July in Edmonton

[Savonarola]

Shit, I'd like to meet up, but I'm in Quebec City and Toronto respectively on those days.

Beeb, I'm still up for a meet up in August or any time after that.

Sorry to miss you.

[Barrister]

Yep, not too far from Canada Place.

Well there ya go - I'm in Brownlee, about a 2 minute walk north from Canada Place.

We should hit up Chinatown for lunch one day.

[Barrister]

Hey, just like Toronto.   



Street Performers Festival sounds like fun; is there a day that works better for you?

What did you do in Toronto?

You suggested July 10 or 11.  Looking at it, I have a hockey game on the 11th, so the 10th sounds like a good bet.

[Savonarola]

Hey, just like Toronto.   



Street Performers Festival sounds like fun; is there a day that works better for you?

What did you do in Toronto?

You suggested July 10 or 11.  Looking at it, I have a hockey game on the 11th, so the 10th sounds like a good bet.

I meant (as a joke) that Eaton Centre is what Toronto is world famous for.

Then tenth works.  I'm not sure of the daily schedule yet; we can make more definite plans when I'm there.

[Barrister]

And the game is afoot!

[Barrister]

Saw was met.  He actually walked right past me in the hotel lobby though, and I was just uncertain enough that I followed for a few secs before calling out his name.

We went to the Street Performers festival.  When I went last year it was the weekend and it was packed.  On a cool Tuesday night it wasn't so packed, but we still had a few chuckles at some of the acts.  We then ate Jamaican food from a food truck - it was kind of "meh".

We then walked over and found a craft beer bar, and tried ourselves some Alberta craft beers until it was time to take Sav back to his hotel.

[Admiral Yi]

List me baby.

[Maximus]

And the game is afoot!

Martinus showed up?

[Savonarola]

I'm not always able to slip away on projects like this; it depends on the project manager and how fragile he or she is.  Bill, who's often the anti-hero of the Life on the Rails thread needs to have the as much of the team as possible around him, especially at meal times.  So while I would have liked to have met up with Languishites in Barcelona, Zaragosa or Paris; it simply wasn't a realistic option.  Edmonton LTR has a  much less needy project manager (Richard), and since there were eight people total meeting I figured I wouldn't be missed at dinner.  Unfortunately the crew was meeting for dinner in the lobby at the same time I was scheduled to meet Barrister Boy; which is why I walked past him in my eagerness to get out without lingering.

It turns out my co-workers were heading to the same place we were; the Old Strathcona district of Edmonton (though we didn't run into them.)  The street performer festival was nice; we say a man do tricks with his derby hat, Cornwall's finest Frank Sinatra impersonator, a couple act where he sat on a 10 foot (3 meter) unicycle while holding a target while she shot plunger arrows at him (it only took them five tries) and a guy who did back flips on a pogo stick.  The last one was amazing, he did three back to back flips in a row without piling into the audience.  My mother got upset when I road my bicycle "No hands" style, imagine what his mother went through.

The derby hat guy act wasn't all that impressive, but his rapport with the audience was pretty good.  He, like most of the acts, got a volunteer from the audience to help him with his trick.  In his case it was a young boy who kept upstaging him.  First the kid guessed the trick before the performer had a chance to announce it (spinning garbage can lids on sticks.)  Then, as they were taking their bows, the boy looked over to the audience, said "Crystal?" and trotted over to a young girl standing at the side; you could almost hear the strains of "Stranger in Paradise"  (or Borodin's "Dance of the Maidens" if you want to sound smarter than you actually are.)  I think they were both about nine, (they must grow up quick in wild rose country); the performer couldn't compete with that.

In any event we looked at the food carts.  The selection was a very Canadian take on street food; offering jerk pork poutine and chicken curry poutine.  The Jamaican food was uninspired; over-cooked pork with a bland jerk.

We went to a craft beer place after that; and solved all the problems of Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom for good measure.  The craft beer craze seems to have gripped Alberta; as there were breweries from all over the province.

Barrister Boy wanted to know if this meet up was better than Toronto.  I had to tell him that it was hard to compete with trying to break into a museum which may or may not exist.  Still I was happy to see old Strathona; that made Edmonton much more palatable.  Edmonton has a small downtown of bland glass and steel skyscrapers surrounded by a vast expanse of malls, mini-malls and big box stores.  (It reminded me a bit of Orlando, although without the reckless disregard for traffic planning or pedestrian safety that characterizes The City Beautiful.)  Old Strathcona has some charm; with some early twentieth century buildings and a vibrant street scene.  They even have an Orange Hall in the area although, to my disappointment, it's a theater today and not an active lodge.

[Savonarola]

List me baby.

The list was limited to people we had met; and Monoriu, whom we both agreed was the Languideshian we'd most like to meet.

[katmai]

List me baby.

The list was limited to people we had met; and Monoriu, whom we both agreed was the Languideshian we'd most like to meet.

so you're telling me Beeb violates his NDA. Hmmm?

[Savonarola]

Hat guy mid-trick



Cornwall's greatest Frank Sinatra impersonator, doing it his way.



And I don't want to die, I just want to ride on my uni-cy-cle



Pogo Fred; he did the backflips on a regular pogo stick; on this one he fit his body through that tennis racket.



Funky mural that will drive the whole world man in Old Strathona



Orange Hall (and Frank Tristanatra)