Day Ten: Still in Edmonton

We spent most of the day at the West Edmonton Mall. The first thing I noticed is that the mall wasn't as crowded as it was when we went two years ago. Christina reminded me that the last time we went, it was a Saturday and a Canadian national holiday. (N.B. for Americans: Canada has this random holiday in August called "Civic Holiday." It's their annual celebration of the desire to have a national holiday in August--no joke. Anyway, do not go to the mall on Civic Holiday.)

I took Kiersten to the Sea Life Caverns, but she wasn't too interested. She's been to two other aquariums, so maybe her reaction was "been there, done that." I think her highlight was getting her hand stamped by the ticket lady.

We had a nice Daddy-Daughter lunch at "Jungle Jim's," a very kid-friendly restaurant. The waitress brought Kiersten a hamburger with a ketchup-drawn smiley face, and a drink with an umbrella. Plus, the menu was shaped like a gorilla's face. Clearly, this was the highlight of her day.

Much of the rest of the day was a bust. We went to Build-a-Bear Workshop, but they were sold out of the new Hello Kitty doll which I wanted to get Kiersten. (Note to my sister: DOES YOUR SHOPPING MALL HAVE THESE?) I got some books to read, but not as many as I was hoping to find. I did get one Christmas present for Christina--too bad she'll have to wait 5 more months to see it. Later in the day, I took Kiersten to the Sea Lion show. She enjoyed it for about 20 minutes, then got really tired of it and kept asking for Mommy. I don't understand why--she really seemed to be enjoying that first part of it.


Christina apparently wasn't too thrilled with her shopping. She did get some stuff for herself and Kiersten, but mostly basics, and was disappointed in what she saw available. She also got stuck in a skirt she tried on when the zipper stopped working (no wonder it had been marked down-- they knew it was broken); the manager had to cut the skirt to get her out. Not to name the particular store, but Christina felt that she was treated horribly by the staff, and she may be turned off from it "forever." (Wait...maybe that's a good thing. Heh.)

Kiersten got really worn out and went right to sleep tonight. So now we're scrambling to pack up once again, since we'll be off to Calgary tomorrow. It's only a three hour drive, but we wanted to break up the trip since it'd otherwise be eight hours to Glacier National Park.

Results: We fondly looked forward to shopping at the WEM, but it just wasn't what we hoped. The best laid plans of mice and men...I forget how the rest of the quote goes, but the mice kept getting squished by the man, and the man was eventually shot by his best friend. Grade: C+.