Thursday, July 16, 2009 – Calgary and Edmonton

We went to the New Dynasty Restaurant in Crowfoot to eat. It’s quite a nice Chinese restaurant with beautiful décor. Ray had shrimp fried rice and I had tofu, bbq pork, snowpeas and carrots. I also had the 2 fortune cookies J It’s now 6:00 and Ray has been taking a nap for the past half an hour after we got back. Once he gets up we’ll load up the car and head to Edmonton.

It’s quite hot today, I would say in the low 30’s or at least that’s what it feels like. It’s blue skies outside with humungous white fluffy clouds. The clouds are soooooo fluffy here. Last year when I was here I had to spray mosquito repellent on as soon as I stepped outside otherwise I was eaten alive. Nic said they sprayed this year. It’s been so nice…no mosquitoes buzzing around and not one single mosquito bite so far…knock on wood! I got some white flower oil before I left from my naturopath. Thanks W for the tip. Coincidentally my naturopath used the oil on a cotton ball and put it to my nose when I was getting stuffed up during acupuncture to my neck. My naturopath was not too pleased when I told her I usually spray with Off prior to going in mosquito-infested areas. She recommended getting the citronella spray instead so I got some before we left. Luckily I haven’t had to use the white flower oil or the citronella spray yet J

We hit the road at about 7:45pm and got to Edmonton in 3 hours with one bathroom stop. Whyte Avenue was packed with a younger crowd at restaurants. It reminded me of Denman Street on a Friday night except the buildings were older. We checked into the Coast Edmonton House Hotel and went to our one bedroom with kitchen suite on the 29th floor. There are 34 floors in the hotel so the view is good of downtown. Looking out the window our building is the tallest one. Out on the balcony around the corner I can see the North Sasketchewan River which we drove over to get downtown. After we unpacked we went to Denny’s. It was so packed, at least 20 tables and it was after midnight on a weeknight! I asked the waiter if it’s normally this busy on a Thursday night and he said only after concerts. Ah, now I get it. A few days later I was reading the Metro newspaper and Gwen Stefani was here Thursday before going to Vancouver. Ray always gets the same thing. You can build your own slam there. I had yogurt and strawberries and grapes. It wasn’t very much yogurt so I had a few scrambled eggs too.

Friday, July 17, 2009 – Edmonton Capital Ex (formally Klondike Days)

We went to eat in Chinatown which was only a few minutes from the hotel. There wasn’t much there but there was a gate and we ate at the Double Greeting Wonton House. Ray had wonton noodle soup with lettuce and an order of lettuce with oyster sauce. I can’t stand cooked lettuce and he doesn’t like raw lettuce. I had egg foo yung with bean sprouts, shredded carrot and a few peas. I had my seeds with it too.

We parked by Rexall Place which has changed names so many times. I think one of the many former names of the building was Northlands Coliseum which is the one I’m familiar with. I think this is where the Oilers play. Of course we had to take a photo of the Gretzky statue outside the coliseum. He was holding the Stanley Cup. C, did you see this statue when you were here. If not, are you jealous that I saw the statue of one of your idols? J

We got lucky when we got to the entrance of Capital Ex. An older man gave Ray 2 free admission tickets and then used the third one himself to go in ahead of us to show that they were legit. I’m not sure why the guy had 2 extra tickets but the tickets were worth $10 each so that saved us a few bucks. Thanks to the mystery man!

I promptly bought some tickets for the car lottery as my fortune from my fortune cookie a few days ago in Calgary said something about a fun investment with 4 wheels. So, it’s my destiny to win! We were there in time to see the 5:00 show of Cirque Shanghai Bai Xi which was the best Chinese acrobatic show I have ever seen. (I am basing this opinion from the shows I’ve seen at the PNE and in Beijing so I haven’t really seen that many.) Even Ray was really impressed.

