Honeymoon Diaries #5 – Alberta

Glenora B&B - definiton of the word quaint.

April 23 (Tuesday)

Sand. That’s what we remembered about Edmonton. Snow too, but primarily sand. During our flight across northern Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan states, it was mostly white at first, then grids started appearing as the white snow gave way to brown soil color. The grids continued all the way until we reached Edmonton International Airport, and once we were out on the shuttle bus to town on a day pass, all we saw was miles and miles of sand.

It did look a bit gloomy, perhaps unique only to the week that we were there. Winter was still tapering off being so far north from the previous cities we were in, farmers were just getting ready to sow the land for the short planting season as the snow melted into puddles of water, creating mud pools everywhere.

Along the streets, lots of sand remained from the cold season. Unlike in the US which I saw salt being used as the primary way to dissolve excessive amounts of snow and clear the roads, here it’s way too expensive to buy that much salt and bring it that far inland. Instead, sand was thrown into the snow to create friction that’s required for the vehicles to spin their tires against. Apparently another contributing factor that no one seems to mind is the environmentally destructive oil sands just northeast of Edmonton. It’s gold rush time (even Koon Hong was in Fort McMurray!) because oil prices are higher than cost of surface mining bitumen, resulting in everyone who has half a degree in petrochemicals up there scrapping as fast as they can. See for yourself.

All these we learned after we met with Chee Meng, who had been braving the cold to earn his music doctorate degree, and his wife Yukari. This might all be worth the trade off for being able to spot auroras (northern lights) without having to travel further north / camp out in a forest. But we weren’t that lucky – I guess we will keep auroras for our anniversaries.

We checked into a fairly unique B&B introduced by Chee Meng called Glenora Bed & Breakfast. In all its antique glory, historical detail, and quaint feel, I found it surprisingly livable, but unfortunately Dear found it a little too complex for comfort. Although we had to share the bathroom across the hallway, we never found that we had to wait for anyone to use it. Moreover, the common living room / kitchen space made me feel really at home, almost keeping us from getting out to the biting cold totally.

But we still went out, by ourselves, to walk the small downtown area, and was shooed by security guards from taking pictures of art work in shopping malls (why would they do that?). It was hard to like this place, and it gave me some idea of my 八叔’s life here when he first came to Canada many years ago. Fortunately our spirits were high, and having found a window seat in the library (the only building that opened till 9pm), we sat down and read for the first time in the trip, and spotted a 2 foot tall jack rabbit hoping along the sandy roads.

After Chee Meng brought us to Earls, one of Canada’s bar franchise, for supper and orientation, we used our bus day pass for the last time to return to our twin bed at Glenora.

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Glenora B&B

April 24 (Wednesday)

We spent all morning in our quaint little B&B, recording expenditure for the first time. Breakfast was quite an experience, as it was served in the shop downstairs, exquisitely made, served by an obliging waiter whom we end up over tipping. I even read a random book off the shelf in the living room. The whole place was beaming with history of the place and the city, and I devoured every detail from the Hudson’s Bay Company and their early settlers to recent times building of west edmonton mall.

I remembered it was at this point that I finally found myself in complete relaxation. 3rd week into the trip and so much more to look forward to, I found the rest of my life so distant away that nothing could come destroy this sense of inner peace.

The environment was completely still and silent, almost like a temple, and no inhabitants were seen. The pictures hanging on the wall, shelves of books, architecture of the fireplace, exquisite silverware, lamps and ceiling fans all stood still (also coz I couldn’t find the fan switch hehe), even the fridge didn’t rumble a single bit.

I dwelled on the feeling for a long time to better understand how I can reach this state of mind in the future, for it was not something I could achieve just by meditating silently at home. I dwelled on the blooming flowers for longer and longer periods of time, I could see the twisting and turning of a squirrel’s head in a hurry, I felt the pulse of my body resonating in my thoughts. The chattery left brain was silent that peaceful morning, and all I felt was stillness that was enjoyable. It didn’t matter that my body was still suffering from minor aches and various parts of the dry skin screaming to be scratched. I was calmer than the Great Lakes.

Unfortunately it didn’t last long. Noon came and we went out to meet Chee Meng and Yukari for lunch (Jap!), did some grocery shopping and spent the afternoon at their apartment. They also brought us to climb the steep staircase down to the golf course along the river. We spent the night huddling in bed looking forward to our trip to Calgary the next morning.

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** Update: Here is where we lost all our pictures as Yee Cheng’s phone died and couldn’t be recovered by Samsung. Sadness. **

Someone in Alberta

April 25 (Thursday)

The 4 of us, along with our luggage and Yukari’s double bass hopped on a Budget rental minivan, and rode off to Calgary early morning. Yukari had to attend a rehearsal there and Chee Meng offered to show us around Calgary too. We bidded good bye to Glenora, not before we had another amazing yet wholesome breakfast. Over the vast Canadian prairie we rode, spotting animals in the ranches and simply gazing at the never ending grassland, thinking, Alberta beef!

Calgary was supposed to be “Cowboy town”, made famous by its annual Stampede held in July. But we didn’t see any cowboy hanging around town, instead we saw musicians, busy office people, and quite some traffic around the Asian clusters where we had Pho for lunch. The city was in much better shape than (sorry) Edmonton. Perhaps it was better weather since it’s further south, or perhaps it had a gorgeous view from across the bow river on the hills along Crescent road, or perhaps, we were simply in good company. I guess they really looked like they wanted to snatch the title of being the capital of Alberta from Edmonton?

We bade farewell to Chee Meng at the airport and picked up our rental vehicle. It was the first time I’m driving an S.U.V. and although I didn’t like the idea at first (burn too much gas etc.) it slowly crept on me. Dear kept reminding me that it’s higher, allowing me to see further and over other higher vehicles. I guess we were a bit too agreeable to the Thrifty sales person when he exclaimed politely that an economy vehicle cannot go through the Rockies. Knowing no better, we took this British Columbia plated Mazda CX 9, headed west and drove into the sunset.

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