We have just returned from a whirlwind visit of Edmonton. We arrived Thursday evening and left Saturday morning. Between those times we packed in a lot of visiting with old friends and new.
Glen made this trip because he was the external examiner on a PhD exam. That meant he had to give a seminar, talk to people interested in his work, listen to the student's seminar and then examine her. It made for a long day but the party to celebrate was lots of fun.
Thursday night we met our good friends, Wendy Russell and Gordon Sustrik for supper at the Sawmill, a restaurant we had passed many times but never dined in. Turns out this particular restaurant was the first Sawmill in Edmonton and it opened in November of 1976, a month after we arrived in Alberta's capital city for the first time. Gordon knew the owner, Tom Goodchild, so could give us some background on the restaurant. I had made the reservations using Open Table and was thrilled it worked although if you dine after 7:00pm, you can't have rare roast beef. Who knew?
The next morning, Wendy picked me up to take me out to see the renovations on her house but we took a detour past her son's house and our old one. All of the trees in our backyard are now gone! The garden is a parking space for 3 cars and there were two trucks and a boat on the back pad. I spoke to our neighbour, Mme. Hebert, and she said young men had always lived there even though we sold the house to a teacher with two young daughters. Not sure what happened there. The only trees still standing were the ones the kids planted when they were in grade one.
At Wendy's, I was amazed by what they had done to remodel the entire house. After gutting it, they built it back up with movement granite, cherry cabinetry and very modern sinks and toilets. After my tour of the work, Wendy and I watched the DVDs that Glen had made of our last three trips then we ate lunch at Vicky's Greek Restaurant in Sherwood Park. I had a great chicken souvlaki with a greek salad.
Glen's day ended at 5:00 and I was to meet him at Mark Peppler and Ronnene Anderson's new house. Three years ago, they leveled their old bungalow and built a lovely farm-style house. We had seen the house before but a new fence and wonderful garden has added to its charm.
Mark drove us to the party which was in the deep south of Edmonton. We passed many familiar sites but the new LRT lines have changed much of what we saw. New buildings are also going up. The one on the old Northern Jubilee Auditorium parking lot was the most shocking.
At the party, we reconnected with Bill Page and his wife, Carol who are now retired and living in a house on the Sunshine Coast. You can only access their place via a ferry and have a wonderful view of the ocean with Vancouver Island as a back drop. A newly hired couple from California were also among the guests and it turned out they were both born and raised in Colorado. Tracy Ravio and Jon Dennis hosted the party since it was Tracy's student who graduated. They are native Calgarians so we felt right at home.
Saturday morning we had a fantastic breakfast with Mark and Ronnene enjoying their Transcend coffee with scrambled eggs and Manitoba sausage before heading back to Calgary.
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