On Monday we had a big sleep-in, and in the afternoon the four of us went to the
West Edmonton Mall. At the time I thought it was the world's largest mall, but have just discovered via Wikipedia that it lost that title in 2004 and is now only the fifth largest! Anyway, it is certainly rather sizeable: over 6 million square feet... more than 800 stores... and parking for 20 000+ vehicles!
First we went to Galaxyland, which is the mall's amusement park and home to the world's largest indoor triple-loop rollercoaster. I was coerced into going on this rollercoaster by peer pressure. :P After the first 10 seconds (during which the carriage climbed right up to the roof), I didn't open my eyes until the ride was over! But I was happy afterwards that I could say I'd been on it. :) (Having since discovered that three people were killed when it came off the track in the mid-80s, I am extremely glad I did not know that
before going on it!!!)
We must have only seen a small corner of the mall, but we came across an ice skating rink, waterpark with wave pool and bungy jumping, pirate ship, seal show, lagoon with motorised tire tubes for rent, a section with European-style storefronts, and a Chinatown area!
We didn't spend much time actually shopping at the mall, and our only purchase was a pink frisbee ring!
That night Justin and Ben whipped up a delicious roast lamb dinner, and while it cooked we tried out the frisbee ring in the park across from Megan and Justin's house. The ring spent about half of the time either hiding in the bushes or dangling from trees. Luckily we'd had the foresight to buy a pink one!!
The following afternoon, Tuesday, Ben and I left Edmonton, "City of Champions" (yes, that's really on the welcome sign...) and set off on our 4-hour drive to Jasper, the main town in Jasper National Park. It was another beautiful drive with rugged mountains on either side of us. Jasper is at the top end of the Icefields Parkway, the scenic drive we were going to do the next day.
That night we stayed at a B&B and ate dinner at a restaurant recommended to us by our host. Very yummy! Afterwards we had a little wander along Jasper's main street, and this is where I met my first bear (...but there'll be real ones in the next blog entry!!).
To be continued...
CLICK HERE to view our Alberta road trip photos.
1 comment:
I love your little voting buttons! I might have to get a few tips off you about Picasa slideshows too, my links are just to the basic albums. I haven't played around with it much at all though - too busy trying to just get them loaded in the first place!
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