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About my City-Calgary, Alberta Canada
By Ray Fauteux of Ironstruck
For those of you unfamiliar with this part of the world, Calgary Alberta is North of Montana and East of Idaho. To give you some idea of the distance, it takes me about 3 hours to drive to the Alberta-Montana border crossing at Sweetgrass, and about 9 hours to drive from my doorstep to beautiful downtown Couer d' Alene. I have made that drive several times so I could take part in the CDA Ironman Triathlon. British Columbia is above Idaho and it's about a two hour drive from Cranbrook, British Columbia to the U.S./Canada border crossing. We just had our world famous Calgary Stampede about ten minutes from my condo and cowboys from all over were here to compete for over a million dollars in prize money. The picture is taken from a hill above the Pengrowth Saddledome, home of the NHL Calgary Flames. Last week the entire area was part of the Calgary Stampede. We are a city of about one million people now, but the last I heard more people were leaving than arriving. At one time there was a boom here for construction and now with the economic downturn there are fewer jobs and many workers have moved on. Calgary was also the site of the 1988 Olympic Winter Games and I was a volunteer at the Saddledome in the picture and got to meet quite a few of the figure skaters and some hockey players. I met Debbie Thomas, Gordeeva and Grinkov(and their little coach in the brown suit)Elizabeth Manely and Katerina Witt to name a few. My condo is just on the other side of the stampede grounds and the hill where this picture was taken is about a 15 minute run to my door. I used to come over to this hill and run it 6-8 times on my hill training days during my Ironman Triathlon training. From my door to Canmore(the site for the Olympic cross-country skiing)is 65 minutes give or take a minute. I know because I wanted to see how long it would take the year I was thinking of taking a job out there and commuting. However as beautiful as Canmore is, common sense prevailed because in the winter that drive could easily become a hair-raising 3 or 4 hours one way. Banff is about 85-90 minutes from my home. It is a world famous tourist destination and is nestled(as is Canmore)in the stunning Rocky Mountains. Calgary is ranked among the top cities in the world to live based on economy, crime(or lack thereof)and many other factors. It seems that Switzerland has several cities in the top five every year. Well I can understand that. I visited a girlfriend there for a week(just outside of Geneva)and I never saw a vehicle you one would consider a "beater" and the cities were spotless. Also, I never saw a pan-handler and crime was almost non-existent. Apparently two of the most sought after passports in the world are the Swiss and Canadian passports, with the Swiss passport much tougher to obtain. A few weeks ago Calgary was given the distinction of being the"greenest"(environmentally speaking)city in Canada. Actually that may have been in North America, but I am erring on the side of caution. If you decide to visit Canada it might be worth your while to stop by Calgary for a visit. Actually, I don't think any holiday to Canada is complete without seeing the stunning Rocky Mountains just a short drive to the west. |
Beautiful Calgary, Alberta at night from Scotsman's Hill
PLEASE VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S WEBSITE
Ironstruck
A free site for the beginner triathlete/no
www.triathlon-ironman-myfirstironman-iro...k.com
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