Friday, December 28, 2012

Christmas Season in Edmonton

Before heading to Saskatoon for Christmas Eve with the family, Chrissy and I took in the best of the season in Edmonton to better get in the holiday cheer.

Braving -20 weather we brought our Edmonton Food Bank donation and walked along Candy Cane Lane in the Crestwood Community. Basically, its a bunch of houses along 4 blocks that go all out in decorating their houses and yards. Fun Stuff.



In a nice bit of cross promotion (and perfect blog seque way) Zoo-Minescence at the Edmonton Zoo was being advertised at Candy Cane Lane - On to the next stop!


"The Edmonton Valley Zoo is hoping to make your Christmas merry and bright with Zoo-Minescence – an evening showcase of 11 animal-themed ice sculptures. Join us as we celebrate the holidays in icy style, surrounded by sculptures, lights and, of course, animals!"
After attending ZooLights in Calgary (which we loved) a couple years back Chrissy and I were excited to check out our local zoo's Xmas celebration.

Immediately we were greeted with a fantastic ice sculpture:



And another good composite block elephant.


The rest of the sculptures...meh. The one on Candy Cane Lane advertising the attraction might have been the best of the whole bunch.

We wandered inside for a coffee and some pizza before heading back outside to check out the new Polar Extremes: Arctic Shores exhibit. 


The exhibit is nicely laid out and I think will be a great new asset but for the night it was hard to get a good feel as its still partly under construction with limited signage. 

With most of the animals hunkered down we headed over to the Elephant House for a Lucy the Elephant art exposition. 



As always at the Edmonton Zoo, Lucy stole the show. 

We left the zoo that night slightly disappointed. Although, the experience was extremely economical (5$ a person) it was completely underwhelming.  As a comparison versus Calgary's Zoolights I give Edmonton a 3 to Calgary's 10. 

Next year I hope they add some more lights, more sculptures, more experiences (animal talks, carolers), and just more Christmas.



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