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We're just back from Canada, and a tad worse for the endless driving, but otherwise quite pleased. Everything was absolutely gorgeous up there. I'm sure it's maybe not such fun in, say, February, but in August, it's lovely.
I must say I was rather unimpressed with the Big Fucking Mall. Only about 1/3 of it is anything other than just a garden-variety downscale mall. Frankly, Alderwood has better shops, and Belle Square is really the quintessential mall experience. Mall of America (the other Big Fucking Mall) is even better, actually. Better upkeep, nicer stores, etc. So going to Edmonton just for that is kind of a waste of time. Good thing we had a nice room, though.
The real value of the trip was going through the Rockies. Jasper is an adorable little mountain town out in the boonies, and Banff is a fairly large upscale tourist trap which just happens to have astonishing scenery. It kind of reminded me of South Lake Tahoe, but without the casinos, and with a bit more upscaleness. I wish we had done the Icefields Parkway instead of the Edmonton-Calgary run (which was interminably boring.) The only interesting thing about that was heading over from Calgary toward Banff and seeing a community of absolutely enormous houses. They're probably about the size and scale of the stuff on East Lake Samm, but without all the trees in the way to hide them from each other, the net result is something like seeing a huge subdivision of McMansions. Except they weren't tract homes in the slightest; all were unique, and they all had large lots around them (at least an acre or three each.) They just happened to be huge.
We didn't take a lot of pics, but what we did take is here.
More later after I've gotten settled back in and such.
I must say I was rather unimpressed with the Big Fucking Mall. Only about 1/3 of it is anything other than just a garden-variety downscale mall. Frankly, Alderwood has better shops, and Belle Square is really the quintessential mall experience. Mall of America (the other Big Fucking Mall) is even better, actually. Better upkeep, nicer stores, etc. So going to Edmonton just for that is kind of a waste of time. Good thing we had a nice room, though.
The real value of the trip was going through the Rockies. Jasper is an adorable little mountain town out in the boonies, and Banff is a fairly large upscale tourist trap which just happens to have astonishing scenery. It kind of reminded me of South Lake Tahoe, but without the casinos, and with a bit more upscaleness. I wish we had done the Icefields Parkway instead of the Edmonton-Calgary run (which was interminably boring.) The only interesting thing about that was heading over from Calgary toward Banff and seeing a community of absolutely enormous houses. They're probably about the size and scale of the stuff on East Lake Samm, but without all the trees in the way to hide them from each other, the net result is something like seeing a huge subdivision of McMansions. Except they weren't tract homes in the slightest; all were unique, and they all had large lots around them (at least an acre or three each.) They just happened to be huge.
We didn't take a lot of pics, but what we did take is here.
More later after I've gotten settled back in and such.
