of
our adventures came with a visit to the largest living museum in
Canada. Simply called Heritage Park, this 66 acre facility,
located on the shores of a lake, is packed with relocated and
re-created building that represent Alberta in three distinct time
periods: the 1860s fur trading period, 1880s pre-railroad era,
and a western town around 1910. We had to arrive at opening time
of 10:00 in order to take part in the only truly Calgary custom
afforded at the time. The Calgary Stampede Rodeo Days, has since its beginning offered free hotcakes and sausage to all comers.
For the week of the stampede, every little shop and corner store
has a small griddle and offers pancakes and sausage to anybody 
who
passes by. There is never a charge. In keeping with this
practice, the Heritage Park offers the traditional feed to all
park goers in a large converted barn. Nothing like the mention of
"free food" to get everyone's attention. Simple but
good, it got us off and running for the next several hours.In a place as large as this one of the most difficult tasks is what to see first. As you enter the park you are given a large map of the park as well as a schedule of the events to take place. Two of the things that
were high on our
list were the train ride (taken out of the 1910 western town),
and the paddle boat ride, which allows you to see the park from
the surrounding lake. We usually ride anything which shows us an
overall picture of the area first, but this time opted for seeing
the 1910 section (the western town) first, since we had already
breakfasted there.The 1910 western town had its own steam locomotive with old wicker seats in the passenger car. Jerky and smoky, it pulled the cars around at walk speed through the entire
park. It was not all static in display as events unfolded at
scheduled times. A dance lesson at the gazebo resulted in insults
and injury as the young ladies attempted to teach their men how
to dance. Then there was the town meeting where our lively troop
of performers engaged in a spirited debate over the need to make
running water available to all households in the town, and if
women should be made to raise their skirts off the ground. Most
of the displays and activities were very realistic and presented
a feeling of the time period for which they were part of.
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