Vulcan is in Alberta, Canada!

Last summer, I had an opportunity to visit my sister and her husband in Calgary. Of course, I was extremely excited to see them, but I also wanted to visit a little community about an hour's drive from Calgary, called Vulcan. Yes, Vulcan.

While the town was not named after the home planet of Mr. Spock from Star Trek, they have taken the opportunity to create a tourism attraction in the town based on the popular science fiction series. I was not sure what to expect. I had previously visited the now defunct Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas and was quite impressed. So I was skeptical to what this little rustic town of Vulcan would offer compared to the glitzy American version in Vegas.

I was pleasantly surprised. It did hold the charm that smaller towns traditionally tend to possess, and this was combined with an impressive "space station" that acts as a tourism centre, gift shop and a virtual reality game. If you are into Star Trek merchandise, it is certainly worth the trek to Vulcan. In fact, I found they had more to offer in some ways over what I saw in Vegas - and the prices were reasonable.

The town itself is small, and I visited during a summer holiday so the tourism centre was open, but the rest of the town was virtually shut down. As we walked through the town, we did get a few snickers from some of the locals (yes, I was in uniform). It was the first outing we had during our visit to Calgary, and while those who love me just attended because, well, they love me, I think they had fun too. A little bit, anyway.