Lacombe
I used this month’s long weekend (November 11 is a stat holiday in Alberta and BC), plus a few of my vacation days, as an opportunity to fly to Alberta for a bit of family visitation. On one afternoon of that extra-long weekend, I was driving through the town of Lacombe with my dad en route to visit my various aunts and uncles and I thought to myself, “What a pretty little town this is!”
I don’t know the town of Lacombe very well, even though a whole passel of my relatives still live there and even though I spent a good chunk of my summers in the Lacombe area when I was growing up. That’s because we always parked our family tent trailer on the dairy farm of my aunt and uncle and there were far too many fun things to do on the farm for any of us kids to want to go into town. (I highly recommend spending summers on a dairy farm when you’re a kid.)
Anyways, the very same day (is that a weird coincidence or what?) that my dad and I were driving around Lacombe, its Historic Main Street (50th Avenue) was selected by the Canadian Institute of Planners as Canada’s Great Street for 2013. (Who knew there was a Canadian Institute of Planners? Not me.) The story made the local TV news that night, and it gave me an excuse to go back the next day and take some photos for this blog.
The architectural style of the buildings on Lacombe’s 50th Avenue is Edwardian ― that’s the style that was in vogue during the first decade and a bit of the last century. Lacombe’s Flatiron building (see above photo) was opened in 1904 and is the oldest flatiron in the province.
Lacombe started out as a boxcar train station on the Canadian Pacific Railway. It was incorporated as a village in 1896 and as a town in 1902. In 2010, it became Alberta’s 17th city (and, with of population of 11,000, its smallest).
Through My Lens: Bow River
As someone who considers herself an Albertan at heart (having been raised there), I can’t help but be affected by the images coming out of the southern part of that province today. What’s so shocking is how quickly the rivers rose (in about 36 hours) and how many people have been affected (more than 100,000 evacuated). Flooding from spring run-off is common on the Prairies, but the effects of this rainstorm took everyone by surprise.
One of the flooded rivers is the Bow River. It’s completely overflowed its banks in the community of Canmore and in the city of Calgary, Alberta’s largest city. I took this photo of the mighty Bow looking mighty placid some miles upstream from Banff a few years ago while travelling from Edmonton to Vancouver by car.
Muttart Conservatory
In my last post, I promised you more about what Edmonton has to offer.
One of Edmonton’s gems, in my humble opinion, is the Muttart Conservatory. These four pyramids have been a landmark in Edmonton’s river valley since 1976. They are an amazing oasis in the heart of the city, particularly in the middle of a harsh Alberta winter. Three of the pyramids focus on plant life from temperate, arid, and tropical climates; the fourth rotates through various seasonal plants. When I was there earlier this month, it was filled with tulips.
My favourite is the arid pyramid ― because I think the cactuses have the most personality.
West Edmonton Mall
Yup. I’m writing about a mall. Not just any mall. The mall.
I’ve been debating whether to write this post. What is there to say about West Edmonton Mall? It’s big. It’s huge. It’s there.
But then I looked online to see what the Lonely Planet website had to say about Edmonton and laughed when I read, “Edmonton? Is that the place with the big mall?” After I stopped laughing, I realized that the mall does have a world-wide reputation. So, here’s a quick summary for you.
West Edmonton Mall gets 28 million visitors a year. (If you consider that the population of Edmonton is less than a million, that’s means either Edmonton is a city of shoppers or it gets a lot of out-of-town visitors. I suspect the latter.) Last weekend, my niece and I were two of those 28 million visitors. The mall’s claim to fame is not only that it’s the largest mall in North America, but that for 23 years (from its opening in 1981 until 2004) it was the largest mall in the world. That’s no mean feat for Edmonton, considering how many malls there are on this planet.
There’s an amusement park, a water park, an NHL-sized ice rink, a hotel, and, oh yeah, a few stores. Over 800 of them. For those of us urbanites who make it an art form to disparage West Edmonton Mall, we have to remember that Edmonton is a service centre for a vast chunk of rural Alberta. I’m quite sure there are a lot of Albertans who find a one-stop shop most convenient, especially if you have a handful of kids in tow. And a weekend of shopping and water-parking is a nice break from the cold icy winters northern Alberta is known for.
I won’t recommend you go to Edmonton just to see the mall. But if you happen to be in the vicinity, and have never seen the place, check it out. Just so you can say you’ve been in the largest mall in North America.
And then check out what else Edmonton has to offer. For more on that, stay tuned.
