...Are doomed to fail

So today I got the bad news that although the garage was open, they didn't stock the part. Surprise, surprise. I mean, I really shouldn't be surprised, I roll up in an older model of a car that GM hasn't produced in 6 years, and now no longer even supports the brand itself, and Canadian Tire South Edmonton Branch doesn't have the part. Unfortunately that means they'll get it from a GM dealer, which don't tend to be open on Sundays (At least not around here, or at least their garages) so we were stuck in Edmonton another day. 

Fortunately I have CAA coverage so they should theoretically cover whatever hotel and food expenses I incur while I'm here, but I won't know until I claim it in Southern Ontario.

So we found ourselves at 12pm with no car and no hotel, fortunately we pricelined our way into the same hotel we stayed at last night so we came crawling back and politely asked them if they could pretend we never checked out. They were very accommodating so even though their 'official' check in isn't until 3pm, we got into our room around 12:30pm. Geoff wasn't feeling well so it appeared that today wasn't going to be a very touristy day. We went to lunch and got back around 2:00pm. I decided to say nuts to Geoff while he napped and went downtown anyway.

I taxied there because it's about 6km away from the hotel where I'm staying at but when I got there I was finally able to start taking pictures. I got over to the Alberta Legislature to get the picture for my collection and discovered a very well kept ground. Apparently it has a very nice 'mall' type pond, but it was all closed down for maintenance unfortunately. I still got a good picture of the legislature building itself, which was built in a very similar style to Saskatchewan and Manitoba, which makes sense because they all joined confederation very close together.

This is the place were they pass laws to 'freeze the bastards out'

The grounds of the legislature was covered in parkground littered with statues commemorating one thing or the other. I found one that was particularly neat because it commemorated all the people who lost their lives in the line of duty, and not a single one of them was a soldier. There were police officers, parks officers, firefighters, etc. I really think that those occupations really don't often get the commemoration they need sometimes. I mean, they don't lose people as often as the armed forces, but they still do sometimes. I thought the statue was nice.

Not sure what the statue is supposed to be, but the thought is nice.

After all that I went across the Saskatchewan River (via bridge, I'm not some sort of triathlon ironman) to check out the Queen Elizabeth Park over there. It had an extensive trail system that I explored somewhat, mainly the paths near the river. From one lookout point I was able to get an excellent view of the downtown area. It's interesting to see that the downtown is strictly separated by that river, once you get on the other side it's like all commercial development just ends.

Maybe it's a water wall to keep all the businessmen, lawyers and government workers away from everyone

By the time I got a ways down the trail it was starting to get late so I started to head back. Now I knew that the hotel was 6.5km away, and I knew that it was a bit of a cab ride downtown, but I decided to walk back anyway. Now I don't regret the decision, it was a fine walk, but my feet and legs certainly aren't happy about it.

Along the way I was able to walk through the Strathcona Heritage District. Similar to the place in Winnipeg, it was an old CN rail yard that went into disuse. However it had the added charm of having its own his min-history. Basically it was established as a sort of competing town to Edmonton by a rival railway to the CPR. They hoped to run rail development between Calgary and Edmonton, it certainly paid off, as the city grew faster than Edmonton for about 15 years. Unfortunately it worked too well as it was incorporated into a city in 1906, and in 1911 it was amalgamated into Edmonton anyway. The whole area eventually fell into disuse until it was revitalized in the late 70's. Now's it's a bustling business district with an eclectic mix of restaurants, used book stores, coffee shops, artisans and specialty shops. When you walk through it from the West Gateway Drive side there is this big iron wrought gate celebrating that heritage.

They don't really need to call it 'old' Strathcona since there is no new one... yet.

Now we've had supper, Geoff's feeling a little better and we're turning in early. We don't have any reason to be up early tomorrow since the Canadian Tire is going to call us when they have the full quote. So hopefully I'll have this whole car situation resolved by tomorrow and we can be on our way. Don't get me wrong Edmonton is a nice city, but if I'm going to be sitting around in one spot for multiple days, I'd rather be staying for free or just at home.