Quote:
Originally Posted by Table 5
It may not be the coolest thing to judge a city by, but I think Calgary's ability to offer a ton of accessible, and relatively affordable, recreational activities for families/kids is one this city's best traits.
• Bike paths everywhere
• A great library system
• The ability to boat/kayak/float/fish in two rivers, or try white-water on Harvie Passage
• A truly world-class zoo
• Plenty of rec-centers, some that seem to rival Olympic venues
• COP (yeah it's not for everyone, but it's perfect for kids, and its right there!)
• Integrated parks like Fish Creek/Glenmore/Princess Island, and err, Nose Hill?
• Hockey/skating rinks/soccer fields in most communities
• Skateboarding and Pump tracks
• Heritage Park, Stampede, Science Centre etc.
• Private activity centers like climbing walls, go-kart tracks, gymnastics centers etc.
• All that, and the frickin' Rockies being next door for all your skiing, hiking, camping, biking needs.
Apart from a water park, better access to lakes, and better art/history museums (which hopefully the renovated Glenbow can help fix), I'm not sure there's that much missing for families. All in a relatively safe and stable environment. Calgary may not be the ultimate place for a 20-year old cool hunter or a 60+ retiree, but for those kid-raising years, personally I think it's pretty awesome.
And I'm not saying that places like Vancouver and Victoria don't have these things...but with the cost of housing being considerably less here, I think it gives families more breathing room to devote their money and time on these types of activities (and if something is missing, the ability to travel to other places to supplement).
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I'm gonna blow your mind: it's called
Prince's Island Park. Named after some guy named Peter Prince, who founded the Eau Claire Lumber Mill near that site...Eau Claire is named after a town by the same name in Wisconsin.
To the rest of your post, another key thing is that it's actually possible to visit all of those attractions easily. If you're lucky you might live close to one similar attraction in the GVA, but visiting any other is probably a [painful] full day trip. North Van might be pretty good with so many ski hills and great nature places so close.