Edmonton

Our stay in Edmonton has been great! We stayed here for over a week, more than our usual stays in one place. Edmonton has a lot to offer and their summers are filled with festivals which add to the experience. We were lucky enough to stay with Dave’s mom’s friends Dianne and Tom. They offered us to stay as long as we wanted and we felt at home right away, it was great.

It is always nice for us to be surrounded with familiar people and to be social. Dave and I love and care about each other –but it’s always nice to be able to socialize with other people. On our first full day there Dianne made us a wonderful seafood pasta meal with fresh bread and salad. It was amazing! Once again we were treated like royalty and ate like royalty. Dave and I always try and make sure that we have fresh fruit and vegetables, and we always buy canned veggies too, but we don’t have salad that often. We tend to crave it –I do at least. It was a wonderful dinner and we spent the next few hours after dinner talking.

Our second full day there, which happened to be a Saturday, we headed downtown Edmonton because there was a street performers festival going on. Buskers come from all around the world to busk; it is a really fun event. We first saw a magician, Nigel ‘Blackstorm’ (The Heavy Metal Magician) do a small show. He was funny and out there. The second act we watched was a lot more fun, and why? Well it ended with Dave having a dance off with someone else in front of 150 people? It was hilarious.

It was a dance crew called ‘Rhythm Speaks’, they were amazing dancers. Part of their act, though, was interactive. They took a few people from the crowd, which included David, and brought them up to help them do the wave. Well they kept two on stage after that, and let the other two sit back down. Fortunately or Unfortunately, David was left up there. They showed them hip hop dance moves, which they then had to do for the crowd. Then they declared a dance off! I videotaped it all so anyone who’d like to see the whole thing can. J Dave came out with the ‘row boat’ move and the pop and lock. It was the best. Sadly the crowd cheered the loudest for the other man, but Dianne and I belted out as loud as we could for Dave. I would say it was a successful day.

On the Sunday there was once again a festival to go to. Whyte Ave in Edmonton is famous for its quirky shops and people. Every summer they hold an Art Walk there which brings in hundreds of artists to showcase their work. Dave and I spent the hot afternoon diving through crowds and seeing a lot of art. It was wonderful. Dave ended up buying me two pieces of art made by a VERY talented girl named Jennifer Graham. They are just stunning, cannot wait to put them up in my room! I just have to make sure they get home safely first.

A very spooky thing happened early on Monday morning. As we all know this summer has had some weird weather. We have experienced some nasty storms in the past couple weeks but nothing has ever compared to the short storm we had that morning. I woke up, facing the window, and the entire sky was orange. There is no other way to describe it –it was orange. I couldn’t believe it and woke Dave up and he looked at it too and was shocked. A few minutes later I could hear some rumbling off in the distance, a thunder storm was coming. I checked the time and it was only 5:40 am. The lightning and thunder got closer but no rain. We had the bedroom window open and cold air filled the room. I was beginning to get a little scared at that point. I decided that I needed to take a picture of the sky. I leaned down to pick up my camera, which was right beside the window and all of the sudden the entire room flashed and the loudest sound I have ever heard boomed. I must’ve jumped a foot in the air. Dave flipped around. He had fallen back asleep and he said he was woken up by a huge flash. Less than five seconds later Dianne ran to our room, we were all spooked. It started to pour and thunder more, but the storm died away shortly after that. I have never experienced anything like that before. It was the loudest sound I have ever heard. It’s all part of the adventure, right?

On Monday night Dianne and I went for a bike ride along their river trail. It was a great trail and at a certain part we hit a cute little forest. We biked for 11 km one way and then we turned around once we saw some lightning in the distance. There was a raspberry bush too that we stopped and delved into. It was a great ride and was 22 km in total. We had some laughs when Dave’s bike started to malfunction on Dianne.

We decided to make Tom and Dianne a dinner on Tuesday night to thank them for all of their hospitality. We decided to make Butter Chicken from scratch and a fresh salad. We got a recipe and went that morning to gather all of the ingredients. Wow –making Butter Chicken from scratch has a lot of ingredients and steps. We finally tracked down all of the ingredients and had to start the process at 3:00 so the dinner could be ready for 6-6:30. It was actually a lot of fun and Dave and I now want to try a lot of other recipes. Luckily Dianne is an amazing cook and was there to answer some questions we had but all in all we did pretty well. We also made a great salad and made its vinaigrette from scratch too. It was a great meal and they thoroughly enjoyed the Butter Chicken.  

On Wednesday Tom took us to the West Edmonton Mall. It was huge –obviously, but it was an amazing place. We spent four hours there and saw maybe half? Just maybe. There is a waterpark, amusement park, numerous restaurants, a china town, ‘Bourbon Street’, sea lion shows, re-creation ship, bowling alley, arcade, food courts, bungee jumping, hotel and much more. It was great to have Tom take us around and show us everything. We spent the first half hour with our mouths wide open because there was so much to see and do. Dave went on a huge roller coaster. Tom and I didn’t go on because we both said we wouldn’t be able to stomach it. But there Dave was, front row, huge smile on his face. After seeing all the big attractions we went into a few stores and shopped and then we got some lunch at Hudsons, a restaurant in the mall. After lunch we did a little bit more shopping and then left, feeling exhausted. Tom took us around the city a little more and pointed out certain areas. Dianne had done this with us on Saturday as well, so we learned a lot more about Edmonton that we have other cities because we had our own tour guides. Plus Tom has a fast, sleek little sports car so it was a fun ride.

Yesterday we decided to take the subway into downtown Edmonton to go to the Art Gallery and to the Taste of Edmonton. Like I said before, Edmonton has many festivals during the summer. Yesterday Capital X started and the Taste of Edmonton downtown. Taste of Edmonton is when there are many booths with different restaurants from all over Edmonton and you buy tickets and redeem them at different booths to try different foods. We didn’t want to drive to downtown Edmonton because we knew it would be insane. The train was great and gave us great views of the river valley. The Art Gallery was great. It had a really neat exhibit of Lawren Harris’s abstract work and it was holding an Andy Warhol exhibit. We spent a couple of hours there and then we headed to the Taste of Edmonton and tried out some different foods. We caught the train back and then decided to check out Fort Edmonton Park. But when we arrived some dark ominous looking clouds were approaching so we decided not to head in. It was a fun last day. There is still so much to see and do in Edmonton.

Art Gallery

Dave on subway

The subway goes over the river valley

Well, today we are heading to Jasper National Park to camp for four nights. Then we are heading into British Columbia! Edmonton has been great and we’ve really enjoyed staying with Dianne and Tom.