Day 9, June 13th

Got into Calgary last night and we're just taking it easy today... we went to get our nails done at one of those "cheap" places with lots of little asian ladies working hard and it ended up costing $85!! Apparently that's the cheapest place in Calgary too. On our way to the nail salon we drove through a harley davidson festival downtown so the streets were quite alive this weekend! 

2:00pm - West Edmonton Mall

We decided to do just a quick tour de force of West Ed Mall and ended up staying there for almost three hours! It was, in word, amazing. It's a GIANT monstrosity on the outside of town (with the only Forever 21 in Canada), a pirate ship (that can be rented out and set sail for private parties), and a theme park!

Day 8, June 12th

Took a tour around Edmonton today with George, her summer job is foot tours of the downtown area so we learned a lot about Edmonton! 

6:15pm - Edmonton

Arrived in Edmonton and followed Hadley's directions right past an amazing liquor store (where we picked up our Alberta beer, to be reviewed later). The beer selection was incredible, the lady said that it was the best in Canada... we had a hard time choosing between a locally brewed coconut curry pale ale, and a chocolate stout (but we went for the latter). After picking up our beer we headed to the Mitchell's and were treated to a delicious dinner at Earl's.... definitely getting back to the West now! After dinner we went with Hadley and some friends to see The Hangover, despite starting at 10:40 it was awesome!

5:00pm - Elk Island National Park

Stopped at a park about 40 minutes outside of Edmonton to recommence our animal safari! We were hoping to see an Elk, given the name of the park, but we didn't. We did talk to a park ranger and he said the best time to see them is really early in the morning so maybe we'll spot one in Banff! We did see some other interesting animals though, a baby MOOSE (which the park ranger said was very rare), some Bison, and a little family of baby geese!

Day Seven, June 11th

Went for breakfast at a great place right next door to our hotel, called Jake's. Great omelettes, and really good coffee/chai lattes! Mmmmm, and rye bread! 

8:30pm - Arrived in Saskatoon

Had a bit of an adventurous arrival in Saskatoon. We were scheduled to stay at the Thrift Lodge, but we turned up to find a room squished into a corner, under the stairwell, with two differently sized beds, a huge shag carpet, and men leering at us from the upper balcony. Not to mention the key to our room didn't work, which apparently is a common problem. We made up an excuse to leave and got out of the cancellation fee (or so we think, but she still has our credit cards on file...). We moved to Hotel Senator, which is a boutique hotel right downtown, and it costs the exact same thing as the Thrift Lodge. We were skeptical at first because there were some bad reviews online, but our room turned out to be amazing, the location was perfect, there was free parking, and free (but very slow) internet! 

A pretty good move after all...

4:00pm - Inglis Elevators

 

Drove 18km out of the way on another lonely planet suggestion, the Inglis Grain Elevators. They were described as "majestic" and "phenomenal", I don't think I would go that far. Heus actually got out of the car to look at them, so these are the pictures that resulted. 

2:00pm - Choy's Chinese Canadian Restaurant

We stopped for lunch in a really dinky town on the side on the highway. The only restaurant in town was Choy's Chinese Canadian, right next door to Choy's Electrical Appliances. The place was full of old men, and two little old ladies came in a bit later... so I would say it was bumping. We sampled the Chinese Combo A, and the Chicken Chop Suey... not bad, really. Probably won't race back however. 

11:00am - Canoeing in Clear Lake

Waited around this morning for about half an hour to rent a canoe (the marina was closed because it was raining and nobody really wants to canoe in the rain, except Heus.) We took it out for an hour, hoping to see a beaver, but we just got soaking wet and tired out our arms. It was fun in the end, and at least we got some exercise after sitting in the car for a week! 

Day Six, June 10th

We just finished breakfast at the Elkhorn Dining Room. It was pretty good. The highlight was definitely the Elk sausage. We felt a bit guilty eating such a beautiful animal but neither of us have ever tried elk before (or if we have, we don't remember) so we thought we would try it out. It was pretty tasty but very earthy, you could tell it had come from a wild animal. Our waitress served it to us with a bottle of mustard and suggested we smoother it in mustard to cut out the "wilderness" taste. All in all good breakfast and we are ready to go find kayaks/canoe. Today we are heading to Saskatoon, and looking forward to the beautiful Thriftlodge, located in (we're sure) the classiest strip mall in town. 

