2010 - Friday, July 9 (Canada)

BC and Alberta, Canada
MEM-YVR, YEG-MEM
July 1 - 9

• Woke up in the morning around 8 or so, and packed everything up for travel. We got rid of everything that was no longer needed, since we weren't going to be camping any more. Left camp around 9:15 and drove east to Edmonton, arriving around 12:30 or so. The GPS directed us to some industrial area on the northwest side of the city. After a bit of confusion and map searching, we got the correct address to the hotel and followed the map to the location, which was about 30 km south of where we were.
• We checked into the airport Hampton, showered, and got ready to see the city. We wanted to go to the Royal Alberta Museum and then to the Old Strathcona area, but we needed to eat first. We ended up having dinner at Siciliano's Pasta Kitchen, a nice place with good food and decent service. Had a beer (Grasshopper) and wine with our meal, then headed to the museum.
• We arrived at the museum at 4 PM, so we only had an hour to check out the entire place before it closed. The museum houses two permanent exhibits (bugs, and aboriginal history) on the second level. We had to rush to finish the temporary exhibits on the lower level and we were rushed out at 5:00.
• After leaving the museum, we drove past the Alberta Legislature Building and got a couple pictures. We also happened to see a couple police cars - something we really had not seen the entire week we had been in Canada.
• The Old Strathcona district is adjacent to the University of Alberta campus. The area is pretty large and is full of shops, restaurants, and bars. The bars were our main concern, obviously. We walked for a while and stopped for a pint at O'Byrne's Irish Pub. From there, we went to a place called the Billiard Club and played pool. There was a music festival going on in the district all weekend, where a lot of the restaurants/bars play host to several bands. We heard 2 or 3 bands play (quite decent music). Nick secured a CD from the first band that performed to play on Lost in the Shuffle, the world famous radio show which he co-hosts. We had had several pints by that point, so we decided to leave and get a 6er for the hotel (and a bottle of wine). The hotel had no proper courtyard, but the lady at the front desk did suggest the bench outside the front door. So we sat there and drank and talked to the employees. Finally crashed around midnight.
• The next morning, we had breakfast at the hotel, then went to the airport for our flight back to Memphis. We were both upgraded on the leg to Minneapolis.
• Total mileage: 436 km on Friday, 2,532 km total.
• Final thoughts on Canada: 13$ cigarettes; 15$ 6-packs; good number of wineries and vineyards in BC; the term "hoser" is not used as frequently in Canada as one might believe' guns are legal; people are friendly, but tend to move a bit slower than what we're used to; "aboot"; Calgary was mildly disappointing; Edmonton was surprisingly appealing; Vancouver is a Canadian Seattle; food/groceries very expensive; more smokers than anticipated, and smoking allowed in more places than in the US; and finally, it seemed that every time we asked for ranch dressing the server would bring us Caesar dressing...not the same thing.