We spent a few hours wandering around the shopping zone where I tried the Wii for the first time. I tried the Wii Fit doing a few yoga poses, balancing and core strengthening. I really enjoyed it. It’s amazing that it could tell if I was centred properly as the red dot stayed in the middle on the screen. Ray tried golf and boxing. Ray got his feet analyzed at an orthotics booth and tried standing on orthotics with lifts underneath them. I was shocked that he has never seen a podiatrist, only orthopedic surgeons. I told him that orthotics are only covered by extended health if a doctor prescribes it so he will look into seeing a podiatrist when we get back home. My podiatrist is downtown but he wants to find one closer to home in Burnaby. Ray has always he his eye on remote controlled helicopters but actually bought one. It is so small and can only be used indoors.

While we were watching the Cirque show Ray checked his email and one of his clients had emailed him asking him to do his WCB paperwork on Friday even though it wasn’t due until Monday so Ray was just going to check out the aboriginal zone and then go back to the hotel. He was “free”. Since it was around 7:45 and I wanted to see the Wild World of Lions Show at 8:00 I left Ray at the aboriginal zone and raced off to find the lion show. I got there with a few minutes to spare. There were a lot of people sitting on the ground and standing but since I was by myself I was able to find a spot in the bleachers. There were 5 female lions that were out first and then the rare white lion came out. No, I found out he is not an albino lion. Apparently white lions don’t do well in the wild because of their colur – i.e. their prey can easily see them so there aren’t very many of them left.

After the lion show I went to the racetrack to see where the fireworks would be at 11pm. I watched a few people trying to surf and then headed back to the building to see the other stuff I hadn’t seen yet. On the way back I checked out the different stuffed animals at the games to see if there were any worth playing for. I saw some really nice lilac ponies at the balloon popping contest so in my text message response to Ray told him that’s what I would be winning later (which I did)! The ponies were really good quality and look like “My Little Pony.”. I popped 4 out of 6 balloons. That cost me $10 which wasn’t bad. For another $10 I could’ve gotten the pony which was the next size up but I thought it was too big to have with my lilac rabbit and Pet my Grand Canyon mule at home. I got some Activa yogurt and ate my apple and then later on got a strawberry and banana smoothie. I checked first to see if the smoothie was made with ice cream or yogurt but it wasn’t made with either. I also asked if it was syrup or real fruit. I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was just fruit (first time I’d had that). I went and watched the fireworks which were pretty good and then went to play more games. I also won a really nice Ganz stuffed duckie. It is sooooo soft and makes a boing noise when dropped. I won the duckie at the game where the plastic ducks are floating around and you pick them up and look underneath. My first and third duck were smalls but my second one was a medium, hence the nicer winning! I went and met Ray on 118th Avenue. There was a long line up cars picking people up as it was between the subway entrance and the Capital Ex. We went to eat at Denny’s and I had the chicken salad which was really good. I had my 2 stuffed animals on the table and got a few strange looks from people J If we had gone to eat at Gourmet Castle in Vancouver by the PNE no one would’ve noticed my stuffed animals during PNE time. This is from personal experience J But I guess Denny’s wasn’t really that close to Capital Ex, well at least not across the street. Went to bed before 3am.

Saturday, July 18, 2009 - West Edmonton Mall, The Keg, Thunderstorm

I woke up about 9:30am to go to the bathroom. I turned off my alarm that was set for 9:45 as I was too tired (again) to get up for the free continental brekkie. By 10am I couldn’t fall back asleep so got up and went for brekkie. The price for the continental brekkie was $8.95 and $13.95 for the hot buffet. I forgot that I only got free brekkie on the cold stuff and ended up eating my first bacon since being on the diet J I rarely eat bacon but there was a nice crispy one there. I also had eggs and 2 strawberry Activa yogurt again. Since I had to pay the extra $5 for brekkie I thought I would have some oatmeal but they ran out – I guess because it was 11am which is when brekkie is supposed to end. I took an apple back with me. There was also juice, coffee, tea, cereal, toast, bagels, biscuits, fruit, hash browns, French Toast and sausages. I checked out the convenience store and the weight room on the second level of the hotel. There’s also a pool there. At 12:00 I was searching the channels for Y&R. After flipping through the channels a few times and getting frustrated I realized that it was Saturday. Haha! It’s now 1:40 and Ray’s not up yet.

