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For photos of the trip to Jasper, see here.

Since moving to Montreal, we hadn’t been back to Alberta except for a short time in the summer of 2004 for Dan’s sister’s wedding. It was very strange to be back, especially on such short notice. On Monday Oct 10th we were video conferencing with Dan’s family and by the next morning I was meeting them in the Calgary Airport.

The three weeks while I was there were quite full. I was able to drive my mom’s car around Red Deer to do all the errands. It’s a Pontiac Firefly with 54000 km racked up in 9 years, which I think was taken on the highway once. Because it’s such an inexpensive car the manufacturers skipped on things like power steering, power windows, power lock doors and the like. It was fun to drive a standard again but after two weeks all the clutching was starting to hurt my lower back quite a bit. It’s now sitting in my Aunt and Uncle’s backyard waiting to be sold and it’s parked next to the family GTO, which from what I hear is the subject of some hearty debate as to who gets it among my cousins.

Almost the entire time we were there we stayed with my Aunt and Uncle, who were incredibly kind and helpful. My Aunt did her best to make sure I ate and fed me terrible things like avodacos, Rolo ice cream and tiramasu, not to mention homemade soup! They also adopted Mom’s teacup poodle (actually the second poodle of ours they adopted, long story) and it was fun to have her around. Also as a strange co-incidence, my Aunt, Uncle and cousins used to live in Carstairs and Dan’s parents live there now.

When we left Alberta it wasn’t easy to find a job. Few places were hiring and there was stiff competition to get a minimum-wage job at a restaurant or grocery store. Now, however, things are quite different and everywhere we went we saw “now hiring” signs. It was really strange. We were also on the hunt for some Gray Monk pinot blanc wine and visited a number of stores in all three cities looking for it. Unfortunately it would appear all the pinot blanc was sold or not stocked in Alberta, but we did find some pinot gris and a rosé which look quite nice.

Red Deer itself had changed quite a bit since I lived there. There’s something strange about that city since half the businesses seem to move or shut down every few years. It seemed like half the places we knew or visited were gone. Dan wanted to have a Big Rock beer on tap, but we were a bit leery of visiting any of the bars in Red Deer and decided not to chance it. We thought about watching a movie but nothing worth watching was playing. There were also drive-thru Starbucks there which was quite odd.

We decided we needed to get away so we planned a quick weekend trip to Jasper. Within a few hours we had everything planned – a hotel room booked and a car rented. There was no way I was taking the Firefly on the highway and I needed a break from driving. We left Saturday Oct 21st at 9 AM and picked up the rental car, grabbed some coffees at the nearby Starbucks, and headed out on Highway 11A which went past the acerage that Dan’s family used to live on. We didn’t have any CDs with us so we listened to the “classic rock” station Z99 on the way. Highway 11A eventually joined up with highway 11 and we stopped to buy some lunch at the grocery store in Rocky Mountain House (which always reminds me of “Rocky Mountain High” by John Denver – first time I heard the word “high” used in that way and my mom had an interesting time explaining it to me). We had been warned not to eat at the Crossing, which is essentially the only place to stop for food and gas once one enters the mountains. So when we did get to the crossing, we sat on the bench outside and enjoyed our salads and snacks and then turned north on highway 93 toward Jasper. The scenery is incredible along the highway and we stopped by Abraham lake to take a few photos. We met a herd of mountain sheep on the way but none jumped in front of the car.

When we arrived at Jasper we checked in to our hotel and visited the Bearspaw bakery, which was always closed during our November visits in 2002 and 2003. The next priority was to find a place to eat, since we have always found eating our in Jasper to be an enjoyable experience (except for the time we went to that awful pasta place). After at least an hour’s debate and indecision, we finally decided on Andy’s Bistro, which is the poshest and probably most expensive place to eat in Jasper aside from the Edith Cavell dining room at the Jasper Park Lodge. Dan enjoyed a starter of smoked duck while I had a (pasteurized) goat cheese salad with red pepper dressing and for the main dish Dan had veal in mushroom sauce and spaetzle while I ate an entire steak. We thought about going for a quick walk after supper but it was getting cold and we went back to the hotel and watched the Charlie Brown haloween special on TV instead.

The next morning we had breakfast at the Emerald loungs in the Jasper Park lodge (if you’re going to have a hotel brunch, why not have the best?) with a table overlooking Lac Beauvert. We then went for our typical Sunday morning hike except this time it was more like a walk due to a certain someone needing special attention growing inside me. We chose a very simple, paved path around Lake Annette (yes, it was even wheelchair accessible) and it was a very nice walk. Dan took way too many pictures but it was fun. It was quite cold out and the pine trees smelled wonderful. I kept some pine cones and brought them back home. On the way to the lodge we also met some elk grazing near the road and I took a few photos and a video.

We stopped at the bakery again and took a tea and a coffee to go. We took highway 16 to Edmonton. During the first bit there was only one lane each way and we were stuck in a convoy of stupid drivers but once the highway widened near Hinton we were ok. Dan did a very good job driving. We stopped in Edmonton at about 5 PM and drove past the University. The construction of the south LRT was coming along and had reached Belgravia already. We hung out on Whyte Ave. We visited the used record/CD shop we liked to visit and I bought our first Tragically Hip album. It was surprising how different Whyte ave was even though almost all the stores were the same. There were a lot more homeless people and some of the payphones had been smashed to bits. I guess it’s a side-effect of the economic boom. We met up with Dan’s sister and went out for supper. Unfortunately the King and I was closed on Sundays and the Blue Iguana was out of business, so we decided to go to Brewsters. Greg drew a giant squid attacking a submarine on the receipt and Dan left it for the waitress. We stopped for gas on the edge of the city and drove back to Red Deer while listening to the new CD.

Alberta is a great place but here’s what needs fixing. 1. It’s way too dry. The whole time we were there it felt like our skin and lips were cracking and drying up. 2. The water (at least in Red Deer) is really hard. 3. The food in Montreal is definitely better. 4. Aluminum siding. Enough said. On the other hand, I forgot how incredibly friendly everyone is, even total strangers.

In: voayges and vacations | | #