Tour de Edmonton

I'd dreamed of relaxing this weekend, taking time to finally shake this lingering cough, chillax with the family (and Crash and Mars), maybe catch up on some reading and writing.

My 102.3 NOW Radio buddies had other plans.

You'd almost think they were NEW to Edmonton, or something, but the station has been on the air for more than a year. Surely they'd visited the city's key landmarks, right?

Wrong.

We perused the Old Strathcona Farmer's Market, where we (mostly) resisted the lure of the market's vast sampling of delicious products. Mars couldn't say no to the Cajun spice though, where a local man offered Mars a kiss and some of his product.

We hit the Alberta Art Gallery next, keeping warm within its fancy walls (Crash and Mars REFUSE to dress appropriately for the weather.) I admit, I hadn't checked out the gallery myself yet. Impressive!

In the spirit of keeping warm, we ducked into the Chapters on Whyte Avenue for a latte (I paid, again) and a visit with the beautiful Bronwyn Storm / Natasha Deen, who was flogging her new romance. (Want a copy? Check out the Young Alberta Book Society website and send me a "fact" about Natasha/Bronwyn to be entered into a draw...)

Bronwyn actually rendered Crash speechless (a twist for sure), and he begged to just hang out in the bookstore for the rest of the day.

Mars had other plans. Shopping, of course. We hit Little Italy first...

Before heading to West Edmonton Mall for a taste of Chinatown.

And a little more shopping...

We relived our youth at the Disney store - and I ended up buying Crash and Mars something to remind them of the experience. Crash offered some story about his pants being too tight (or his butt being too flat) to comfortably carry a wallet. 

And then he had the audacity to whine about hanging out in the mall. To appease his sporty self, we headed to the giant baseball bat for a game of roadside ball...

And then donned our Oilers jerseys (well, I put mine on...not sure where they left theirs) for a visit with the Great One before heading into the game.

It's after noon and the duo are still sleeping. Maybe today will be less eventful?

- Dawn