Amazing Race Canada - Week 3: YVR, YYC

The Amazing Race Canada is ticking along, and just gets more exciting (click this link to watch past episodes, if you missed any).

In Week 3, the teams began at the Vancouver Convention Centre (with the amazing living roof, which we wrote about last week), made their way to an internet cafe on Robson Street, used aircanada.com to book their flights.

Then it was off to Vancouver International Airport (YVR) again.

Welcome to Cow Town!


View of Calgary from the airport

Just a short while later they landed at Calgary International Airport (YYC), Canada's 4th busiest airport. Welcome to Cow Town!

Bronc Twister statue, by Rich Roenisch
Calgary Tower in background

After they landed, the teams hit the ground running. After finding Outlaw, and visiting a cookhouse, the teams learned just how tricky line-dancing could be (aka the dance of death)! It was an exciting segment, as the leaders dropped back, and teams that were behind danced their way into the lead. Fun stuff.

Who do?

Hoodoos in Drumheller Alberta

Then it was off to the Hoodoos outside Drumheller in Dinosaur Valley, Alberta.

Despite it's legendary status as the dinosaur capital of Canada, only one team spent any time with the ancient beasts ("bone by bone") - the doctors assembled a skeleton at the Royal Tyrrell Museum, Canada’s only museum dedicated exclusively to the science of palaeontology (this is a seriously cool website, check it out!)

All the other teams chose to ride Linda to the old Atlas Coal Mine National Historic Site, in nearby East Coulee, to get a back-breaking workout ("lump by lump") - and to get all sooty!

If you watched the show, you already know that they made their way to Horse Thief Canyon (how's that for a name!?!?) and the Week 3 Pitstop.

T-Rex flew Air Canada?

Want to visit Drumheller? If you want to visit Drumheller, there is no airport (what, you think T-Rex took a plane?!). So here are your options:

• You can do it as the teams did, by flying into Calgary International Airport (YYC), then driving 135 kilometres (85 miles) northeast.
• You can fly into Saskatoon Airport (YXE) and drive west.
• It's a bit far from Edmonton International Airport (YEG), but if you were headed that way anyways, you could drive south from Edmonton, through Red Deer, then southeast.

Final thoughts on Week 3

A few notes as we wrap up this post:

• The race buzz on Twitter is pretty interesting. The busiest hashtags are: #AmazingRaceCanada and #RaceCDA
• If you find yourself with time to kill before a flight from YVR, escape to Chester Johnson Park between the International terminal and the parkade, no more than a minute's walk outside. Or, explore the outstanding First Nations art collection, including the famous The Spirit of Haida Gwaii: The Jade Canoe by Bill Reid.
• On an human note, as the episode was recorded before the Alberta floods that hit the region  recently, the show finished with a segment on what happened, and what people could do to help. We were hoping they'd do that.
• If you find yourself at Calgary Airport on a layover one day, here are some things you can do, depending on how much time you have: Calgary Airport Layover Ideas
• There are also good resources on the Travel Alberta website.

All images: wiki commons