Where the heck are we now?: Winter in the cold, white North

This Christmas finds us visiting with Dawn, Matt and Rory in Edmonton, Alberta. We have been here since Dec 16th and will be leaving again on Dec 30th for our place in the sun.
Dawn lives in a nice condo loft near Oliver Square so we could walk most everywhere as well as take the bus. Edmonton is a very cold city and most days it has been - 20 therefore our walks have been a lot shorter than usual. The other day we took the bus to Costco with our backpacks and laughed as we gingerly picked our way over the icy sidewalks. Who walks to Costco anyway?
The other thing we noticed about Edmonton is the deplorable state of the streets and sidewalks. It seems that the city does very little snow clearing and as we stand by the crosswalks to try and get across the street without falling it seems all the vehicles just slide right through. Homeowners and landlords are responsible for keeping the sidewalks clear and most of them ignore this responsibility so again it seems when we walk we are constantly worrying about falling. This is not a place I would like to live in the winter. Never been here in the summer so can't comment.

We have walked to some of the nearby streets including parts of Jasper Ave which has a lot of galleries and 124th street which is a nice street with small shops and restaurants.

124th Street

Image by Maxine Noel at the Bearclaw Gallery
Though the city does have nice areas such as the historic district of Old Strathacona. We took the bus and walked there one day and enjoyed the stroll. It was our anniversary as well so we had Vietnamese pho for our special lunch.It is one of our favourite meals so definitely a treat!

Old Strathacona

Seafood Pho
Christmas dinner was also a treat. Matt cooked Bison Wellington as one of the courses and it was really good. The bison was a mild tasting, lean meat. Their American neighbours, James and Sarah and their dog, Lampard joined us for dinner so there was a fine crew!