Month: April 2010

“As one acts and conducts himself, so does he become. The doer of good becomes good. The doer of evil becomes evil. One becomes virtuous by virtuous action, bad by bad action.”

At Richardson Way SW and Richard Rd SW.  I’m exploring and cycled to the Calgary Farmer’s Market on a recent sunny Sunday.  Great place to get your organic foods – meats, vegetables, fruit and a lot of the bakeries will let you have a small taste of their wares.  You can get lunch or a snack if you need a break while you are shopping. 

Someday organic foods will be cheaper than the alternative – I hope!

If you want something a little more, just across from the market is the Wild Rose Brewery. Sit outside and have lunch and a brew.  At the other end of that building is the wine store. 

Both buildings are on the former grounds of Currie Barracks – used to be the home of the Canadian Forces in Calgary – they kept their aircraft there.

More about the Calgary Famer’s Market here.

Addendum(May 2011) – This market has closed down – see our entry on one of the new markets – MacLead Trail just south of Glenmore.

I’m not much for Tim Horton’s coffee though I will have one from Starbucks in a pinch.  I prefer stronger coffees generally – I’ll drink an espresso or a cappuccino normally.  If we have a day off and we are out and about, we like to visit one of the many good coffee houses in the Calgary area.  On our bike ride the other day we decided to stop at Heritage Village on the east end of the Glenmore Reservoir.  They didn’t have any espresso so I opted for the regular coffee.  I was amazed how good it was.  It was strong enough but so that the strength of the coffee wasn’t everything – with great flavor.  We asked what kind of coffee it was but weren’t told… hrmpf!  It really was one of the best coffees that I’ve had in a coffee shop – would love to have it at home.  You can see more about the Railroad Cafe at http://www.heritagepark.ca/townRailway.htm

We both had the day off on Monday. I’d been getting out on the bike more so we thought that we’d spend the afternoon and go for a good ride around the Reservoir and then some.  Usually, when we go out during the week, there are not that many people about.  As this is the first really nice weather that we’ve been having, the trails were quite busy with hikers, walkers, roller bladers and cyclists.  We started at the west end and rode around the top for a bit then went down the hill at the west end and along the trail on the south side of the lake. Too many people to see much wildlife but it certainly was a great day. 

We stopped for a coffee at Heritage Village on the east end, got a coffee at the Railway Cafe.  Sat outside and enjoyed it.  And enjoy it we did!  They didn’t have any espresso, so I had to have regular coffee – was the best coffee I’ve had in a long time.  This is a coffee shop that I would certainly recommend.  And it is a great place to stop if you are heading back.  Many people will do this because if you try and completely circle the reservoir, you have to go through some residential areas. It is a pretty easy ride – depending on your fitness level you may only have to walk a few short hills:) 

We went further up through River Park and eventually exited at 38th coming back west and home.  All in all about a 30 km ride.

I’ve lived most of my life at sea level.  Or close to it.  Now I’m living at a little over an altitude of 3000 feet.  And there are many more hills in Calgary than there are in Tampa Bay.  At first I thought I was just a lot more out of shape than I really am.  The level ground has not been too bad but the hills kill me.

I did a little research to see if there would be that much difference in oxygen in the air at 3000 plus feet.  It is not a lot but somewhere between 10 and 12 percent less oxygen.  I’m not sure that it is actually less oxygen or the air pressure at higher altitudes make it ‘effectively’ less.  I did some research and found one site with a chart that gives some pretty interesting data on altitude vs oxygen.

http://www.higherpeak.com/altitudechart.html

In addition, is that fact that in Florida I didn’t get to work that many hills.  A few bridges and that is about it.  The plus is that next time I ride in Florida it should be very easy.