My new cowgirl hat

One of the most known things about Alberta (besides oil and gas) is probably that here are a lot of cowboys/girls. We saw the first people with hats and boots already when we arrived at Calgary airport end of last year. Since then we have seen lots more. One of the big events that Calgary is also known for is the Stampede – The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth as their website says: http://cs.calgarystampede.com/ It is a big festival where there are rodeos, lots of food, stands selling cowboy stuff and lots of musical events and fireworks. This year it takes place July 5-14th. Lots of people travel here just for that and the dresscode is of course cowboy/girl. We definitely want to participate in that and even travel back from our vacation in Europe a bit earlier than otherwise. Therefore we were advised to go and get our attire early, since the closer the date the longer the wait and less choices if you want something proper. We were also advised to go to Alberta Boots: The Alberta’s only Western boot manufacturer (http://albertaboot.com/), where we headed last Saturday. The store was massive and choices perplexing. Fortunately we got a very knowledgeable and helpful sales lady to help us. She got the right sizes by looking at our feet and advised what would work and what would not. It was a pleasure to go boot shopping that way! My husband found the boots that were readymade already – just need to be stretched a bit and worn in.

These boots are made for walking..

I ended up going for custom made boots that would be ready in 4-6 weeks. Before leaving we decided to get ourselves some proper cowboy hats as well – now we are all ready for Stampede! And who knows if we stay here longer, we might start wearing them on a normal day as well 😉