We went to West Edmonton Mall where Ray went to eat at Boston Pizza. The restaurant was in a corridor in the mall that was all full-seating restaurants like Old Spaghetti Factory, Hooters and Moxies. I got a nice stuffed sea turtle to add to my collection. Since I’ve fallen off the diet wagon I had my first DQ hot fudge sundae J We went to Sea Life Cavern as I wanted to see the sea turtle. There was a few snakes, lizards and the biggest bull frog I have ever seen. It was huge! There were sting rays and they were being fed. We wandered around the mall and watched some people skating on the ice rink and people on inner tubes in the waterpark. I wanted to go to the Christmas store as I usually get a Christmas ornament to commemorate our travels but when we got to the store shortly after 6pm it was closed. The mall itself doesn’t close until 9pm but we noticed that a few other stores in the old section of the mall were closing too.

We went to the theatre where I think there were 4 theatres playing Harry Potter. We got to the theatre just before 7pm and went to the 7:10 show of The Proposal. It was good. I had a small popcorn and felt parched afterwards. It had rained while we were in the mall as there were puddles in the parking lot and the cars were wet.

We stopped at Earls on the way back to the hotel but while in the parking lot I spotted the Keg so Ray wanted to go there instead. The darkest clouds I had ever seen were there with bluish sky on the horizon underneath. It was getting really windy. I wanted pictures of these dark skies and while Ray was taking my picture the wind was whipping dirt and rocks on the back of my bare calves. I brought the umbrellas inside as I figured it was going to rain soon. I had my first sourdough bread since the diet with lots of butter and a spinach salad. Ray had his usual. While we were eating the lights flickered quite a few times and there was loud thunder which could be heard over the music. I went to the window and it was hailing which turned to pissing rain. There was so much lightning and it was right over us. We stayed in the restaurant for quite a while until the storm subsided and the lightning and thunder moved away. We sat in the parking lot for a few minutes watching the numerous bolts of lightning shooting across the sky and downwards. We didn’t know what to expect on the way home as the news said that there were fallen trees, power poles and fires and that every available fire department was attending to something related to the storm. Callers were saying what they were seeing. Once caller said she counted 300 to 400 lightning events on a stretch of a highway. Cars were crawling as there was flooding in areas. At Elk Island National Park which is about an hour east of Edmonton one caller said his tent was destroyed and that he and his party were stuck in their car as there were fallen trees everywhere. Since this is a park I wanted to see we will come home one day earlier. There was no debris on any of the roads on the way back to the hotel. There were some really wide puddles though. We ended up watching tv until about 4:30am. Ray had to be ready by 10am to play badminton. A brother of someone we play badminton with in Vancouver was going to pick up Ray to go play at the University of Alberta.

Here are some of the websites that reported the storm:
www.news1130.com/news/national/more.jsp?content=n173427424
www.inews880.com/Channels/Reg/iReports/Story.aspx?ID=1116422 www.inews880.com/photogallery/July18Storm.aspx www.inews880.com/Channels/Reg/LocalNews/story.aspx?ID=1116469 www.630ched.com/Channels/Reg/NewsLocal/Story.aspx?ID=1116501 www.globaltv.com/globaltv/edmonton/Edmonton+storm+clean+underway/1806458/story.html

Sunday, July 19, 2009 – Edmonton

Ray got up for breakfast downstairs and headed down about 9:30. It was nice and sunny then. A few hours later it was really windy and I decided not to go to the zoo afterall as it was only 13 degrees and wouldn’t be too pleasant with the wind and possible rain showers. I forgot to take my glucosomine and Super EFA (essential fatty acids – fish oil) last night. This morning I was really sore in my neck, back, hips and hands so took some Advil around 10:30 and slept until 2pm. The wind has been howling. I ordered a chicken stirfry rice bowl from the restaurant downstairs. It said it came with peppers, carrots and cabbage. There were no peppers or cabbage in it but had carrots, bok choy and yucky celery in it. Ray came back about 3:30. Badminton had ended at 2 and he and J went out for Chinese food at the same restaurant we had gone to a few days ago.

