Tochi's Hut

Some quick impressions from Edmonton.

People

One of the most surprising thing about Edmonton for me was the people.  Everyone was super friendly, though half the time, they were trying to convince me to move out to Alberta. lol.  Everyone I had the opportunity to speak to was quite proud of their city, but not to the point of arrogance.  Definitely had a big impact on my impression of Edmonton.

Downtown

A very nice downtown core, spanning probably a dozen blocks in each direction.  I didn't get to really explore it until nighttime.  I did notice that the downtown core was eerily quiet after dark, with the exception of cars and the homeless.  I must have just been exploring the wrong parts of town.  Got to visit the City Centre Mall and the CBC Radio studios there.  I noticed there was a Subway every couple blocks too.

Really liked the pyramid at Edmonton City Hall, though I wish I walked the extra half a block to the front entrance and gotten better photos of the building.  Some idiot taxi cab driver told me the pyramid was a greenhouse for some exotic plants.  A green house growing some exotic politicians and taxi cab drivers, I bet.

While a little out of my way, I stopped by Alberta Legislative Hall to visit the First Post survey site (something that I need to do at every Canadian capital city - I'm 2 out of 12 now).  The legislative hall was quite beautiful in the night.

University of Alberta

Very beautiful campus.  I love how a lot of the buildings are interconnected, either by underground tunnels or elevated walkways.  My favourite places were the abbreviated buildings: SUB, CAB and HUB.  Student's Union Building and Central Academic Building were student hubs with lots of food, lots of student orientated shops.  Just a fun place to hang around with all the students.  Human Union Building was really cool.  It has a mall hallway on the "ground" level full of shops.  For several stories up, there were full ceiling to floor window pods that stick out over the mall below.  These were apparently accommodations for the hotel. It felt so futuristic and modern, despite being built 30 years ago.

West Edmonton Mall

The biggest mall in North America and 3rd biggest in the world.  I've grown up hearing about it, so THE MALL was a must visit for me.  To be frank, the actual mall wasn't that big.  It just has a lot of these extensions (amusement park, water park, hotel, movie theatres, etc) that just grows the mall to it giant size.

I really wanted to play around in the Water Park.  Those slides look SO fun.  Gigantic wave pool.  Swimming in the winter.  man.

At the center of the mall, there was a skating rink.  Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers used to practice in this rink back in the glory days from 1980's. 

The Sea Lion's Lagoon was quite cool, with a giant replica of the Santa Maria.  There was an exhibit of real flamingos too.

There was a Segway exhibit where for $10, you get a lesson with a certified Segway trainer followed by 20 minutes of free time.  Since I missed riding the Segway while at Cornell, I was really tempted to give this a try, but the line was too long. 

Finally, I was most surprised by find a T&T in Chinatown part of the mall.  Represent!

Miscellaneous

The Light Rail Transport (LRT) through the city was nice.  It's like a streetcar that goes underground, like some of the T streetcars in Beantown.  Bay station's decor was especially nice, with its full metal railing bars. 

Edmonton is really really dry.  I knew it was expected given their locale and the Chinook winds.  I certainly felt the dryness immediately when I stepped out of the airport.

On my flight out of Edmonton, I met a media spokesperson for Transportation Safety Board of Canada.  He described to me what it was like when he first heard about the Air France accident at Toronto Pearson in 2005.  He was actively involved in the investigation and was sent on scene right after the accident happened.  I never knew that most flight landings were done with auto-pilot.  I also finally found out why planes needed a cart during "push back" from the gates.