Marley & Me at the MovieDome

Today we went to the moviedome for the first time to Marley & Me. $3 a ticket. Our popcorn cost more than the ticket (at a whopping $4)! I now know when they ask if I want butter on my popcorn - I don't. It is warmed up butter liquid that is squirted onto the already buttered popcorn. I could feel my arteries clogging...

Surprisingly the cinema was quite good and busy, although we did get busted bringing drinks into the cinema!

This is where we live

Just in case you were wondering, I have attached a couple of piccies of where we live. We are on the 16th floor and we look out to see the Rocky Mountains. Pretty awesome. We are lucky enough to have some restaurants downstairs, which is good for those days when we are feeling lazy and it is just too cold to go far.

Boston Pizza - Edmonton

Boston Pizza, for the second time in Canada. We tried to go to the Russian Tea House, but unfortunately was shut. Shannon had ANOTHER steak sandwich,and I had my first chicken parmie (called a chicken parmesan here). The best bit of the meal? Ask Shannon - he thought it was our waitress' butt!!

Send this one to Rove

In Edmonton!

Out and About in Edmonton

On Sunday, we walked around the town of Edmonton (at about -20 degrees). We doodled around (per Shan). We went to the shops, to the Baccarat Casino (but didn't win any $$$), went inside the Fairmont Hotel to have a bit of a nosey and saw the centential flame (we heard the bangles, eternal flame in the background and thought it was so lame/tacky - but it was a coincidence, that it was playing!)

Jungle Jims - West Edmonton Mall

We went to Jungle Jims for our Valentines Day lunch, in Bourbon Street in the Edmonton Mall. It had the jungle theme, which was pretty cool. We got the three course meal special (why o why did we get a 3 course meal for lunch?!?!)

Shan and I had onion rings (yes, even Shan), followed by steak sandwiches & burger and a vanilla cheesecake covered in cooked pastry with cinnamon, caramel sauce and creeeeeam. phew. a bit excessive (as you can tell by Shannon's face).

West Edmonton Mall

Our first day out in Edmonton, was to the West Edmonton Mall. It is the largest shopping mall in North America and the fifth largest in the world. IN THE WORLD!!

Here are some highlights of this mall:

- There are over 800 stores (ok, so sure a few retail chains were in there a number of times. i.e. La Senza)
- There is an amusement park, called Galaxyland and it is the largest indoor amusement park in the world, with 24 rides and attractions. It has the mindbender rollercoaster, which is the largest indoor triple loop roller coaster! (our tummies were not up for it unfortunately!)
- It has the world waterpark, which is North America's largest indoor waterpark, with the world's largest indoor wave pool
- It has an indoor salt lake, with 3 sea lions and a replica of the Santa Maria
- It has an Ice Palace, which is an ice rink, where you can watch ice hockey
- It has an indoor shooting range! (a bit disturbing)
- It has three theme areas being: chinatown, bourbon street (where we ate lunch) & europa boulevard

Matrix Hotel - Edmonton

Over the family day long weekend, we decided to venture to Edmonton, Alberta. 3 1/2 hours on a greyhound bus from Calgary. We stayed at the Matrix Hotel, which is just off of Jasper Avenue, the main street of Edmonton. Edmonton is the capital city of Alberta - but is smaller than Calgary (1.08M)

The hotel we stayed in was great - very new and modern. Although we had a couple of issues:

- our pass would not work. so we got a new pass. and the new pass wouldn't work. we went up and down the elevator three times!
- they didn't clean our room the first day (and I missed out on a goody bag, which i found out was just filled with a newspaper!). We think this was either because they couldn't get in to our room (issue #1) or it was because we checked in so late the night before (ok, well the same morning really).

BUT the continental breakfasts we got with our stay was fantastic! It had hot food (hmmm... that isn't continental is it?) And Shan had fun with the long pillow on our bed (see the 2nd photo)

Family Day 16th Feb 2009

Today is Family Day - a public holiday in Alberta.

The holiday was first celebrated in 1990. Alberta was the only province in Canada to have a statutory holiday in February, until it was proposed in Saskatchewan beginning in 2007.
The holiday was proclaimed by Lieutenant Governor Helen Hunley, on the advice of her premier, Don Getty. Premier Getty said it was important for all Albertans to take time for their families and this holiday would emphasize the importance of family values.

We are thinking of our families at home - we miss you!

Smittys

Today we ventured off to Sunridge Mall. We bought clinique goodies from The Bay (so much cheaper than at home. Moisturiser was $25 here and the same is $58 in oz) and Anne was happy to get her gift with purchase! Yippee!

Shannon was intent on going to Smittys - although we weren't sure exactly where it was. But after a little bit of venturing around - we found it! I got a breakfast quesidilla and Shannon got a steak sandwiches. We have found that that steak sandwiches here - aren't really sandwiches. The steak is on one piece of garlic toast. But it is just how we like it anyway - no green or red stuff (i.e. lettuce, tomato).

http://www.smittys.ca/access/DesktopDefault.aspx

We then went to the Canadian Superstore. It is a BIG discount supermarket and we stocked up on lollies and hershey's kisses.

No gym for us tonight - we had a pizza and watched the basketball. Shannon then ate a punnet of strawberries - typical Shan.

Oriental House

Shannon was nice enough to pick me up from work and go out for dinner to Oriental House. Shannon on purpose wore a different jumper - because in all the food photos, he is wearing the same jumper haha!! This restaurant was right next to my work, underground next to a Mexican restaurant. The restaurant was decked out in what seemed like office chairs. Shannon's chair was an office recliner!

I didn't eat too much - one wisdom tooth was hurting a little - and the next day I found out, that the 4 was going to be "extracted". o dear.

Suuuuuuuuperbowl 43

We knew the superbowl was on Sunday. Everyone knew the superbowl was on Sunday. What we didn't know was that it was on it the evening. We had structured our day around watching the superbowl in the AFTERNOON. Oopps. Anyway, we got our "football food" - nachos and hotdogs and sat down in the afternoon to watch a lot of sports commentators talk a lot.

So the game started and although we didn't understand too much. We saw the longest interception run in a superbowl (100 yards) and laughed when the guy needed an oxygen mask for running so far/fast!!

We also kept an eye out for Ben Graham (Geelong's own) - the first Australian to play in a superbowl.

Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Arizona Cardinals 27-23