2 Americans on Canada Day

July 1st was Canada Day, a day to celebrate Canada and being Canadian.  It's very similar to our 4th of July.  Matt and I were excited to join in the fun despite the fact that we're not Canadian! We dressed in our most Canadian outfits and jumped on our bikes to head downtown.

It was about a 7.25 km ride to the core (that's about 4.5 miles for all of you non-metric users).  It was a nice downhill trip and we arrived at Prince's Island around 10:30AM.  

We look Canadian, right?

We wanted to be sure to arrive in time to be part of the living Canadian flag, of course!  And, this was actually the first EVER Calgary living Canadian flag, so we are now a part of Canadian history.  We waited in line to get our t-shirts and then found our spots.  We stood with 100s of other people to be part of the flag.  

It was a bit chaotic, so while we were waiting for everyone to get organized and for the picture to be taken, an MC was asking entertaining questions of the crowd such as "Who is your favorite Canadian?" and "What is Canada's favorite sport?".  There is actually a surprising number of famous Canadians (Ryan Reynolds, Justin Bieber, Avril Lavigne, Shania Twain, Nelly Furtado, Keanu Reeves, Celine Dion, Jim Carey, and Dan Aykroyd to name a few).  Then, just before they were about to snap the picture, the crowd began to sing the Canadian National Anthem in both English and French.  It was a bit awkward for us non-Canadians since we didn't know the words.

Here's Matt while everyone around us was singing the national anthem.

Finally, they took the picture...

Can you see us???

After that, we walked around and enjoyed the festivities.  There were bands playing, food trucks, and lots of tents to check out. The 70 degree sunny weather held out until around 12:30 but then the clouds rolled in and it began to drizzle.  We took cover in the new bridge over the Bow River that connects downtown with Kensington.

After the rain stopped, we decided we'd had enough celebrating at the Canada Day festival, so we rode our bikes to Kensington to watch the Euro Cup final.  After the game, we began the trek back home.  The 7.25 km trip to the city was a nice leisurely ride, but the ride home was MUCH different.  It was uphill and probably the hardest bike ride of my life!  It took us about an hour to reach our house and we were exhausted!

Overall, it was a great Canada Day in Calgary.  Next up:  Calgary Stampede!