There was broken glass all over our balcony. I called the front desk and they sent a maintenance guy over. He said that last night the door from the 32nd floor had broken and the screens were flying. Wow, that was scary. I guess our building wasn’t unaffected after all. The maintenance guy sent housekeeping over to sweep the glass up. It was sooooo windy and freezing on the balcony. The wind was just whipping out there and is rattling the windows. What a difference from the other days when it was so nice and warm on the balcony.

Ray is taking a nap now, he went to sleep about 4:30pm. Didn’t do anything Sunday. I went to bed about 12:30 and got up at 10:30 Monday.

Monday, July 20, 2009 – Edmonton Valley Zoo

We went for lunch at the Mongolie Grill. It was quite fancy compared to the ones in downtown Vancouver. There was a hostess and the waitress kept checking on us. The price is based on the weight of your food and there was 20% off ours because it was vegetarian. There was still the round slab they grill on but the meat was better quality. The cook brings your cooked food to you on a big fancy plate. The rice is on the bottom layer of the steam containers with the top one being a white thin wrap thing that you could use to wrap your food. The choice of soup was wonton or hot and sour.

We went to the Valley Zoo. Ray was sleepy after eating so took a nap in the car and then ended up playing Street Fighter on his laptop while waiting for me. I spent less than 2 hours at the zoo. It wasn’t that big. The Aldergrove is a lot bigger and better. I did like seeing the prairie dogs and guinea pigs. Each breed had such a large area to run around in. It was weird seeing so many guinea pigs and seeing them outside as I’ve only seen them in pet stores. There was a movie poster of G-Force on the fence of the guinea pig enclosure which I thought was cute. I’ve seen trailers for G-Force at other movies. It looks really good and is so cute. It’s coming out this weekend. There were some trees that had fallen down during the Saturday storm that were roped off. No animals were hurt according to the cashier but obviously they must’ve been spooked. They cleaned up other debris on Sunday as there was nothing on the trails on Monday.

We went to St. Albert in northwest Edmonton to see the world’s largest badminton racquet which was beside the sign for the Red Willow Badminton Club.

We went to Denny’s to eat. It’s cool now that you can build your own slam so I had whole wheat pancakes, eggs, strawberries and sausages. We decided to head back home Monday night instead of waiting until Tuesday. Ray was wide awake anyways and had slept so much and I could nap in the car. We hit the road at 9:00pm. We saw a few deer on the side of the road in the grass who looked at the road and then thought better of it and hopped back towards the trees. When it was dark we saw a caribou facing us on the sidewalk and later on I saw an elk in the grass with magnificent antlers. Luckily we didn’t see any moose or bears or any animals crossing the street. We hit rush hour coming home shortly after 6am and were in gridlock at about 176th Street on the way to the Port Mann Bridge. By the time we went through McDonald’s drive thru (where I had my first hash brown in years and my first OJ since the diet) and got home it was 7am so we made really good time despite the half an hour delay in rush hour. We went to sleep shortly after 9am and got up after 2pm. I thought for sure I had gained at least 3 to 5 pounds since we left but surprisingly weighed exactly the same as when we left!!! Go figure! Perhaps Nic’s scale was wrong. She said that it was 5 pounds more than what it said (according to her friend from Nanaimo who stayed at her place the week before).

I will post photos from our trip later on. I still need to post photos from my vacation earlier in the year too and photos from the Reifel Bird Sanctuary in Ladner.