Joanne's Special Birthday in Edmonton

After leaving Seattle, we headed to Edmonton, Alberta to visit Jim's sister, Joanne, who had celebrated a special birthday (won't say which!) earlier in the month.

Joanne has a new cat, Birdie, who became my new fixation.

Joanne has done a lovely job in her yard with lots of perennial flowers...

And her new endeavour this year...a square foot garden. A great way to plant lots of different veggies, but not too much of each.

Beer can BBQ chicken...yum! This cracked me up...if only he had a head, the tales he could tell!

Love my new zoom! It was great for stalking Birdie...

Joanne borrowed bikes for us and we joined part of her bike club for a ride. We loved Joanne's decorative bike helmet. Now that's a princess! (After we got home, I saw a re-run of Dragon's Den and the lady who is marketing these. She has done very well! http://www.tail-wags.com/)

Part of our route that day...it was a beautiful day for a bike ride!

For Joanne's special birthday, she wanted to go to a restaurant called the Melting Pot. Unfortunately, they messed up our reservation and they couldn't fit us in when we arrived. Harrumph! Her next choice was this Ethiopian restaurant. We got this huge plate for sharing...

Which you eat with this bread. You unroll the bread and break off a piece and use it to pick up your food. Different...and very good! I called the bread "blanket bread" because it reminded me of those spongy-type blankets. It was very filling!

Our last night with Joanne; her daughter, Teresa; and her granddaughter, Zoe.

We had a wonderful visit...so relaxing. And then it was time to fly home. Look at the size of these farms!! Gotta love the Prairies!

Home again! I think we had been gone too long because a momma pigeon decided our balcony would be a great place to make her nest and lay an egg...

Thanks to our great family and friends for a wonderful trip!