Despite being the capital of Alberta, I've only been to Edmonton twice in my life (prior to this trip). The first time was when I was in elementary school. I needed a passport, and my dad opted to get a Japanese passport for me (dual Japanese and Canadian citizen at the time I believe... or maybe I just qualified for a Japanese passport at my age). I don't recall much on that trip besides a really steep incline.
The second time was back in October 2019 when one of my colleagues booked his annual trip for the grade 9s to see the Legislative Assembly (LA). It was an uncomfortable ride... to say the least due to sitting at the back with a bunch of grade 9 students that liked to... bend the rules from time to time. I'm sure it wasn't a pleasant experience for them either, thus, going off topic, I sat at the front going back to Calgary. We just went to visit the LA before heading back to Calgary.
This year, my girlfriend and I made a last minute decision to go visit. She have never been herself, and it would have been a good opportunity to explore the capital... or more specifically, West Edmonton Mall. We got up early on the morning of the 10th and headed straight to Edmonton after fueling up her car nearby our home. The ride was uneventful and we kept ourselves company by looking at a number of different sights around us. I can't recall how long it took us, but it was probably the longest I've ever driven without taking a break. Surprisingly, it didn't feel as long as it took, which was approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes.
My first impressions of West Ed was how similar it felt to Chinook, albeit bigger since it housed a number of attractions that we don't have in Calgary. We found a bakery and ordered some breakfast. Afterwards, we walked around a while, as we waited for the amusement park to open. Once in, we spent nearly the entire day at the amusement park. Due to it being in the middle of the week, line ups were miniscule. It was a far cry of the 30-40 minute wait at the Stampede earlier in July. As I age, I realized I'm more prone to motion sickness than ever before. I was only able to go on two rides before needing a break. We ventured out of the amusement park to explore the mall and utilize our two day multi park pass (which isn't too bad of a deal if you plan to visit a lot of their attractions). We found a mirror maze and saw the aquarium that they had underneath the main level. We completed our trip with another visit to the amusement park.
I don't recall off the top of my head how long we stayed, but it must have been close to 8 PM. Keeping it simple, we just headed to the nearby McDonald's to take out some food to our hotel for the night. It was also the first time I ever driven to a hotel to stay, for it's been mostly transit (Japan) or Uber (Las Vegas this year... which is for another post) to a hotel. Once we settled in our rooms, we had dinner and enjoyed a relatively quiet night.
My initial impressions of Edmonton based on staying within a mall which probably represented less than 1% of Edmonton: it's just like Calgary.
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