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[Sunday, August 8, 1999: Dinosaurs and Cada.. uh.. Calgary.]
Stopped by the TIC on the way to the Museum of Paleontology and picked up a map and a few postcards there. One of them showed what a hoodoo actually was..
1hoo-doo \'h:u-(,)d:u\ n, pl hoodoos
3: a natural column of rock in western No. America often in fantastic form
So I learn something new each day.
![[Day 6: Drumheller Sneering Match.]](../Pictures/1999-07-21/1999-07-26a.jpg)
Even though Drumheller is in the middle of nowhere, the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology was a very large, and good exhibit. We spent a fair bit of the day there wandering around and taking pictures.
Personally, I think Laz (on the right) won the sneering contest.
The museum was very good, dinosaur buffs should definitely go there and check it out someday, even your average joe should visit it at least once, since there aren't too many places like that in Canada. Despite it's location, (about an hour away from Calgary in the middle of nowhere) there were a lot of people at the museum. I was rather surprised, considering that it was the end of July and most schools would be out by now. I guess it's a much larger tourist attraction than I considered it to be, if not for the dinosaur bones (and remains of other organisms), then at least for the view.
![[Day 6: Larry, Moe, and Curly.]](../Pictures/1999-07-21/1999-07-26b.jpg)
At the end of our tour of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology, BSB figured that we should get a semi-group shot with one of the larger specimens before we left. I just love this picture, since each one of us has a distinctly different facial expression.
That's a dazed Laz on the left, arrogant me in the middle, and happy MJO on the right.
The woman at the TIC warned me that it would take a few hours to wander through the entire building, and she wasn't kidding. We spent the entire morning and part of the afternoon checking out the place. By the time we were done, we really didn't have much time to do anything else when we got to Calgary.
![[Day 6: Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology.]](../Pictures/1999-07-21/1999-07-26c.jpg)
After leaving, we checked out the observation deck that was located just in front of the museum. The view was not as good as the view the first time we drove into the town (the drive in was spectacular), but I did manage to convince Laz to let me take a picture of the museum itself.
The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology as seen from the observation area.
Leaving Drumheller, I was able to get access to a camera, but as the road out was more windy than the road coming in, there were too many obstacles to take a good picture of the valley. How unfortunate. Perhaps we should have stopped off at the tourist lookout that we passed, but I don't think any of us were in the mood to take pictures by that point.
Oh yeah, we passed by Squirt the Skunk at Beiseker. We didn't stop.
Calgary seemed like a nice city, it took us an hour or so to figure out where we wanted to eat. Since we were in the middle of cow country, we decided to go for some nice steak at the Smuggler's Inn. Personally, I don't usually like eating steak. I find that it's too much meat. I prefer mixing meat up with vegetables and rice, or other things as in most Chinese cuisine. This was an exception. The (medium) steak was amazingly good! I was very surprised and enjoyed it very much. So anyone thinking of going to eat steak in Calgary should go to the Smuggler's Inn, a little pricey, but very good food.
Our waiter was also very nice. He talked to us a bit about this and that, namely about photo radar. He told us that Alberta had photo radar, and at that moment, I remembered passing by a van on the highway with this weird contraption on the roof. I don't remember seeing a flash or anything, but gosh darned it, had I known.. (I'm not telling you folks how fast I was going tho!). BSB then reminded the rest of us that British Columbia also used photo radar, but there were some ways you can get around paying the ticket..
I shouldn't have to worry tho, I don't think I passed by any vans in BC.
We went to the bump on the landscape they called the Calgary Tower and headed up to the observation deck. It gives a great view of the city, but doesn't really inspire you with any sense of height, especially since we couldn't find any exterior observation areas (like the CN Tower). I did pick up a few post cards tho, and we took some pictures before leaving.
![[Day 6: Calgary.]](https://lh3.google.com/image/jyseto/RcVER-P-RwI/AAAAAAAAAH4/7aOEpFXXrdQ/s288/1999-07-26i.jpg)
We wandered around downtown Calgary for a while after that. Walked through "mime town" (as Laz dubbed it) and here and there. They actually thought of staying to watch a movie, which I would've vetoed since I was wearing my sun glasses. I had forgotten my glasses at the hotel and constantly cursed at myself as the sun gradually set. I couldn't drive back to the hotel, but BSB fortunately was sober enough to take the wheel.
Back at the hotel, I remembered at the beginning of the trip, while we were at Thunder Bay I think, BSB noticed me sending off one of my postcards to someone who had an interesting moniker (another word that I learned recently). He asked me:
"Are you in love with her or something?"
and I replied
"She's married."
End of conversation.
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