May 7 - Banff to Edmonton

We left Banff to a beautiful, sunny, blue-skied day!!  Such a joy to travel through the "winter wonderland" on a gorgeous day!  There was plenty of snow through the Icefields Parkway, to Rocky Mountain House.  It was evident that the roads had been recently cleared, and the highway was actually dry, but it looked like there was a fresh couple feet of snow on the sides of the road.  We said good-bye to the Rockies, and headed east into Red Deer, and on towards Edmonton.  It became a long-tiring day of driving, and we welcomed pulling into our hotel in Edmonton just before dinner.

Gas in Banff, AB: $1.28/litre

As we were checking into our hotel, the manager asked if we would like to attend the Manager's Reception, which was about to begin in about an hour - free beer, wine and appies would be served.  Well, why not?  After all, it's not every day that free beer and wine is served.  So we attended for a short while, enjoyed some beer and spring rolls and taco chips with salsa and sour cream, while watching part of the hockey playoffs game that was on.  We then retired to our room to finish watching the game, and ordered in a pizza for dinner.  It was an early night for us, as we were exhausted.

Today we'll be seeing Meghan, Ryan, Maddie and Freya, and we're very much looking forward to that.  Meghan's fella, Brendan, will be at work, so unfortunately we won't be able to meet him on this trip.  Ryan gets off school early, so we'll be going to their apartment shortly after lunch.

It was so wonderful seeing the grandkids and Meghan today!  The kids have grown so much, and are so adorable.  They showed us around their apartment, then we had to decide what we should do for the afternoon.  They wanted to go to the zoo, so arrangements were made for us all to go for a few hours.

It was a beautiful day out - just right for doing a bit of walking around the zoo, seeing the animals and the kids' reactions to them...  Ryan was startled when a pelican, which was behind glass, opened its mouth and turned towards the glass, as if to gobble up a small child...  And both kids were startled when one of the sea lions came up to the glass window and opened its mouth wide.  Rick and I saw animals that we've never seen before in any other zoo, or otherwise.  It was educational, and entertaining.  But Nana and Grampa get sore backs when walking on concrete for too long, and such was the case here, as well as being closing time for the zoo.

We then took a short shopping trip before taking the family out to Olive Garden for some pasta.  Dinner was wonderful, and the kids were well-behaved in the restaurant.  Maddie loves salad, and Ryan loves the bread sticks.  We all had our fill of dinner, then everyone decided that ice cream would be the topper - so we ordered ice cream all around.

After dinner, we bid farewell to Meghan and the kids - giving each hugs and kisses, and promises to "see you again soon, next time".  And now I put the finishing touches on this blog before hitting the bed again, exhausted.

Gas in Edmonton, AB: $1.15/litre