Today we awoke to a bright, sunny day which was surprisingly warm. We decided to have breakfast in the restaurant attached to the hotel as we didn’t have a microwave to heat up our leftovers. Mum had a poached egg and pancake and I had eggs benny. We also both got a glass of orange juice. The orange juice was the best I have ever have – I don’t even remember having an actual orange that tasted as good. The benny, on the other hand, wasn’t as magnificent but still okay.
After breakfast, we walked around the downtown looking for souvenirs. I found a key ring for my daughter and Mum found a souvenir as well. We had a nice chat with the lady in the shop before heading back to the car and leaving Jasper.
Not far outside of Jasper we came across several cars parked on the sides of the road – on closer inspection, we noticed a herd of Wapiti (Elk). I parked the car, grabbed my cameras and phone and went to grab some pictures of the elk. One cow was sitting down and I was able to easily creep up and get, not only several close-ups but also a selfie. One of the elk got up to walk around and almost seemed to pose for me. After several pictures, including a few of the surrounding mountains, we were back on the road again.
We pulled back over a couple of minutes later to take a picture of a mountain goat on the side of the road. As I was taking that picture, a young kid (baby goat) came bounding down the hill but he quickly retreated when he saw the crowd by the side of the road.
Another few kilometres down the road we saw a herd of goats and as I was trying to sneak up on them, a group of tourists scared them and they started to trot away from us. Even though it wasn’t the ideal picture that I had planned, I snapped one from behind. This was the first time that I had seen more than one or two together, so a picture of their backsides was better than none at all.
Again, we got back in the car and continued on our way east. As we passed Jasper Lake the wind was picking up and we watched as a couple of small water spouts formed. I didn’t bother to stop and take pictures this time as the wind was quite strong and it was all I could do to keep the car in my lane, as the gusts buffeted the car. Before long the mountains disappeared and we were in a flatter, muskeg-like area. Quite a difference from yesterday when we were dwarfed by mountains.
We stopped for a coffee at Timmies in Hinton and reviewed our to-do list to see if anything was in the general vicinity of our drive to Edmonton. Mum remembered seeing pelicans on one of her previous trips out here but we were unable to locate the exact vicinity. (After talking to my dad tonight we determined it was further east than Mum realized and we wouldn’t be able to see them on this visit.)
Lunch was a picnic on the shores of Wabamun Lake. I had camped here several years ago with my daughter and found it just as I remembered it. We found a picnic table in the shade and finished off almost all of our leftovers before again jumping in the car and heading east.
We arrived in Edmonton around 4:30 and, after fighting rush hour traffic, found our hotel in the downtown core. While checking in, we mentioned that we were on a Food Network Tour and both the desk clerk and a guest in the lobby recommended Meat. We didn’t have that restaurant on our list but after researching all of the You Gotta Eat Here stops in town we decided that Meat was going to be tonight’s stop.
Just after 7, we braved the traffic and headed across the river to dinner. We spent quite a while driving around the block looking for parking – finally deciding on a lot a couple of blocks away that let me pay with a parking app.
We were able to get a table right away and before too long had two huge plates of food in front of us. Mum had a 1/4 chicken with Brussel sprouts and mac & cheese and I had a Brisket sandwich with garlic fries. We also each grabbed a dill pickle. The food is served family style so we ended up sharing the fries, sprouts and mac & cheese. We finished off the sides and Mum ate half of her pickle and chicken while I was too full from the sides to eat more than a taste of my brisket. Lunch for tomorrow is definitely taken care of.
After dinner, we went back to the hotel and watched So You Think You Can Dance. As I write this, Mum is already sleeping and I am very close to being there myself. Tomorrow we are heading to Drumheller with a top at the Hoodoos on the way. The weather is supposed to be much cooler with a good possibility of rain – hopefully, they are wrong about the rain.
Thank you for reading and sharing our adventures.
Talk to you soon.
L
