Weekend in Edmonton

This past weekend Penny and I went to Edmonton for the Health and Wellness Show that Jenny produces. All in all, it was pretty good but nothing special. The venue itself was pretty small but the show itself isn't very big either. There were a couple of things that limited the success of this year's show: the weather (too warm) and construction getting to the venue. We even drove past the parking entrance because of the lack of signage.

The main reason I went at all was to see Jenny. She has promised for years to come to Calgary when on her way to Medicine Hat or when she is in Canmore. Since she hadn't made the effort I thought I would. Jenny was very sweet, she put us up at their host hotel. She also gave us passes to enter the show for free. Once we had seen everything we found her walking around giving vendors coffee and water. She then gave us meal tickets so we could buy ourselves lunch. That was super sweet and unexpected.

Health and wellness seems to be loosely translated to weight loss because absolutely everywhere there were vendors selling every type of weight loss program out there. Most of it I find ridiculous and some down-right harmful. The only vendor I liked was the Vitamix one. They were promoting and demonstrating - it was really good. Penny asked me about my own Blentec blender since she admitted she had no idea what on earth made me think it was so great.

One funny thing happened when we were walking around. We spotted the MMA fighter up on the main stage, he looked like a little kid. But his dad was something else to see. He was this massive, good looking fellow. Of course Penny and I commented on how good looking he was and moved on. We watched his son lead a fitness class with four overweight ladies in attendance. The dad came over and asked why we weren't joining them. We laughed it off but he continued to chat up Penny, he was clearly flirting and she was clearly enjoying every minute of it. What I thought was funny, when he asked what she did, she told him she was a dancer. Of course he thought "stripper" and she said "ballet" but quickly added "burlesque" dancing too. I was standing there thinking, "what the hell?". Whatever happened to the truth, I mean, does it matter at all what you do ... what does it mean to a person you don't know? I am still shaking my head at that one. She really likes the attention, that's all I can and will say.

While we were in Edmonton, not on family business, I took the opportunity to see some friends. My first stop was to visit Jan at Christopher Clayton. She is an old friend from the Mayfield Inn days. She looked a little different, a little older but still the same Jan I remembered and adored. She has recently lost a member of her family, Aunt Betty and when we talked about that, it brought tears to her eyes. Too bad I didn't see her when she wasn't under so much personal stress.

When we finished that visit I phoned Colleen and we drove out to St. Albert to the Earls to have dinner with her. That was a fortunate turn of events actually. I had made the phone call just before the dinner hour and worried that I would be interrupting her family's dinner but she said she was alone (husband and foster daughter out of town) and the timing was great. A hope to get together over coffee turned into a great visit over a meal. Colleen is pretty determined to get another Class of 40 reunion going. She wants Penny and I to help getting this thing underway. I'm up for helping, but I don't want to do too much. Is that wrong? Yikes, I hope it's not.

The next morning we took our time checking out, we had until 11:00am so that was nice. I called Lisa Williamson before we left the hotel because she had mentioned that she would like to get together for lunch on Sunday. Truthfully, I knew it would be a 50/50 chance that we would meet. The reason being, she has returned from Hawaii the day before. And when she called back it was to say she wouldn't be able to meet with us after all. She had slept in and now had to run to do some grocery shopping and go to Guy's dad's for his birthday dinner. She seemed genuinely sorry and I sort of knew that might happen so it wasn't a really big deal.

Penny and I ended up at Old Strathcona. I wanted to go to the Farmer's Market because I remember it being so much fun. We found it, parked close by just to find out that they are closed on Sundays. Closed on Sundays!! Really?? Gosh that was a surprise, here in Calgary, Sunday is a very popular day for the Farmer's Market. Luckily we had lots to see along the street itself and didn't really miss it. I made an impulse buy of a little recycled handbag made in the States. The store itself was lovely and the owner had a little female Boston Terrier there that made my heart melt. She looked like an older pup and oh so very sweet. I found out she was a rescue doggy and she warmed up enough to let me pet her a few times. It was a fun store. Penny and I had lunch at a place we spotted while we were walking along. From where we spotted it, it looked interesting. By the time we reached it, it was no more than a cafeteria type place with the wall opened up to the front street. The tiling was half done, meaning columns were left ungrouted. An oversight, or just sloppy, I don't know. We ordered hamburgers and fries. We stayed because we were hungry and by this point in time anything would do. The food was good enough for the price but nothing special. If I would have known, I would have just had the fries though. They were above average if you ask me.

We ended up leaving Edmonton at about 3:00 or 3:30pm. The drive back was uneventful. As I drove I was remembering and telling Penny about Jenny, Jan, Lisa and the Mayfield Inn and all the fun I had working and living in Edmonton. Those were good times and good memories. I'm lucky to have them and I'm even luckier to still have these special people in my life.