wating for the train

the train was about 2 hours late which, on a 50 hour trip, seems inconsequential unless you are waiting at the edmonton train station which is situated on the outskirts of an industrial park and an airport. a bit bleak.








































the train! the train!






















my room was in car 3 of 20 and by the time i made it down the platform, the train guy had put the stool away and closed the door. there i was, alone on the darkened platform, shouting at the door. can you imagine if, after all that, they had started off without me?

fortunately the woman in the golf cart that had left without me, came by and radioed to the workers inside and they let me in.

monday with phyllis

phyllis invited me to join her for some frontier college workshops about working with aboriginal children. we got down to the library a bit early and went to city hall to sit in the lobby and drank coffee. the workshops were pretty interesting. larry loyie was there to talk about his stories, how he learned as a child, and his books. i bought some of his books for mum and dad. after we went to the museum for lunch. phyllis told me that the royal alberta museum used to be called the provincial museum until queen elizabeth came to visit. some albertans were upset that the name of the museum was changed to honour the queen. the name of the highway between calgary and edmonton was changed from highway 2 to the queen elizabeth 2 at the same time even though the queen flew between the cities. phyllis left me after lunch to go home to write and i wandered through the exhibits and grounds until it was time to catch the train. i went to wild alberta first. the exhibit is all about the animals and ecologies in the province. i spent quite a bit of time in the history of aboriginal peoples exhibit. it covers a lot of ground in a few rooms. as the story unfolds, there are as many examples of the inhumanity in the details as the opposite. then i went outside for a bit to get some air and have a think. i ended my time at the museum with a trip to the shop and a tour of the natural history exhibit.

mirrors and light

i was pretty impressed with edmonton. some of the architecture is lovely. the sandstone they use for many of the buildings is a creamy, buttery colour which softens even quite brutal structures. and there is humanity in the details.

these mirrors are designed to reflect views of the legislature gardens into an underground pedway that runs below the site.

sunday with deb

i wandered around whyte avenue in the morning and got a coffee. deb came and picked me up at 1ish. we toured around the edmonton legislature. we stopped by the tribute to ukrainian immigrants and the lois hole memorial garden. then we went out to sherwood park for coffee and to meet deb's lovely little daughter.

edmonton

i took the red arrow bus up highway 2 with cary and patricia. cary's husband picked us up and gave me a lift to the varscona hotel.













after i got settled, phyllis came to pick me up. she gave me a tour of edmonton and then took me to homefire for dinner. delicious!

riverwalk

hotel view

calgary after 6

a couple of calgarians told me not to walk around downtown after 6 p.m. i am not quite sure why. perhaps they were worried that i was in danger of dying of loneliness.

western iconography

at the airport (calgary)












at the hotel (delta bow valley)













on the mall (stephen's walk)






















and outside the art centre!?!?!

they take their cuts to the arts seriously out here.