The Yellowhead

We continued our journey across the Prairies. Heading into Regina, I was exploring the map book and realized there was another way to head North, as well as West- The Yellowhead Highway (#16). Leaving Regina, we headed North on Highway 2, which took us into Saskatoon, where we picked up the Yellowhead. This highway actually begins just outside Portage La Prairie in Manitoba; however, this is where I have to confess to the actual limited amount of route planning that took place before we left. I allowed Justin to map the route as he had traveled from Alberta to Ontario by car when he lived in that province. As an over-planner I had moments when I wished we had a more thought-out route, but then we would not have experienced those "random" discoveries- the trip would have been more like checking items of a to-do list.

Back to the drive...
We headed to Alberta via Lloydminster. It's an interesting little town that straddles the Saskatchewan/Alberta border. There are red posts down a street where the border is, otherwise you would really have no idea you were crossing into a new province.

Approaching the border

Crossing the Saskatchewan/Alberta border

So we made it to Alberta! There is of course a more prominent Alberta sign just up the road.




Next up was Edmonton. I had never been to the West Edmonton Mall and therefore made a request that we stop. We were only in the mall for an hour or so. If we had more time, we may have "enjoyed" it a little more, but shopping is not what this trip was about. I'm from the land of shopping malls, so to be honest, it felt a little like Square One (in Mississauga) on steroids. We spotted several locations of the same store on different levels of the mall. We walked around a good part of it- I saw the wave pool, the indoor rink, and the indoor amusement park. Definitely worth the stop, but admittedly nothing overly exciting.

Wavepool

Amusement Park

Indoor Rink

Next up- Jasper! Finally some mountains! 

J & S