First Stop: Edmonton

We've made it to the first leg of our grand vacation.  First stop: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.  City of Champions, home of the greatest hockey team that ever was, home to the largest mall and largest indoor amusement park in the world, and my birthplace.

In the past, getting from the Bay Area to Edmonton meant taking a jet to Vancouver, and then a small turbo prop over the Rockies.  You know, one of those small planes with two seats on one side and one seat on the other side, where they ask you how much you weigh and then tell you to sit on the right.  The Rockies are very tall, and there are a lot of updrafts and downdrafts and riding a tiny plane through that for an hour and a half is pretty miserable.  I remember at least once they didn't serve drinks because it was too bumpy the entire way.

Not this time.  This time we got a direct flight, SFO to YEG, and it was a CRJ700 jet plane.  We flew at 37,000 feet with a nice tailwind and it was smooth as a baby's bottom.  It was great.

The travelers this time are me, Yelena, Nathan, and my sister Sarah.  We all got up around 4am PDT so at this point (7pm Mountain Time) I'm a little tired.  We got into Edmonton early and picked up the rental car.  It's a Ford Focus, which is worse than we expected, but it rides nice.  I have no idea about safety or reliability but I was able to install Nathan's car seat easily and the car has decent performance.

We stopped by the hotel, the Best Western Westwood Inn, which is only 10 minutes away from my grandmother's house.  The hotel room isn't spacious but it isn't cramped.  We've got two queen beds and they gave us a pack-n-play for Nathan.  Oh yeah - and free wifi.  ;-)

After briefly unloading the suitcases and restocking the diaper bag, we headed over to Great Grandma.  She recently moved to a new condo so she could be closer to her friends; I was happy to see that the place is very nice and she is living comfortably.  Naturally, she was thrilled to see Nathan.  Photos and videos soon(ish).  I've been really looking forward to this visit; my grandmother is a Holocaust survivor and now she's met her great grandson.  That's something special.

We spent several hours with her and then my father showed up.  He brought some childhood treasures including our old wooden blocks and a quilt belonging to my sisters.  The blocks in particular brought back a lot of memories - my parents had obtained wood scraps from a shop when I was young and they spent days sanding down each piece so my sisters and I could play with them.  Every piece is unique and had a special roll when I was young.  I spent years playing with those blocks with Amy, and later Sarah.  And now Nathan gets them.

I also asked my grandmother to make my two favorite dishes: pea soup and gefilte fish.  No one makes pea soup like my grandmother.  Several years ago Yelena got her recipe and actually improved on it, which is like improving on the Ten Commandments.  Hard to do.  But my grandmother's pea soup is still something special.

Her gefilte fish, on the other hand, is unparalleled.  She may be the only person left who still makes it completely by hand.  If you think you know gefilte fish from Jewish holidays, forget what you think you know.  If you've never heard of it, imagine fish that's soft and fluffy like a pastry.  They melt in your mouth and are nothing short of paradise.  If they don't serve my grandmother's gefilte fish in heaven, then it's probably not heaven.  I haven't had her gefilte fish in probably 20 years, and I'll remember this for the next 20.

Tomorrow we're going to visit Dave Lalonde, an old friend of Sam's.  I spent the summer in Edmonton 11 years ago and worked for Dave at one of his trendy shops.  He's very excited to meet Nathan.  There will be more delicious food with my grandmother and Nathan will get to play with my childhood treasures.

So far, a good trip.

J<