Two weeks in Canada, in the middle of the summer, how great could that be!! Ha, joke was on me because it was in the 90's the whole time. Apparently the jet stream was doing something very weird and there was a massive heat wave in progress. Plus, there were wildfires to our NE and WSW. Plus, I had visions of the Canadian Rockies and Edmonton is actually in the "plains". Plus, the town very near the airport where we were working was a dump. So much so, we had to move hotels because I told the PM I could not stay there for two weeks. After the second night, we moved closer to the city of Edmonton and the hotel and neighborhood were nice, but still not exactly nice. This is nowhere I wish to return to, but the work was interesting and I got to know two of my Canadian coworkers a bit better, Feno and Sonia.
Saskatchewan River. I dragged Sonia on a hike in Devon along this river. It was nice, but the air was hazy and hot. We were sweat drenched by the end.
I found this place on the internet because they had a trail called "Legs of Fire". I told her we have to do this!!! It was very pretty but not as long as I thought it would be. My legs weren't really on fire. Once we got to the bottom, we walked along the river a ways, then came back up a different way and walked through the neighborhood to get back to our car. Looked like the trails would be cool in the winter to use with cross country skies or snow shoes. Sonia told me snow shoeing is extremely difficult and it was better to hike in the snow using crampons. I actually have a pair of those but have never used them. Maybe some day...
Over our one weekend in Edmonton, we wanted to check out a farmer's market then do a little sight seeing in the city, but the air quality was so bad, we ended up going to the museum. The museum was in a horrible part of town. Thankfully parking was just across the street. I definitely would not have waned to walk farther than that. Actually, the farmer's market was in a fairly sketchy part of town too. All in all, Edmonton sucked!! But the museum inside was a nice surprise. It was a history/science type museum. Very interesting.
The giant sloth was nearly as big as the mastodon!! This exhibit of the remains of creatures from the ice age was really impressive. And all if it was discovered in this region of Canada.
 |
Elk Island National Park.
|
There were herds of wild buffalo in the park. We saw a bunch off in the distance, but only this one up close (we were driving when we saw this one). Later in the day, while walking down a trail, we came across some hikers and we asked them if there were any buffalo up ahead. They said no. We told them about our encounter, and they said it didn't count if we were in a car 😄.
Hahaha... Canadian Geese in Canada!! This is funny because there were hundreds of these in KY and everyone hated them because they pooped all over the sidewalks, and they have big green slimy poops!! Same here, you really had to watch where you stepped.
This was a bell at the University of Alberta Botanical Garden. Of course, I had to go up there and ring the bell, and man it was loud! You see me on the right laughing because it actually scared me how loud a noise it made when I barely hit it with the log. After I rang the bell I read the inscription and turns out this was a gift to Canada from Japan as a symbol of friendship between the two countries. I joked that the silly American was ringing the bell to symbolize the Canadian-Japanese continuing friendship and Sonia thanked me for my support 😄.
Who knew Canola fields could be so beautiful!! This is actually the Rapeseed plant that Canola is made from. And, I learned something new... Canola is an abbreviation for Canadian Oil. And here I thought Canola was some type of plant.
So, that was my two week experience in Edmonton, Canada. I was able to find natural beauty and a few interesting things to include in my blog, and I did learn new things along the way, but definitely don't want to return.
Comments
Post a Comment