Tag: Edmonton

We got back from spending the past week in a slightly cool but still pleasant Edmonton last night after a long day of flying.

Had a great trip out there, and Connie got to meet mom and dad. It was a busy and full week of driving around to visit people and seeing places.

On this trip, we also discovered that since our phones are on Sprint’s CDMA network (via Ting), they no longer roam while in Canada like mine did on my last trip (even then it was spotty). Future trips means we’ll have to pick up pre-paid SIM cards from somewhere for our stay if we want to stay in touch.

Didn’t go for dim sum quite as much as on my last trip in August, but we did make it out for dim sum at least once. My sister Sandi was able to join us in Edmonton for the weekend and Connie got a nice picture of us after we all went out for dinner Saturday night.

We made a couple of visits out to West Edmonton Mall, which we both enjoyed. It’s big, and while there are a few things that I remember, a lot of the mall has changed since I was last there.

The Santa Maria

World Waterpark

The Mindbender

I even went skating at the Ice Palace which was probably the first time I’d been on skates in over 20 years. Even though the skates I rented could have used a good sharpening, it was still a lot of fun being on the ice again. Wasn’t exactly the most graceful of skating, but I managed to stay on my feet. Connie got some pictures of me on the ice.

While we were walking through the mall, we spotted a penguin walking around checking things out.

The penguin is part of WEM’s Marine Life aquarium exhibit and is named Taz. Cool random encounter.

We made stops at Tim Horton’s (maybe a few), A&W (mmm, Mozzaburger), a donair place and had a couple of lunches at The Old Spaghetti Factory in WEM. Made it out for beer and wings with the guys, and showed Connie some of the city. We didn’t get to see or do everything I was thinking about doing, but we managed to cram in a fair bit during our week there.

Also, Alaska Airlines might be my new favourite airline. They’ll be starting non-stop flights between Charleston and Seattle soon, which means it will be easier for us to make it out to that corner of the country to visit my sister and brother and their families. It also gives another alternative route home (CHS-SEA-YEG). Plus they still offer snacks.

It’s a little sad that a 14g packet of dried fruit and pretzels is something to get excited about when flying.

Today is my last full day in Edmonton, and it’s been a great trip, but it seems like it just flew by. Took the Basic and Advanced Canadian Amateur Radio certification tests yesterday and passed both of them. Met up with a couple of friends from my grad school days and had a good lunch with them.

Spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the U of A campus looking at all the changes. So many new buildings popping up among the old familiar ones that I know. It’s a very different place from when I was a student there.

A couple more errands today, and it will be time to wrap things up and get ready to head back to Charleston. Flight leaves at 8AM tomorrow, and I’ll be back in Charleston late afternoon.

Sad to be leaving, but it will be good to get back to Charleston.

This year I’ll be skipping Dragon*Con again to make a trip back home. Flight and car rental are booked. The plan is to be in Edmonton September 19-26. Hopefully if there are no flight hitches, I’ll be going CHS->DFW->YEG and the reverse going back.

I’m looking forward to the trip. I think this time I’ll be able to spend more time playing tourist in my home town.

Had a great time on my trip back to Edmonton this past week. Fortunately the flight through Houston was uneventful. My friends Joe and Alexa were nice enough to let me stay with them and all I had to do was remember how to get around the city.

Most of the trip was spent visiting with the parents and making sure I got to dim sum several times over the week. It was great. I’m pretty sure there’s been some serious dim sum inflation going on though, because some of what I had was a lot larger than I remember them being when I was a kid.

Spent some time rummaging around in the basement of mom and dad’s place to remind myself of what I still have stored there. One of these days I’ll have to ship some of that stuff back to Charleston.

Started off the week with a stop at Boston Pizza with Joe and Alexa once I managed to find my way from the airport to St. Albert. Mmmm, Great White North. Then I went with Joe and Tom to their favourite gun shop on Saturday, where I got to lay hands on a monster of a 50 calibre rifle.

That was kinda cool.

Met up with friends at some new-to-me places for wings and beers. Went to Hudson’s, Original Joe’s, Average Joe’s, Brewsters, and Old Spaghetti Factory. Always a good time getting back together with friends. Realized that “pints” served in Edmonton are bigger than “pints” I get around here. I was drinking a pint of my usual Trad, and thinking to myself “this glass sure seems a lot bigger than the ones I get in Charleston”. Turns out that they are.

Brought my HT with me and had it doing the APRS thing while I was out there. Nice to hear a fair amount of activity on the VE6HM repeaters.

Edmonton’s at a much higher altitude than Charleston is!

Every time I go back home, the amount of change, new construction and growth always surprises me. There was even more construction and spreading out of Edmonton since my last visit. I suppose if I went back a little more often than every three years, it might not be as much of a surprise.

Made a trip out to the U of A and wandered around the campus a bit. Last time I was there the new science building was just about finished. It’s a pretty nice building. Big open spaces, high ceilings, lots of outside light. More new buildings on campus, especially around the U of A Hospital.

There wasn’t a whole lot of touring around the city like I would normally do, and I didn’t take nearly as many pictures as I did last time.

Thursday afternoon I got an email telling me my Friday morning flight from Edmonton to Newark was cancelled and that I was rebooked to head out the next day, Saturday morning. Inconvenient but hey, bonus Edmonton day! Fortunately except for the cancellation, the trip back to Charleston was uneventful.

It’s been almost 3 years since my last trip back home, so I decided it was time to make another one. This year I decided to forego the annual Dragon*Con pilgrimmage and will be heading back to Edmonton September 6-13. Parents are getting older now, so I thought it would be better to see them sooner rather than later.

Hopefully the trip will be less of a pain in the ass than it was last time. I’ll be flying United again, but this time I’m skipping the <air-quote>CHS-ORD-YEG route</air-quote> (“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me”) in favour of a hopefully less non-existent CHS-IAH-YEG route (YEG-EWR-CHS on the way back).

Naturally one of the things I’ll be looking forward to the most is eating dim sum. It will also be nice to get back home and visit with friends again.

I wonder what new things I’ll see when I get back there.