we turned around and walked back to the car. I saw many geese on the way back, which I was really happy about.

I had been craving ice cream all afternoon and under Makeda’s recommendation (thanks Makeda!), we went to Made by Marcus. She warned us that there would probably be a line but that the ice cream was incredible. I waited in line while Hohyun went to see if the new iPad he wanted was in stock. They hand-made all their flavours, and they looked so good I got double scoops for both of us and chose strawberry, coffee, and blueberry/cherry cheesecake as the flavours.

We then decided it was time to drive into Banff. The drive was pretty flat heading out in the city and we both were really excited as we saw the mountains approach. We got stuck at the train crossing but didn’t really mind since it gave us more time to take in the views. I couldn’t believe that I was going to call this place home for the summer.

We were staying at the Banff Inn since my place wasn’t ready for move-in yet. The guy working at the check-in counter was really friendly and gave us a good list of things to do in Banff. We moved our stuff in after parking the car in the garage and were exhausted. The room was fabulous with large beds and lots of space, which was great after a long day.

We realized that we were hungry since we hadn’t eaten anything besides ice cream. We saw a Chili’s when we were driving around Banff and knew we had to eat there since we’re both huge fans of The Office. We ordered their baby back ribs and a few other things, then brought it back to the hotel and ate while watching The Office.

We went out for a walk on Banff Ave. after dinner just to see it and it was breathtaking. All the shops were closed though, but it was really cute and charming. Hohyun was still hungry, so we got Beavertails as dessert. They were perfect after a long day and satisfied our sweet tooths. Since the street was empty, I decided to run down Banff Ave. on the way back, which was surreal. I felt like I was in a wonderland and was just living.

We then went back to the hotel and got ready for bed since we were both exhausted. We were going to do the Icefields Parkway the next day, and the reception really recommended that we start early so we have time to fully take in all it has to offer.