Fun times with flora and fauna!

Calgary didn't really impress us with it's drab concrete buildings and dusty sidewalks so we decided to see if we could seek out a little colour.  Yesterday we went to the Calgary Zoo, a short walk from the hostel.  While walking to the zoo we saw some squirrels munching some grains that had been left out for them.  They were pretty cute and got quite defensive about their small stash, shaking their tails and squeaking at us so we gave them a wide berth.  We crossed over a river via a footbridge as well and although theweather was only just below 0 celcius it was still frozen in parts.








 The zoo is completely funded by donations so we thought it would be pretty small but we were quite surprised that it took us over four hours to see everything.  Justin was quite taken with the monkeys and apes, which was to be expected.  I think he would have quite happily sat watching them all  day.  I really liked the little porcupine who was so curious about me and a funny hairy camel whose humps wobbled with every step.

On the walk back to the hostel from the zoo we saw more squirrels as well as a strange prairie dog type animal who was standing sentinel outside its home on a vacant block.  Then we came across a group of hares in a carpark we were cutting through!


We had heard about some stock dog trials that were being run in the Calgary Stampede grounds so after lunch we headed over to watch but it turned out that we had the wrong date.  It was a little disappointing as it would have been pretty interesting to see.  I consoled myself with some retail therapy in the stampede shop in typical Mel fashion.

Today we decided to explore a series of enclosed overpass type bridges that link a number of the buildings in the downtown area.  There are something like two kilometres of these pathways called the +15 walkway system.  After about ten minutes we decided that they all looked the same and headed for some indoor gardens I had heard about. 

The Devonian Gardens are on the fourth floor of an office building in downtown and were opened in the mid 1970s.  There is a fish pond and over two acres of gardens with trees, flowers and all sorts of tropical plants.  It was a great surprise considering the Calgary we had seen was so drab in winter dead-ness!  Justin found a heap of dog statues in the garden and kept patting them every time he saw one!

Lots of photos under the "Calgary & Zoo" album, have a peek if you have a mo.

Cheers
Melanie
X X O O

PS- Mum, see if you can spot the one that looks "just like Canberra"!