26 July 2013
Our first (and pretty much only) stop in Edmonton was the
West Edmonton Mall, the largest mall in North America (bigger than the Mall of America) and the 5th largest mall in the world.
 |
| Outside of the West Edmonton Mall--nothing particularly spectacular |
 |
| This is entrance 56 to the mall. There may be more. |
 |
| Inside (part of) the mall |
 |
| Obligatory ice rink in the mall |
The most spectacular part of the mall was the full-sized water park
inside the mall. Of course in Edmonton, if it was outside, it would get used for about 2 weeks every year.
 |
| Half of the water park |
 |
| Other half of the water park |
 |
| That's a miniature golf course on the lower level |
After the mall, we took a quick drive around Edmonton and headed for Calgary, about a 4 hour drive south.
 |
| Near downtown Edmonton |
 |
| Rexall Place, home of the Edmonton Oilers |
 |
| Downtown Edmonton |
As a secondary splurge for my birthday, we booked a nice hotel in downtown Calgary, right next to the
Calgary Tower. Downtown Calgary was surprisingly lively at night and they did a good job of preserving their 19th century buildings.
 |
| Calgary Tower and our hote. |
 |
| 8th Avenue, a block from our hotel |
While walking around downtown we encountered the sculpture in the picture below. It's by Jaume Plensa, the artist who proposed a big art project that Raleigh rejected. Look at what we missed....
27 July 2013
Today we went to the top of the Calgary Tower, then headed a couple of hours northeast to Drumheller to visit the Royal Tyrrell Dinosaur Museum.
 |
| View of part of downtown Calgary from the top of the Calgary tower. |
 |
| Another view of downtown |
 |
| View of my feet from the top of the tower |
 |
| Back on the ground in downtown Calgary |
 |
| At the Calgary Stampede grounds |
 |
| The Saddledome, where the Calgary Flames play |
 |
| On the way to Drumheller |
Drumheller is a town of about 8,000 people in an area called
Dinosaur Valley, so named because of the large number of dinosaur remains found in the area. It is also home to the world's largest (fake) dinosaur.
 |
| The Great Dinosaur of Drumheller |
 |
| A Lesser Dinosaur of Drumheller |
About 5 miles outside Drumheller is the
Royal Tyrrell Museum which is one of the best museums of its kind (dinosaurs) in the world.
 |
| Entrance to the Royal Tyrrell Museum |
 |
| Inside the museum |
 |
| Inside the museum |
 |
| Inside the museum |
The area around Drumheller is known as the Canadian Badlands, which while not as impressive as the Badlands in South Dakota, are pretty impressive nevertheless.
 |
| Canadian Badlands near Drumheller |
From Drumheller we went to Brooks, Alberta about which there is nothing to say except that we turned down the opportunity to spend $42.00 on a large pizza.
Next:
Moose Jaw, North Dakota, Deadwood, and Sturgis.
