A Day of rest in Edmonton, Alberta

We drove most of the night, taking turns sleeping and driving. We stopped for a few hours and tried to sleep in Calgary, Alberta, but it was too cold and too uncomfortable in the car. (our heater isnt working!) So we kept driving till about 7 AM when we arrived in Edmonton. Once there we decided to find a place to stay that would let us check in early and have ourselves a nap and a shower!

1107/3000 miles covered in the first day!

We found a hostel in a neat area of southern Edmonton.
It seemed pretty nice and really the cheapest place according to the visitors center. PLUS neither of us had ever stayed in a hostel before! So we made our way down there and checked in.

Our room was VERY small and had bunk beds! and nice green walls :D We had to share bathrooms though. Mine was downstairs with all the other girls rooms and jake’s was on our lvl just down the hall. goodness it was so nice to have a hot shower after driving all night without a heater!!

So after a shower and a rest we went down to the shared kitchen and cooked us up some noodles! Energy food... yum.

Enjoying a spicy noodle bowl... do i look tired?

They really want you to get the point that you have to wash your own dishes.

After breakfast we headed out to the Edmonton Mall, which has rivaled the Mall of America for being the largest mall ever. It has a huge indoor water-park, bowling alley, aquarium, huge ship and man made lake, ice skating rink(we saw future olympic figure skaters practicing! It was really cool!), theme park, imax theater, tons of stores, shooting range, pet store, and my favorite part; a huge Chinese grocery store

I was so impressed by the seafood section of the grocery store that i took a photo. It had an equally huge and impressive poultry and red meats counter too! You could pick out a live fish, lobster, oyster, clam, shrimp, crab or langoustine

I was so impressed by their produce that i took another photo. Can I tell you that i felt like a huge nerd taking the pictures? well, yes i sure did. They seriously had EVERY herb, veggie and fruit I have ever seen or heard of and more!

They also had a huge bakery and deli section that was very impressive, but i didn't take pictures :P glad?

We bought a few things at the store and took them back to the hostel for an early dinner! The wasabi sauce in the packet there, well it was the hottest wasabi i have EVER tasted!!! my nose felt like it was snorting fire when i ate it!! The things on the right are a tasty dessert rice ball. peanut, red bean and sesame seed. The peanut one was the BEST!! so good!

When Jake tried the first one it was hilarious! He put about a quarter of one ball in his mouth and said “yum! it has a strange texture though...” and then he shoved the rest of the treat in his mouth. He made the craziest face and was having a really hard time with it because once you put these in and start to chew(and they are chewy!) they seem to expand!!!

After a fun day we were so exhausted that we went to sleep at about 6 p.m.!! We passed out and I woke up around 7:30 p.m. and the dim light coming through the window made me think that it was morning so i started getting ready to leave..... then jake told me and i was really glad to go back to sleep!