11:40pm - Going to bed...

We went for dinner at the 'Lounge' at the Elk Horn resort and had a really good meal. It was fun because the hockey game was on and there was a pretty big crowd there - much bigger than what we have seen at the Super 8/Boston Pizza in Thunder Bay or at the Elephant and Castle/Marlburough in Winnipeg. We wanted to try another Manitoba beer and have heard that there is one called Three Rivers, but the bar didn't have it and so our waitress suggested a beer from Saskatchewan, which actually turned out to be from Alberta. We are going to reserve our judgement on that one until we actually get to Alberta... but the prospects of us trying it again are not good, to say the least. 

Now we are just relaxing in the room, catching up on the news/trashy TV. It's been a great day all in all, and we are looking forward to doing a bike ride in the morning, then going on a bit of a kayak/canoe trip before we head out for Saskatoon.

Lindsay blogging in front of the fireplace with a glass of Manitoba 'wine'... 

6:30pm - BISON SIGHTING!

We came across a most exciting field chock full of BISON. We got really close to one feller and were able to snap a few great shots! They seem to travel in a pretty big herd and were apparently not alarmed by the noiseless electric car. They were pretty cute, except they seem to have random hair loss that we hope is not attributable to any serious disease (Manitoba is getting slammed by H1n1!). We would like to say more about the cute bison but they pretty much just stood there and munched. 

5:30pm - Fifth Moose Sighting!!

Not a good picture, but we have to keep track! The Meese in the park don't seem as comfortable around cars as the ones on the side of the highway (go figure). We also saw our first Elk soon after this, but he ran away too fast to even get a picture. Nonetheless, we pretty much freaked out when we saw him and it was probably our screaming that scared him away, not the car (the prius is electric for christ's sake, it doesn't make any noise!).

Next time there will be less screaming and more photo-documenting, we're on a mission now. That thing was amazing!! And Big.

5:00pm - Riding Mountain National Park

We just got to Riding Mountain National Park, in Manitoba. We were told we would see Meese, Beavs, Elk, and some other little creatures whose names we forget. So far, we have indeed seen meese and elk, AND BISON. Posts to come. In any case, the park in incredibly beautiful and well worth the minor detour. We splurged on a room (with a fireplace) at Elkhorn Lodge (thanks Nana and Gramps), and are really enjoying living in the lap of luxury in the middle of the wilderness. We took the prius on a two hour back country safari, after two days of rain, and because we didn't pop all the tire we consider ourselves pretty lucky (or I'm just a really excellent driver). Needless to say, she's a bit of a mess au moment. Whoooops. 

Car wash pictures to follow within the next couple days...

4:00pm - Entering into the Prairies!

We are right on the border now between mountainous Ontario and prairie Manitoba, it's beautiful and unusual.

3:30pm - Fox Sighting!!

We saw a little family of baby foxes on the side of the road, they were so cute!! Two of them were really shy but one was super curious and he just couldn't get enough of our camera!

2:00 - Minnedosa

Stopped in Minnedosa to pose outside the Tribune at Heus' request (demand). Also witnessed a family of drug addicts who live next door, good times. 

1:00pm - Lunch in Neepawa

Stopped in a small town on the side of the highway called Neepawa. 

It was overwhelmingly perfect; there were only ten stores but they were exactly the ones we wanted: RBC, BMO, the Liquor Store, and lunch. Also, it was pretty and our lunch was free trade organic, and delicious. We're keeping a log of local beers but we couldn't find any here so the liquor store clerk suggested a "strawberry rhubarb wine" that is made just around the corner and we obviously decided it was a great idea. Tastes fine now but we'll let our final decision wait until tomorrow morning! 

10:00am - Touring the Peg

We spent the morning touring around Winnipeg, went and checked out the Forks (loaded up on wasabi peas!), crossed some bridge into St. Boniface, and interrupted a religious re-enactment at the St. Boniface Cathedral. Definitely saw a nicer side of Winnipeg this morning, and the car wasn't broken into after all.