Edmonton, we hardly knew ye.

• Cost of 2 return tickets to Edmonton: $575
• Cost of 2 nights in the (kindacrappy) West Edmonton Days Inn: $250
• Nerves after 2 flights in 3 days: Frazzled. (even though said flights were short and smooth.)

• Seeing your sweetie reunited and laughing with his high school buddies from Cape Breton (class of '88): Priceless.

So it wasn't the wedding I would plan (see above cake for details). But the bride and groom seem to really love each other, and if that's there, everything else is just icing. Purple and white buttercream icing, in this case.
More importantly, it was a rare opportunity for J & his friends from Riverview High in Cape Breton to gather (they all live on the prairies now, typical Maritimers fleeing their beloved East coast in search of work), pick up where they left off, and of course, get some serious drinkin' done there, b'y. They don't see each other very often, even the ones who live in the same city. But they gather for the important life events, they re-connect even though their lifestyles are varied, and I know that if Jon was in trouble, they'd have his back.
And I like them too, which is a bonus. Plus, I got to glam up for the wedding, which was fun, and a great excuse to wear my new Little Black Dress. You can't really see it here, but I really enjoyed wearing it. And here I am, posing in front of a Prairie phenomenon, the subdivision with the man-made pond (no swimming, fishing or boating allowed).
I can't say we really got to know Edmonton (hence the title of this post). We were stationed in West Edmonton, which I can only describe as a soulless hole filled with drab brown houses and motels. Oh yeah, and The Mall. (The world-famous West Edmonton Mall, eighth wonder of the world, if you believe their publicity material. Yes, it's big. Really big. We killed some time there today before our flight home. I would way rather have seen downtown Edmonton but there was no time.)
It's good to be home, though. It's good to be on solid ground, not hurtling through the air in a narrow, combustible tube of death with wings. It's great to be back in the mountains again. Thanks be to whatever gods there are that theatre school brought Jon to Vancouver and not flat, brown Alberta. But thanks, also, to good friends who are still laughing together over 20 years and 5000 miles from the Old Days.