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...