West Edmonton Mall

You can't mention that you're going to Edmonton without everyone telling you to check out the West Edmonton Mall, believe me, I would know.

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...

Now, you'll have to bear with my enthusiastic ignorance of this place, but I specifically did not research too much about Edmonton attractions before coming here. The first reason was that I didn't want to overexcite myself, and the second reason is that I wanted to discover it all on my own. So, we walked around the food court, which featured and entire wing, almost like a street, of fully-formed restaurants, not just fast food, and we came across this!

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

And, finally, Sea Lions Rock. There was an actual sea lion there, swimming around and splashing with its trainer, but the picture I took of it didn't turn out too well. I say it, only because I didn't wander on down there and ask what its sex was, haha. Still, really cool seeing a pirate ship in a mall, and the engineer in me was all giddy and calculating about how much pressure that water must be putting on the surrounding structure and how the model of the ship would compare to anything actually sea-worthy of its time. Also, the coral was a nice touch.

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.

He was cute, but he kept pacing, so I hope he's okay, and not waiting or something, haha.

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!

My photos will not do this place justice, but I mean, I had already seen a pirate ship, and a skating rink in a mall, now an amusement park! And not just a little kiddie midway either.

 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!