So, I decided to take them up on their advice and head on out there today. With Brittany as tour-guide, chauffeur, and companion, we were on our way!
It's a nice drive from her apartment to the mall, with lots of open highways, an equestrian centre, and an odd piece of public art which looks more a pile of shiny metal spheres than anything artistically expressive. I would have taken pictures of any of these but I do not trust my ability as a photographer to capture something like that while we were driving by it.
So, we arrived, we parked, we went inside. For the most part, the West Edmonton Mall is...well, a mall. Shocking, I know. There are a lot of stores, and most of them are your usual fare; clothes, jewelery, makeup, etc. But, there are some cooler specialty items if you know where to look, or look long enough.
Brittany lead me over to a store called Millennium, and I thought that was really interesting. It was a store for the fantasy nerd in both of us and had everything you could think of in that genre. Ornately carved dragons, real swords, sais, katanas, broadswords, books on Wicca and Voodoo, knight's helmets and shields, fantasy fetish clothing, dungeons and dragons 4th edition books, and more. It was a really cool store and I wish I could have gotten more pictures, but the first thing I saw was this and my first thought was, "Dom would love this, Steph would hate this" and as soon as I snapped a picture of it, a nice employee of the store rushed over and said photography was not allowed. So, you'll have to take my word on the rest.
Don't know why this fits in with the rest of the store... |
Yep! That's my finger in the way! Oh, that? In the background? It's just some pirate ship or something, sitting in pretty deep water, indoors, in the middle of the mall, that's nothing.
That was hard to type. Difficult because really, this thing is awesome! Circling around, getting a closer look, I was able to take some better photos.
Much better |
I told you, the water was actually deep, an engineering feat on its own. |
Now, where have I heard that name before... |
Isn't she pretty? |
Off to the side, you could race little boats of your own. |
Another sideview, just to be sure. |
Sea Lions Rock |
Moving on, we saw a skating rink, which was pretty cool but I didn't take a picture of it, you know what they look like, don't you?
Continuing past this, we went into a pet store, where I took a picture of this little guy:
I named him Sonic, guess what he is. |
And then this guy asked me to stop and have a conversation with him:
He was young, and kept squaking at me, so I squaked back. I don't think I got the syntax quite right though...
Last, but not least, was the amusement park, Galaxyland!
I thought this was rather pretty, not the games in the bottom of the frame, obviously.
And the coolest part of it were the TWO roller coasters! Yes, two! Again, the engineer in me marveled at the impressive use of space, tightly weaving both tracks around each other and using height rather than width to fit it all in.
Knowing that Brittany had to work later, I opted to not go on any of the rides, or play any of the games today. It was a fantastic day and I am really glad to have seen it all. I know we could have gone on the rides and stuff, but I felt more like walking around, exploring, being on an adventure, and I knew we'd be coming back.
At the very least so we could spend a day in the water park!
WOW! Best mall ever!
ReplyDelete