1-2-bungee!!

Turns out, it’s harder than expected to keep up a travel blog… We are giving ourselves a breather tonight though in Banff and we have internet access so no more excuses. That being said, I believe I owe you some stories about Edmonton…

As I mentioned we were staying with Mike and Brittany who conveniently have three couches in their apartment. The first night Mike took us the “The Sugarbowl” which was a cool little pub/restaurant with tasty food and a large selection of beers. I’m always happy to find my favourite beer Fruli, but when it’s on tap, I know the place has promise! After dinner we scoped out Whyte Ave. which is full of quaint but trendy stores, restaurants and bars all along it, which we were actually a little surprised to find in Edmonton but it left of us with a good impression of the place, there was also a sighting of a man in a cowboy hat which got us (particularly Jackie) excited about heading out West!

The next day, (We actually stayed two days in this place, a pretty big deal for us.) we went to the Art Gallery of Alberta in the morning. It’s less than a year old; the first piece of art we saw was the gallery exterior itself – check it out!

The exhibits inside were equally impressive. We saw a handful of exhibits including some Canadian works, Warner Brothers (you should see the work that goes into those cartoons), Escher (a truly unique artist who will challenge your ideas on perspective, reality and who has a whole new take prints and patterns) and Piranesi (a series of prison etchings with an incredible amount of detail).

As promised, stories about the beast of a mall and my crazy friend came to be that afternoon. As you know, we went to Mall of America in Minneapolis and we were on a mission to determine whether Edmonton mall could beat it in size. It sure can. A leisurely day at the mall included a skating rink to the front of us, a pirate ship/aquarium to the left, a water park beside that, then there’s the amusement park and Casino to the right. Not to mention the stores and the restaurants…

It was daunting. First we wandered. Took a little glance at the roller coasters, (I paid my dues there, not happening twice in one trip! Not to mention Jackie’s friend Pawel talking about the previous serious injuries/death cause by it…) we saw a sea lion show, went into the water park, there Jackie decided to “ask” about the bungee jumping that she said she would “never do”. I suppose they told her enough to change her mind, (mainly that no one had ever died doing it there) and then after a few moments of serious deliberation she decided she would go through with the jump. AH. You should have seen her try to shop while freaking out that she would be jumping off an 11 story tower in 40 mins. The time came, everyone below her in the wave pool was cheering, she was facing the water, she couldn’t turn back… until they counted down pre-jump and she did. But in calm bungee style, the guy up top convinced her to face backwards, look into his eyes and essentially get pushed off the edge. She did it!! AHhhhhhh. She’s one brave and crazy girl.

Brad, a friend from home who had just moved to Edmonton and Jackie’s friend Pawell met us at the mall. We all went to dinner together and tried the local delicacy a “Bulldog”, which is a margarita with a Coronita upside down inside it at Chili’s.

After a fun night, we said our farewells to our Edmonton friends and prepared for our next journey which would take us to Drumheller (hoodoos!).