What Could Go Wrong?
For the last few years, my sister, Paula and I have gotten together in the summer to have a mini holiday.
This was first introduced by Terry, my husband, who is in many golf tourneys and I think he was thinking that it would be fun for me to have something to look forward to as well.
So Paula and he both thought of this idea around the same time and we got busy figuring out how this could work out being that it was kind of last minute. I suggested a ‘staycation’ as Paula will be going to Ontario soon to visit with family and friends there.
There is a lot going on in the city what with The Klondike Days (“K” Days) and Taste Of Edmonton and I was worried we wouldn’t find a room but luckily we found a two queen bed room at the Delta Hotel downtown. We would stay for 2 nights and we both had a few ideas of how we could spend our time.
The one thing we didn’t bank on was our 30+ degree weather.
Paula picked me up and we headed out to a new place I found called “The Country Kitchen”. It was very cute but we noticed right away that it didn’t have air conditioning. It did have a couple of ceiling fans though so we sat down under one and looked at the menu.
Paula has had quite a few issues with the contractors next door to her home who keep doing things like trampling her gardens. She received a call and answered it just as we were trying to give our order to the waitress and all of sudden her phone started to record her voice into a text message and it randomly sent it off to the head honcho. She was horrified at what she read but it was SO funny that we could not stop laughing. It was a true WTF moment….take a look…..
Can you imagine receiving that text? HA HA HA HA.
Our breakfast was ‘just o.k.’ but the weird text made up for it as far as our enjoyment meter goes. We couldn’t stop laughing.
We then decided to head west to a wee town called Stony Plain. What could go wrong?
It is a really cute place but our main goal was to find some more “Kick Ass Caramels” for Paula. (If you haven’t tasted these ‘melt in your mouth’ caramels yet….it’s worth the drive if you’re close by). We got the goods and started to walk around but it took about 5 minutes to feel like we were going to pass out from the 35 degree heat. So, we turned back, got into our air conditioned vehicle, and pulled into a “Timmie’s” for an ice cap. Paula ordered a box of 20 Timbits as well and I wasn’t complaining.
We ended up looking for a Muir Lake nearby because we wondered if it might be a new place for us to swim sometime….(no.) See photos below. Pretty but swampy. Dang. Our favourite lake just closed permanently for public use.
By this point it was time to head to the Delta in Edmonton anyway so we drove back east and made our way there.
The fellow at the front desk suggested we upgrade to a suite and we both decided ‘we were worth it’ ….ha ha….so that’s exactly what we did. What could go wrong?
After parking and retrieving our bags, we made our way up to the 7th floor and found our room. Phew! It was not only quite the hike to the room but someone had the thermostat set to ‘heat’.
We both worked on the controls in both rooms for awhile and it was useless. In fact, the temperature was going UP. So Paulie called the front desk and they sent maintenance guy up to help us. I, meanwhile was turning purple and the sweat from the curls on my forehead was dripping into my eyes until I couldn’t see while I was sitting on the bed….ha ha. The guy arrived ….with a duct taped, cracked fan and said the rooms were temperature controlled and the temps couldn’t be moved. What? The stand up, tube shaped fan did not even reach our bedroom (which had no wall plugs)…AND…it also was set on heat and could not be changed !!!!!
We asked the fellow to please bring us an extension cord and when he returned he had with him one that was about 2 feet long and we just ‘lost it’. Angry you think? Nope. Just dying laughing. Your typical comedy of errors. In fact when I interrupted Paula’s 4th call with the front desk to tell them “I couldn’t come to the phone because I had melted into the floor and there was only a broomstick left sticking up” she laughed so hard that she accidentally hung up on him!
The manager met us at our room and offered to give us a new suite. Round and round and round we went and we realised that the entire hotel did not have air conditioning. We were SO hot! This suite was even smaller than ours ….which was pretty small. AND it actually had a massive pillar almost blocking the doorway to the bathroom. I could just imagine me banging into that thing in the middle of the night. YOUCH! Ha ha.
We had asked them to bring a card table and a couple of chairs in to our room but they didn’t provide this service. We asked about a luggage rack and the manager said, “Oh, we don’t have those.” Whaaaaaaa?
After he suggested that he give us the original room I booked, we walked round and round and round again to the elevator to the 4th floor and this room was so dull, so cramped, and ugly it was weird. We asked the manager to step out and give us a bit of privacy so we could discuss our options.
Fairly quickly we decided to just cut our losses and leave. It had been over 2 hours at this point. The hotel returned all my money and although Terry kindly offered to try and find us another place we both just decided that we were so tired and boiling that we’d have better sleeps in our own beds at home. HA HA. (What party animals ,hey?) But I would pick up Paula the next day and we would spend some time together again.
The heat wave continued the next day but we found a ‘Games café’ near Paula’s home, brought my Tile Rummy game, and hoped for air conditioning at the Hexagon. SUCCESS! It was a clean, spacious, comfortable place with great snacks and we had a blast playing our game there until it was time to leave for our next adventure. We’ll be back!
We then drove south to the Cineplex movie theatre, a great place to spend a couple of hours in air conditioning in a time of heat waves. We so enjoyed “Fly Me To The Moon” … a romantic dramedy…...it’s very good.
Finally, we passed all the different colours of humanity downtown until we arrived at the Cactus Club Café and had a delicious supper of quesadillas and mojitos…yum! When the waitress came up to us and asked us if we would like dessert….Paula yelled out….” OH NOOOOOOO!” I forgot to wait for our Timbits!”
Yes, we left a box of 20 Timbits back in the town of Stony Plain. Spending the gas to return would NOT be worth it ….ha ha. We ordered a piece of Key Lime pie to split and it was very tasty.
Once again we had the option of continuing on with our ‘two day date’ but we were just too hot…ha ha. Besides….there was a severe thunderstorm warning. (Of course there was…ha ha)
So we parted ways and spent the evening with our guys. We had tons of laughs all over again relating the crazy stories to them.
(I hope Paula and Albert have a better holiday in Ontario. What could go wrong?”)
P.S. When I got home, I went to check for mail and our front door, metal handle broke off in my hand. Sheesh!
