If you ever find yourself in Drumheller, Alberta it's worth stopping to check out the 86 foot tall 'World's Largest Dinosaur' at the tourist centre. Much like the giant T-Rex in Cabazon, you can climb the stairs to take in the view from this giant dinosaur's mouth.
This Drumheller landmark is actually four times larger than any actual Tyrannosaurus Rex ever was. Standing at the top you can feel the dinosaur swaying slightly in the wind as you take in the views of the nearby badlands. It's a cool Alberta roadside attraction to explore.
A really great attraction to explore in Calgary, Alberta is Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. On a drive back from the mountains, my sister and I had some time to kill before meeting up with the rest of the family that afternoon. I suggested we stop by Canada Olympic Park to explore. Sure enough we stumbled onto Canada's Sports Hall of Fame.
For not knowing what to expect, the Hall of Fame was a really beautiful and impressive museum. It just opened last summer after beating out eight other cities for the opportunity to be the new home of the national facility. Not only that, Canada's Sports Hall of Fame is a great addition to the surroundings and history in Olympic Park.
The Sports Hall of Fame not only features Canada's Olympic successes, but highlights great athletes from every major sport. There's a wing specifically dedicated to hockey, as you might expect, but there's also Villeneuve's F1 race car, numerous Olympic medals and related memorabilia, historic jerseys, uniforms, and equipment, and plenty of interactive displays that allow you to engage with the exhibits.
We had a lot of fun testing our pitching speeds and having soccer shootouts in the digital projection booth. We also practiced our Olympic rowing in the Splash Gallery, and Alison shadow boxed with Lennox Lewis. Not only was the history fascinating, but there was lots to do which really highlighted the skill behind the achievements.
There's also something special about exploring the Hall of Fame in Olympic Park that heightens the nostalgia surrounding popular athletes and moments of national pride. We had a lot of fun that afternoon. I highly recommend checking out Canada's Sports Hall of Fame the next time you find yourself in Calgary, Alberta.
Just off of the Trans-Canada Highway in Redcliff, Alberta sits the final remnant of the Gemini Drive-In. I have a lot of memories going here with friends in high school between '98-'02 and catching the double and triple features. The theatre closed in 2005 though, and it's honestly a bit surprising to me that the screen is still there.
The original entrance, sign, concession building, and speaker posts have all been torn down now. A commercial fueling station for trucks sits where the original entrance used to be, and now a chain link fence surrounds the last remaining piece of the Gemini. The fact that the screen is still there is bitter sweet as it's a reminder of all the good times we had there, but it's just being left to rot away. I imagine it's expensive to tear down and no one really has any other use for the land at the moment.
My friend Tyler and I witnessed a similar scene after revisiting the Cinema 6 Drive-In near Regina, Saskatchewan. We had shot a short film there in 2007 outside of the closed area, but after returning to shoot some pictures last month, now only the sign remains. The rest of the site has been demolished. If the drive-in was already on its way out when I was a teenager, it seems that now it really is a thing of the past around these parts.
*Update - the screen was demolished in 2013.
