Road Trippin - Part 3 - Big Bigger Biggest!

Yep - we got more snow overnight!!! 

With Big White a bit of a distant memory (sort of!!) we headed to West Edmonton Mall on our third day.  This shopping mall if compared to a dinosaur would be the father of all Tyrannosaurous Rex’s. Look up the word “big” in the thesaurus and I am sure you would find that West Edmonton Mall is listed as a synonym. Apart from the usual myriad of specialty stores it houses a waterpark, amuzement park (complete with 3 loop rollercoaster), aquarium, ice-skating rink, seal show, three themed 'streets' and until July a collection of memorabilia celebrating the life and charity work of Princess Diana.  Mum, Dad and I walked through this beautiful display whilst Bren and the boys went on a few more rides at the amuzement  park.  One could easily spend a few days at this mall.  It really is phenomenal and certainly not the type of shop you’d pop into for a litre of milk and a loaf of bread on the way home from work.

Tempting - but we did not purchase a handbag!!! 

The mall is that big that Dad decided to explore
 it via scooter power.

Tempting - but we didn't buy this either...

Our little maestro - conducting the fountains in the centre of the mall.

We took our weary legs and bodies back to our accommodation before deciding to go for a drive east to Elk Island National Park.  This national park is renowned for its abundance of wildlife, in particular Bison.  The sun made its presence known once more and just as it dipped below the horizon we saw some Bison grazing in the snowcovered fields. They are huge, hairy beasts and look quite at home (not to mention warm) standing around in the cold.

With the weather now in our favour Bren and I eagerly logged onto softserve news to find out how active the northern lights would be in the area.  Our excitement built as we found out that there would be a 30-40% chance of seeing them tonight.  After dinner Mum, Bren and I rugged ourselves up as warmly as possible.  We dressed the kids the same way and bundled them into the car with warm blankets and pillows so they could sleep whilst we watched and waited for the Northern lights to put on a show.  Unfortunately as much as we wanted to see them, we did not.  Atmospheric conditions just did not allow us the good fortune to see this wonderful meteorological display.  We stayed out until well past midnight driving to the darkest place we could find outside Edmonton but gave up when we both got too tired to try any more.  Thankfully the kids slept the whole time so unlike Bren, Mum and I they were not sleep deprived. We were all very appreciative of  our warm comfortable bed when we finally hit the pillows. 

zzzzzzzz