Hans’ mother took us to the airport and I took a Benadryl so as to be able to fall asleep quickly on our flight to Seattle. Hans did not sleep much. When we arrived at SEATAC it was 2:30 a.m. local time and our flight to Edmonton was not for eight hours. The last remaining food establishment that was open was a Starbucks stand. I bought a pitiful sandwich that I hoped would last me for a while longer and Hans prowled the terminals in search of benches to sleep on. I was still fairly exhausted, so I was able to curl up with my camping pillow and get a few hours sleep (though not without interruptions from the automatic PA system, imploring that everyone monitor their luggage and not accept items from strangers).
I was a little unsure about the rental car in Edmonton but the trunk was astonishingly roomy and we were able to fit our large hockey bag (borrowed from my brother) full of camping gear as well as our carry-on luggage fairly well. We purchased a map from a nearby gas station and eventually found our way into the city center, where we’d be staying the night in one of the dorms at the University of Alberta.
After checking into our room we went to the Royal Alberta Museum and saw many natural history artifacts including massive geodes, dinosaur fossils, and aboriginal displays. There was also an interesting live insect exhibit. Unfortunately, none of our pictures turned out very well owing to the low light and moving critters.
We spotted, of all things, a Safeway on our way back to the U of A, so we stocked up on water and groceries for the start of our trip through the national parks and found everything to be more expensive than the expected. After taking showers back at the dorm we each called home to let everyone know we had arrive safely and went to bed.