Smelling the flowers

*WARNING* Extremely long account of weekend vacation. May bore you to tears. You have been warned!

I had to head up to Edmonton last Friday to see one of my doctors. My sis and the kids were coming so we had a little holiday.

We drove the 3 hours or so up to Edmonton; the kids got to eat breakfast at A&W which for kids that age was a real treat. We parked at the hospital and we all went up to the unit my doctor was at. The hospital is *huge*. The Stollery Children's Hospital is part of it and my family marvelled at how bright and cheerful the facility was. I got examined by my doctor and everyone else went exploring. I understand the hospital was interesting enough that the kids had fun - not your usual comment about hospitals. We had lunch and headed out to check in at our hotel.

We were staying in a hotel in downtown Edmonton. Back when I was living in that city, I jokingly referred to it as the Brita building. It really did look like one of those Brita water filters. For a lark, I had made up a story about how it used to be owned by a filtration company who, as a gimmick, sucked in the bad downtown air, filtered it and pushed clean air out. Then in 1987 when a very large tornado hit Edmonton, the local cityfolk unjustly blamed the building for screwing up the air currents and pulling the tornado into the city. So, the company quickly ditched it and the building got turned into a hotel, which is what it still is today. A lot of people believed that story, which goes to show that while people are guillible, they're also very trusting. I used to focus on the former; now I believe in nurturing the latter, especially given what our world is turning into.

We ended up with a room that had a commanding view of the river valley. It was *beautiful*. Ditching our stuff in the room, we took the subway and then the bus to Whyte Avenue. The kids had fun on the subway. We have light rail trains in Calgary, but Edmonton's system is underground, which is a very novel experience for the kids. I took them to the front of the train and they got a chance to peer through the front window of the train as we were underground. Yes, I know it's not much for us adults but it's fun for the kids!

My sis really wanted to go to Whyte Avenue and there's really one reason: shopping! Both my sis and I blew our budgets (and then some) within half an hour of reaching Whyte at Rowena's, the first store we visited. She got a beautiful medieval dress and I found a nice black cocktail dress - should come in handy at next year's RASC General Assembly banquet. It's funny, there were only two operational dressing rooms available. My sis and I took turns in one and the other was being used by another girl. Her boyfriend was outside, waiting patiently for her to finish. At one point, I looked up at him and then to the kids - all three of them had the same, totally identical "hurry up I'm bored" expression on their faces! I guess there are some guy experiences that transcend age. Hmm...come to think of it, that seems to hold true for most cases! ;)

There's a nifty little oyster bar/restaurant called Da-De-O's on Whyte. They have the most amazing bread biscuit/sweet jalapeno appetizers in addition to beautiful oysters. I understand that national shucking competitions have been held there and that they field contestants in the annual competitions as well. Unfortunately, they have a sign up now: Adults Only. *sigh* I guess we shan't be going in †o eat some tasty food. :(

We went all the way to the other end to visit Warp 1, an Edmonton gaming store. I wasn't planning on getting anything but I figured that kids would have some fun there. Alas, I forgot they had remodelled some years back and a lot of the cool displays and kits are now behind their sales counters, out of sight of most children. We ended up getting a couple of Star Wars stuff for the kids but then our credit card got locked out. I guess that's a good thing - they noticed purchases in a different city and locked it out in case of fraud. I liked that part. What I didn't like was the fact that I spent 45 minutes trying to get through to their fraud prevention department to get it unlocked. *sigh*

We had supper at Bua Thai, a nifty little Thai restaurant that was a particular favourite of my dear sister's. We ordered the usual coconut rice and cashew chicken that she loved. In a rare feat of self-restraint, I didn't order the suicidally-hot massamun curry and chose a Phuket seafood medley instead.The kids got to experience squid for the first time and mussels too! They loved the mussels and the scallops but not much else in the medley. The rice and chicken were a hit, as usual. The memory I'm taking from that meal is when one of the kids (the noisy one - you know which one!) who was busy shovelling food into his mouth pronounced gravely that he prefers my scallops to the restaurant's. My sis says that all the time and now I have collaborating evidence from a second datapoint! Which means it's got a higher probability of being true!

*ahem* I think I need to learn how to take compliments better. I think I also overanalyze stuff. I'll have to think some more about that. ;)

Anyhoo, duly stuffed we walked off the meal during the 10+ blocks back to the hotel. My sis and the kids tucked into bed and after an unsuccessful search for a nighttime mug of green tea, I did too. As at SSSP 2007, I now have yet another second collaborating datapoint that kids will occupy all possible resources both awake and asleep. Mr. Napoleon Boneyparts kept jabbing me in the side with his knee in addition to occupying large tracts of the bed. I had to get up a few times during the night to relocate him back to his side of the bed before I ended up being pushed onto the floor. I understand my sis was waging a war of her own too - her kid kept stealing all the blankets. When told about it in the morning, they responded with unrepentent giggling.

We had breakfast at the hotel and explored downtown a bit. We were a little disapppointed - our goal was to take the kids to the mini-golf place in one of the downtown malls but it wasn't there when we arrived. I guess it must have been closed down some time back. We explored another mall after that because I needed an illuminated RACI finderscope for my deteriorating eyesight. Alas, they didn't have any in stock. In addition to being an astronomy store, it was also a science shop so the kids got one toy each - a hovercraft kit (base + balloon) and a gyroscope. We had lunch and headed home.

The hovercraft isn't being used much. The kids prefer to blow through the balloon attachment tube which makes a whistling rasping noise. Over and over again. All the time. The gyroscope got abandoned when the kids realized that no, it wasn't a giant wheel that they can spin up and make it race across the floor. *sigh* I *will* get some science into those kids some day. Even if I have to sugarcoat it with water rockets and homemade ballistas.

All in all, yet another thankfully good getaway weekend!