Just hop a train you hate to fly...

Greetings from a random internet cafe in Jasper Alberta. I'm on day 5 of my Western Canada Extravaganza vacation! Thus far, it's been really awesome. We started in Edmonton, where we spent Tuesday and Wednesday. When we arrived on Tuesday it was freaking cold, and started to rain, so we thought it would be a great day to spend at the West Edmonton Mall. I think said mall still holds the title of World's Largest. When I was in grade 6, and really into shopping, and dismayed by the lack of shopping in Stratford, I really wanted to go to the West Ed. Well, my inner grade 6 was appeased, however, 8 years of living in Toronto has left me far too accustomed to great shopping, so all in all I was meh about it. All I ended up buying was a fun belt.

The next day, we spent the whole day walking around Edmonton, and spent some time shopping on Whyte Street, which is a really picturesque little street in the older part of town. There are lots of neat stores there. We had dinner at some friends of Becca's and played karoke games on their playstation. That was fun. Then we headed out to a pub downtown.

The next morning we were up early to catch our supposed 8:50 train. We arrived at the station, and it was running 3 hrs late! Gah! Now, if we were in Toronto, or even Stratford for gosh sakes, we could have just checked our baggage, left the station and wandered around downtown. However, the train station in Edmonton is way in the middle of nowhere, so we were stuck. I found it rather ironic that we ended up probably spending just as much time in the little crappy train station as we did at the mall. Anyhow, we eventually did get to board the train, and the ride itself was pretty good. It got awesome when we arrived in the Rockies. Lots of pictures were taken.

We ended up arriving in Jasper about 5 hrs late. We checked into our B&B then headed to town for dinner. We found a restaurant with a patio overlooking the mountains, which was awesome. After dinner, we wandered around for a bit, then it was off to sleep since the next day we had to be up early for a trip to the Columbia Icefields.

The trip to the glacier was really amazing. We got to see lots of scenery, and actually go out on the glacier. It was really cool, literally, ha-ha. There were all kinds of signs showing where the glacier ended during different times, which reminded me of An Inconvient Truth.

We returned in Jasper in time for supper, did some shopping, then hit a place where martinis were $1.00 off. I love martinis!

Today our train is scheduled to leave at 3 pm, but we'll see what time that turns out to be. It's okay if it's late here, since we can spend more time in town, and I've found a coffee shop that I'm in love with. Really, I wouldn't mind if the train was late since I feel they owe me 5 more hours in Jasper. Watch it be on time. Actually, I'd rather to make it to Vancouver sometime on Sunday morning, so hopefully it's not too late.

Anyhow, I have a 17.5 hr train trip separating me from Vancouver. I'm excited for Vancouver, because I'm looking forward to biking in Stanley Park, going to many sushi places, seeing the ocean, meeting up with a blog buddy, taking the ferry to Victoria, my old roommate's wedding, and eventually making my way to Seattle. Yay!