"No, But I Did Stay at a Holiday Inn Express Last Night...."

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According to the large omninous poster outside of the enterance to Meadowlake Park, there is to be no loud noise at anytime in the park, however the wedding party who camped there all night missed that, so we fell asleep the the soothing minstril Justin Timberlake, singing his classic "Sexyback". We awoke in the morning very greasy, having decided not to pay the money for the carwash style showers in Manitoba ($1 for 4 minutes). We decided to get packed up early and go shower before we left for Alberta. Unfortunately, the showers in the park were closed from 8:30 -10:00 for cleaning. This gave us some extra time to take a greasy power-walk through some hiking trails to kill time. As expected, the trails were bug riddled so we didn't really get a chance to stop and read the informative plaques along the way.

I was excited because today was a short day of driving, so we would be able to actually see some sites once we got into Alberta. Bonnyville was where we stopped for lunch and were mobbed by a baseball team of kids running around the Subway while we quickly ate.

We decided to take a small detour on our way to Edmonton to drive through Elk Lake National Park. We had to pay admission to drive through the park so we decided to stop and walk along some of the trails. The Beaver Lake hiking trail was described as having prime moose and bison habitat (and it was only 3 km long), so it was the best choice. Unfortunately, the horseflies/mosquitoes/blackflies were thick, so we had to move along at a brisk semi sprinting pace, and no animals were seen. Not all was lost though because on our way out, 2 coyotes (we think...smaller than wolves, larger than foxes) stopped on the road and snapped at some flies before disappearing off into the ditch. Once we left the park and turned onto the trans-Canada highway again, we did see a few heards of wild buffalo off in the distance.

Approaching Edmonton, we first noticed large factories and the single largest parking lot full of cars either of us had ever seen. Our first stop was the Telus World of Science. Outside, there was a large Rube Goldburg-esque machine with a bunch of balls and conveyors that seemed to create a propetual motion machine. Inside was the propetual money machine which charged us $26 to take a look at the science within. I was excited because they had a dinosaur pavillion set up, along with 5 others. We spent around 2 hours going through the Environmental, Forensic, Body, Space and Dinosaur exhibits. The highlight of the whole thing were 2 parabolic dishes that they had set up on opposite ends of the second floor. Brianna and I were able to each sit at a dish and whisper to each other despite being about 20 meters appart. We were tempted to see an IMAX film as well, but there were none playing at convenient times.

It was about 7:00 by the time we left, and we decided to go see if the West Edmonton Mall was still open (though we had our doubts, it was Sunday afterall). We were correct, and when we arrived, the parking lot was empty. We then decided to stay in Edmonton overnight so we could to see it first thing in the morning. After calling around, we made reservations with the Holiday Inn Express and (after some confusion in direction) checked in. We ate dinner at the Sherlock Holmes pub before returning to the hotel room and crashing for the evening.

(ed note: Chris really hates the way the Edmonton streets are laid out. Apparently having numbered streets is too confusing and impersonal . Personally, I think it's a great idea. It saved us from getting REALLY lost instead of just a little bit lost.)

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Photos

Coyote (?)
I'm glad the deerflies aren't just there for the tourists...

Tornado Clouds (possibly)
We saw these awesome clouds in Winnipeg as we were leaving. Shortly after the tornadoes touched down just south west of the city.

One Million
Bales of hay. Seen just outside of Winnipeg

Another Plastic Moose
Too many small towns, too few animals.

Railroad Graffiti
We had to wait for this very long train to slowly chug through town and then back up again. Maybe it was changing tracks? It had some cool graffiti on it

Wierd signs
Saw a field full of black and white signs in Northern Manitoba. Any ideas?

Bison
Not a cow

Manitoba roadside graffiti
This is the best graffiti we saw outside Flin Flon, and there was alot of it. I hope they're still together.

Flin Flon
Ok this is just outside and not Flin Flon proper, but you get the idea. Rock.

Spiritwood
Grain elevator from one small Saskatchewan town. Most of them had one of these

Saskatchewan Campsite
Us in the quiet boreal forest

Eggs?
Not sure what these are but they look cool haha

Alberta is slightly less flat than Saskatchewan
At first :P

We didn't see any wood bison (at first)
but we got a pic of the next best thing!

Winnipeg had lots of hay
And Edmonton had cars! (No this is not a junkyard. These are all employee cars)

Comments

[Linda]

Oh Gawd
This stuff is priceless.....lmfao....in fact, roflmfao (thats right eh?). Anyway too funny. :-) Mom