Visiting Alberta

October 15^th-21^st, 2014

Last but not least in my visiting friends and family now that I’m out of India was a trip to Edmonton to see my step family and my best friend growing up, Rej.  My stepmom Nola picked me up from the airport and took me to her new condominium, well new since I last left Alberta after my dad died and it is a nice place, perfect for her.

Seeing all the kids of my two stepsisters was awesome and of course they’d changed a lot over 4½ years.  Sadly but not surprisingly the younger ones didn’t even remember Uncle Dave but it didn’t take long for them to warm up to me.

Dave and Michelle (the older of the two stepsisters) kindly offered to take me to an Oilers game, and they happened to be playing my team, the Vancouver Canucks.  In the end we had three pairs of tickets so Michelle sat with 7 year old Joel, I was with his twin brother Jaxon, and my other stepsister Corinne and her husband Glen had the last pair.  I grew up loving the Oilers and was lucky enough to see some of the big games live with my father like the one where Wayne Gretzky scored five goals (with the last one occurring with 3 seconds left in the game) to make it 50 goals in 38 games, a record that will probably never be broken.  But tonight I’d be cheering for the Canucks while little Jaxon would be rooting for the Oilers.  It wasn’t a great game but in the end the Canucks prevailed and I enjoyed spending some quality time with Jaxon.

Sitting with Jaxon:

Our view:

The Oilers walking out after for the third period:

With Jaxon and Joel:

Our view for the 2nd and 3rd periods, we traded seats with Corinne and Glen:

Nice hat Jaxon;

The following day we went to see the older brother of the twins, 12 year old Brayden’s hockey game.  I was super impressed with the quality of the play and loved how they blared clips of music between plays, just like the big league.  After the first period, the score was tight at 3-2 for us.  Every time our team scored, one of the younger siblings of a player would walk around and collect a 25 cent donation from all of the parents and the money would go towards an end of the year party.  In the second period Brayden’s team started to run away with the game and the quarters seemed to be flying out of our pockets.  Luckily they cap the amount you pay to $2 as in the end the scored was a very lobsided 23-3!  Brayden had what I called the “Gordie Howe peewee hat trick” with a goal, an assist and a penalty (the real Gordie Howe hat trick is a goal, assist and a fight but they don’t fight at this level).

The start of the game:

Brayden ready for the faceoff:

The action:

Brayden goes for a skate:

Brayden's goal:

And to make the hockey trifecta, the next day it was time to watch the 7 year old twins in action.  I remember playing at that age and it’s pretty funny to watch as at any given time there will be one or two guys sprawled out on the ice and the kids look damn cute in their gear.  The game was tight and we luckily won in the end 3-1 and Jaxon even got a goal.  Joel didn’t seem too bothered in the game and skated the fastest when it was time for him to go to the bench and at the end of the game to shake the hands of the opposing team.  I was in tears of laughter at one point during the game.  The puck came in towards our goalie, and there was no one else around.  He belly flopped onto the ice and tried to smother the puck with his glove but fell short.  So up on his knees and elbows we tried to reach out for the puck and pulled it back so it went under his body and almost into the net!  Priceless.

The little league action:

Pooped Jaxon: 

Jaxon's goal:

Post game shenanigans...Joel with his pretzel glasses:

So three hockey games in three days, and it’s tough to say which one was the best, they all had their endearing qualities.  Probably the professional game was my least favourite.

My stepsister Corinne is a dental hygienist and knowing that I’d been stuck in India for a long time, she graciously offered to clean my teeth for free.  Her fancy office happens to be 15 minutes north of the city in Morinville, the town I grew up in.  After the cleaning, she and her son Dylan had an eye appointment a few doors down so I decided to walk around the old neighbourhood.  A lot of the houses were showing their age as was the road.  I remember when it was first paved which was a big step up from the previous dirt roads (it was awesome for being pulled behind a bicycle on your skateboard as it was so smooth!).  Our two storey white house was now a light yellow.  There were two cars parked on the driveway and one on the street even though it has a two car garage.  Most of the big trees in the front yard had been removed.  I saw a man in the dining room with his back to me so I surreptitiously took a photo of the house.  I walked around to the back alley to see what the backyard was like and the fence was gone as were all the big trees.  They had been replaced by another garage and a big shed with more cars parked around…yikes.  The man was now in the backyard and I said hi and mentioned that I had grown up in the house in the 80s.  He asked if I wanted to see inside.  I was a bit hesitant at first because you don’t know if it will mar the memories in your head of what the house used to be like.  But why not.  Of course nothing really looked like it used to and this family wasn’t overly tidy so it was it a bit of a sorry state but the biggest question for me was what was the basement like.  My mother’s father from England spent an entire summer painting one entire wall, probably 16 feet in length, as a seaside scene from England with an island, a coal mine, a fishing village and boats in the harbour.  It was quite the piece of artwork.  The current owner told me that they had moved in in 2000 and the mural was there then but they had since turned the basement into a couple of bedrooms for their teenage sons however to my surprise there was still a tiny little piece of the painting, a bit of sky, remaining.  Not bad Grandad.

My childhood home:

Later we took Dylan to his drum practice in the basement of the teacher’s home back in the city.  He started off alright and the tutor had the patience of Job but soon the little 6 year old mind wandered off.  I’m not sure if he’ll get too far with the lessons as his behaviour stresses out poor Corinne.

To finish off the “uncle viewing activities” I went with Corinne, Nola and Dylan to see cute Paige (Dylan’s older sister) horse riding at a stable out in the country.  She’s quite good at it and really enjoys it.

In the stables:

Paige riding:

She's such a sweet girl:

One evening I went out with my good buddy Rej and his wife Lisa.  We were meeting another couple, Andrew and Sandra, at a place called Speeder’s Kart Racing, an indoor go-kart race track.  I didn’t know what exactly to expect.  These electric cars were quite impressive and could get up to 70 km/h which is pretty damn fast indoors.  It took a while until we were all signed up and our race came up.  After a short mandatory safety video, we each donned a red hood and picked out a full blown racing helmet complete with a visor.  The throttle of the cars can be controlled remotely by the employees at the track and the first few laps we were at half speed, and amazingly that felt fast already.  Then they let us loose and wow could these things move!  Each race consisted of 14 laps and the winner was simply whoever had the fastest single lap time so it didn’t matter who was in the lead.  Rej was a bit of a kamikaze, performing some illegal slides and bumping me so he received a caution but thankfully didn’t get pulled from the race.  Unfortunately we just started to get the hang of it and then the race was over.  We had to go again, even at $20 a pop.  Between the races we played a little arcade type basketball game and I was pathetic at it as my hands were shaking from the adrenaline rush from the race.  I could see how you could get addicted to this place!

Looks more like they are ready to rob a bank:

It's go time:

Giddy up!

My view from the pits:

Rej ready to rock:

Lisa and Sandra chomping at the bit behind me:

Getting ready to race:

It was a short but great visit to catch up with my Albertan clan.  Thankfully I’ll meet up with them again in only a couple of months…for Christmas in Costa Rica!