As Stuart McLean once said (heavily paraphrased): In most major cities across Canada, people are drawn to the expansive showcase windows of the largest retailers, such as the Eaton’s, Simpson’s, and The Bay’s of yore, to witness the glory and grandeur of the holiday season, festooned and belighted for all to see, eliciting the avarice of the presents under the tree to come … and in Calgary, they go to Banff.
Cathy and Nat came out to Calgary for the weekend as a surprise for Nat’s upcoming birthday. They stayed with us last night so we could make a (relatively) early departure today.
We went in two cars – Mom’s and the Dinosaur (the Honda) so we could get all seven of us out there. It was a nice drive, not too cold, there’s hardly any snow, and no nasty wind to blow us about. We parked just down the street from the Banff station, as close as I could get for Mom’s sake. (I didn’t want to use the Station’s parking lot, as there was a larger hill to climb over.)
We’ve never done the Banff market before; we’d done the Millarville one last year (and we’re going to do it again on Sunday), but we weren’t even aware of the Banff market until this year. Previously, it had been at the Banff Trail Riders’ barn, which is probably best that we didn’t try, since the place reeks of horse and that would have Alex completely out.
The Banff market was in two parts: the station building and a large tent in the parking lot.
It is what you expect for a Christmas market: various knick-knacks, some foodstuffs, socks (why are there always socks?), art (Alex keeps thinking I should sell photographs at these, but I always wonder/fear how much expensive stock I’d need to keep that might never sell), and drinks.
The drinks are usually the most interesting part, these days, as we get makers from all over. In the main tent, we found Black Diamond, which is a distiller from St. Albert. (If you’re from Calgary, yes, we were also confused at first. Apparently, the folks in St. Albert had never heard of the town of Black Diamond before, let alone “Diamond Valley”). Kate found a company out of Canmore that makes yerba matte energy drinks, which I far prefer her drinking over Red Bull and Monster.
Me? I found a place that made AMAZING miso soup. So good.
We headed further into town after the market, everyone walking except for Mom and I (I drove her car to public lot across from the Park restaurant/distillery). We all met up at Park for lunch.
The traditional wander about came after, which Mom did most of quite well, using her walker. But even that pushed Mom to her limit and I had to break early to get the car and pick her up where she’d stopped. We’d drive around town for another half-hour until Cathy and Nat were done.
We took the longer way home, mostly as Cathy really wanted to see a moose. I tried every route I know that could produce a moose, which was taking the 1A to Cochrane, south to Springbank Road, and along that to home. It was almost dark by the time we pulled into the driveway.
Cathy and Nat are staying with Mom tonight, then they’ll go shopping tomorrow, coming back here tomorrow night, then off to Millarville on Sunday. Family visits are rarely relaxing, especially with the hurried timetable.
But it’s always good to see family.
