A DAY IN EDMONTON

29 June, 2008 (Neil’s birthday) A DAY IN EDMONTON

True to the form of Mary and Eric, our first view of the city was along the trails in the William Hawrelak Park. The park is neatly situated on the inside of a large bend in the river, close to the University of Alberta and the downtown. The banks of the river at this point are very high and very steep with large beautiful old homes perched precariously at the top. It was a hot morning and we were both pretty sticky by the end of the walk. At one point we looked across to the other bank to a beach at the bottom of a slope. This was obviously an off leash for dogs and what a comical sight. There must have been about 30 dogs of various shapes and sizes all having the time of their life, running and “diving” into the water and chasing each other. It was a beach party for dogs.

From there we went to Whyte Avenue to find a place to have lunch. This had been recommended to us as a place of good restaurants and interesting stores. It didn’t take us long to find the most popular restaurant around. Loud Mexican music was pouring out of Julio’s Barrio and people were sitting on the patio drinking colourful, chilled and tempting looking drinks of the margarita variety. It made us think of Matt who works at Under the Volcano in London, Ont. We got seats with a good view of the sidewalk and ordered a hot, spicy soup to which one added thin strips of tortilla chips, avocado, feta cheese and cilantro. Yum Yum. By the time we left there was a line of people waiting to get seats. It’s obviously a fun place to go to on a warm Sunday afternoon in Edmonton and we found it, hurray!
2 doors down from Julio’s Barrio is a little store called Chicken Scratch with the best selection of cards I’ve seen in a very long time. Eric and I had a lovely time browsing our way around the store and laughing out loud. We came out of there with quite a collection of cards, which will keep us going till the next time we find such a good source, I hope.

Our next stop was the Royal Alberta Museum. With only an hour and a half till closing, we started at the “Dragons, between science and fiction” exhibit. It was a fascinating walk through the myths, religious symbolism and science of dragons, good ones and bad ones, with amazing examples of Chinese dragons. I was reminded of the beautiful family camphor chest that I have carved with dragons and roses.
In the Wild Alberta section there are exhibits of the animals and birds of Alberta. There was also a section on the history of their 1st nations peoples, very respectfully presented. This area is smudged regularly, many of the exhibits are sacred.

And now a few additional comments and observations.

We have seen many many flowering lilacs from Manitoba, through
Saskatchewan and into Alberta. They are coming to an end now and we’re enjoying the wild roses.
The heat here is a dry heat and it feels dusty, so different from the humidity of SW Ontario.
Generally the days have been warm and now hot, but the nights have been cold to cool.
All the way across we have been struck by how green everything is. What will it be like on the return trip I wonder.
The gas is cheaper in Alberta (a little bit), so that’s good.