Calgary

Had breakfast in same restaurant. We were all awake before 6, so went down there for 7. Various options, I had the special which had a cinnamon cake alongside the potato muffins and bacon. Others had the more normal sausage and bacon. Each came with some kind of pickled curly kale.

Short walk to rental car centre and Avis. No queue and process was quick - was persuaded to buy extra breakdown cover which I'm not sure whether we needed but idea of breaking down in the mountains somewhere didn't seem a good one. Car was a Jeep Grand Cherokee, almost new with only 3,000 km on the clock. Luggage space was a bit tight but managed to get all the bags in. Plugged in the Skyline Luge to the Waze sat nav and off we went. Took about half an hour to get there from the airport. It's at the site of the Calgary Winter Olympics and we could see the ski jump tower in the distance as we approached. We were there about 9.30, luge opened at 10 so we were first in the queue. It's the same company that we did it with in Queenstown and Rotorua. Sam never did it there and kids were very nervouse for some reason, but everyone said they would have one go. Up the chair lift we went, got our little instruction on steering and stopping and off we went. I zoomed off first, was great fun. Course is just under 2km and winds down the mountain. Others were a bot slower and I waited for them at the bottom. As expected all wanted to do it again and this time kids and I all sped down together. Sam was still more cautious but enjoyed it I think. She stopped at two rides we went again. Kids attitudes had now changed and rather than nervous they were getting annoyed if they encountered someone moving slower blocking their way! In the end Ed did 4 rides, Tash and me 5 and Sam the 2.

We then went across to the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame museum. Don't know much about Canadian sports people (saw a statue of Wayne Gretzky who I had heard of), but the museum had some fun interactive stuff where you could hit hockey pucks at a goal, kick field goals, score penalties, shadow box with Lennox Lewis and do mock commentaries on events. Good fun for the admission price. Building was unusual as it sloped from the outside.

We had thought about doing the mini golf but decided we were tiring and it would be too hot so headed back to the car. On the way a gardener turned on some sprinklers as we walked past and we got a soaking - pleasant in the heat. Had to walk through the middle of the Olympic bobsleigh track. Just missed some people coming down - they do it on wheeels in the summer. Banking on the track was pretty frightening to look at. Didn't fancy doing it ourselves!

Bought some more drinks for the trip - discovered that Canada has Cheetos, so got some of them, Also various cuddly toys etc. Car will be overflowing by the end of the trip.

Drive to Canmore was only about 50 minutes. The Rockies loomed up in front of us as we got closer looking unreal like a film backdrop painted on. Found our hotel - Stonebridge Mountain Resort and room very nice, double bedroom suite with view across to the mountains. When we got out the car we could really smell the smoke from the forest fires and the air was a but hazy. Reception recommended the Iron Goat pub to eat (which I had read good reviews on Tripadvisor) so we drove 5 minutes to there. Friendly staff and good views of the mountains. Eclectic menu - Sam had steak, Tash Gnocchi, Ed tagliatelle and I had Bison, Elk and moose meatloaf. All very tasty. Cream puff and a peanut butter pie for dessert. All too full after that. Drove to Main Street in Canmore. Lots of unusual shops - looked like an old cowboy town from the films. Had a farmers market - we got some really tasty beef jerky in teriyaki and some bread. Went to a small grocery store and got cereal and milk and a liquor store for a bottle of Cabdian wine. Then back to hotel, watched bit of tv and went to bed about 8.30pm. Sleep patterns hopefully getting better.Read more