Three

That's how many times we had to circle back and start over to get out of downtown Edmonton!  Duh!  It's a mess of twisting and turning roads, uphill, down dale, lanes and strip malls via which one has to navigate in opposition to the 'NO ONE' allowing a merge.  But we eventually found our way out of town.

What a weekend!  Seeing Denis Shapovalov leave it all out on the court was thrilling.  He is now in Prague, probably pinching himself as he leads the non-European team in the Laver Cup.  There he is with the best North American players on a team captained by non-other than John McEnroe.  And the kid is barely 18! 

Stopping at a Boston Pizza for lunch on the way to Edmonton, we chatted up the owner, a 40-something man with Parkinson's.  What a great guy.  Stopping again on the way home, we had another great chat with Richard who "comped" our lunch.  Speaking of "comping", when the waiter asked how dinner was in the hotel dining room, I said great, but the wine was not cold enough.  Another courtesy glass promptly appeared.  Asked how my salad was at lunch at the bar another day, I told the waiter I didn't like it because it had smoked bacon in it, something I can't stand, but hadn't realized was there.  He promptly produced another sans bacon and didn't charge me. 

I mean, don't ask if you don't want to know.

At the recommendation of the maître'd, we booked a formal tea in the main dining room.  Trouble was, he hadn't reserved it afterall, so when we arrived, we were initially turned away.  "Never mind me," said B to the apologizing host as I walked away, "It's my wife you have to worry about."  A few minutes later, the entire tea service appeared in the bar, to which we had repaired to have a sandwich.  It was glorious and I was very impressed.  When we asked for the bill, the server said, "It's all been taken care of madam."  I was stunned because that was a $150 gift, thanks to one of their staff having screwed up the booking.  And the thing was he had picked the time, not we. 

I guess it pays to tell the truth in a class hotel like that.  But never mind, I figure we dropped at least $250 in tips over three days. 

While we were there, a convention was underway.  "Excuse me, where are you from?" I asked one gorgeous participant.  "We're from 'Arbonne', an on-line beauty products company," she answered.  "We promote beauty inside and out."  Really?  "Most of these young women are considerably overweight," I said injudiciously.  She stared blankly.  "They are probably working on that," she replied.  I guess if you're an on-line company and no one ever sees you, you can get away with 20-30 extra pounds.  Or maybe it's good business to sell to heavier women?  I have no clue.

One thing that did depress me was the collection of young, homeless native men hanging out in the subway.  Very menacing, they begged for money and rode about on bicycles almost knocking people over!  At one point, we literally had to walk over one guy holding a hammer.  There must be a better way to spend your day than threatening people underground. 

But all-in-all, the trip was a lot of fun.  And don't we all love to spend money on holiday!