Edmonton, Part Three

We arrived in Edmonton at the hotel with enough time to eat, shower and get dressed for the wedding itself. It was a very nice wedding – very low key, none of the crazy expensive dancing camel weirdness that so many weddings seem to have these days. Also, unlike the bride at the last wedding I went to, the bride didn’t pass out drunk before the evening was over.

We checked out early the next day because we planned on spending the day at the West Edmonton Mall. I am not overly fond of mall life, but given that we’re not likely to be there again, it seemed fitting that we should spend some time there. And boy, did we spend some time there! Eight and a half hours in total.

Now, before you wonder how anyone could spend that much time shopping, I should clarify: we spent that much time at the mall, but very little of it shopping. We ate breakfast there, and then went on the rollercoaster. WOW! I sat with M., who was white-faced and silent the whole ride. (Which, by the way, was the most time on a rollercoaster that I’ve had. They weren’t stingy at all, none of the 40 seconds and you’re done stuff here). A. and I hooted and hollered the whole time. Great ride, and despite having eater minutes before, no one was sick.

The next stop was the much anticipated (by M.) Build-a-Bear workshop. The woman who started the thing (they had her biography there) was told it would never work but let me tell you, there were four tills working non-stop the whole time we were there. M. spent all of her holiday money there. That place must be making money hand over fist.

The next stop was supposed to be the pool area, but there was a bungee thing on the way. A bungee cords and trampoline sort of arrangement. Both kids wanted to try it, so I said I’d pay. No way to be able to pay for A. to do the big jump, so this seemed like a good compromise. I wasn’t going to do it myself, but A. said this may be the closest I’d get to jumping off a balcony a la Lara Croft (my favourite part of the first Croft movie) and I should do it. I wanted to hold out for an actual castle and a bungee, but in all honesty he was probably right, so we all did it. It was wonderful, I highly recommend it. If I could afford to set this up in the back yard I would. Or in a castle, but I’d need to find the castle first.


Finally, the part that I was looking forward to: the water park. I am a water baby, and so are my two babies. We spent five hours in the pool area. A. and I couldn’t get enough of the wave pool, and the slides, once we started on them were wonderful. There was one, though, that I almost didn’t do. It was one of those slide with a really severe drop. No gently sloping curve with turns and twists, just one straight slide. Sitting at the top I thought that despite my love of water sliding my fear of heights would win out. But A. was in the twin slide beside me, a couple of teens were behind us waiting, so when A. said “one, two three go!” I went. Holy Moly, that’s all I have to say. More sliding, more surfing and then we decided that we had to get the dog and get some supper.