News Article: Day trips thread.

[Drivesaitl]

Should have done this thread earlier. A lot of people are enjoying daytrips and staycations now more than overnight vacations or travelling.

Intent of thread is to share some experiences on regional areas that are just within 1hr drive or so away. While it would have been ideal to start this in Spring its better late than never.

I'm starting this off and intend to update with more stops and things to do in places like Fort Saskatchewan, St Albert, Elk Island, etc. hopefully sometime here a thread like this, within a broader things to do In Edmonton area type thread gets indexed or stickied. Theres been lots of visitor requests for that kind of thing over the years.

Anyway its Labor day weekend and still lots of time to explore.

Yesterday we went out to Spruce Grove and Stony Plain. I have mixed feelings and memories about Spruce grove but enjoy the quiet Stony Plain more. We did stop by Jacks Drive in and then went to a park on King Street. Walked by the Arena where the Spruce Grove Saints played. (Former St Albert Saints which produced Mark Messier) The Arena is called Stu Barnes Arena, its in a park setting and has a curling rock decoraction on one corner

Grant Fuhr Arena exists somewhere in the Grove but not sure where. I really don't have much visitor type experience with Spruce Grove and probably anybody familiar could add to some sites, or things to do, where they are etc. We did take a walk in the park to Calihoo road and back. Can't lie, this was pretty much of a miss. Not a remarkable park. I hope people add to some things to try out and do in Spruce Grove.

We went to Perks Coffee house on King Street. We didn't see the beautiful London bus, but did see the little Van which has a VW VAn front welded to it. Cute.

This is an interesting blog that goes into how much work went into restoring the London bus. Sometime we'll figure out where the London bus is. But read about this labor of love restoration.

Double Decker Bus Project — Perks Coffee House

Then onto Stony Plain. Always been one of my favorite little trips. Looks like Stony Plain is getting a lot of love lately. It had fallen down somewhat for a number of years imo but really looks like a great place now and a vibe really happening there. Its kind of known as a mural town and good just for that. They are reworking the streets downtown and should be great for viewing by late fall. Its home of the Glenn Hall arena with fantastic mural

We walked over to the splendid Multicultural Heritage Center.

A restaurant and patio exists for dining, breakfast, lunch etc but was closed on the long weekend. This I believe was a former school, beautiful brick building, gardens, and another historic homesteader building was moved to the site. Beautiful gardens and the Perc Center and experimental gardens also exist on the site. Beautiful little place to walk around.

Lots of funky houses and decorations abound on the streets. Looks like the homeowners in the area are very artistic. It has a real vibrant feel to it. If tired of the City life move out here. We enjoyed the feel of the place a lot.

Downtown Stony Plain as mentioned is having street and sidewalk gentrifying repair so harder to visit now but looks like it will be great when done. Stopped by the Cosmic Pizza. 2 huge slices and a pop for 7bucks.

I mean how could you not love this place, its gorgeous, and this story melts my heart. Glad we stopped in.

https://www.stonyplainreporter.com/news/local-news/poor-economy-opens-door-for-slices-of-pizza-
kindness

Spruce Grove DT as mentioned is beautiful. Looks like we will be headed back around Christmas time

This site has a rundown on some of the Stony Plain murals. Several others exist.

20at30.com: Stony Plain - The Town with the Painted Past

Click to read more...

 

[Yeah15]

Grant Fuhr and Stu Barnes arenas are attached rinks, the Grant Fuhr arena is the rink the Saints play on and is the rink on the west side of the complex closest to the curling rinks. I moved to Stony 3 years ago and love it here, glad to hear you enjoyed it as much as I do. Main street is amazing during the Christmas season.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Grant Fuhr and Stu Barnes arenas are attached rinks, the Grant Fuhr arena is the rink the Saints play on and is the rink on the west side of the complex closest to the curling rinks. I moved to Stony 3 years ago and love it here, glad to hear you enjoyed it as much as I do. Main street is amazing during the Christmas season.

Thanks for the information on the arenas. heh, we just walked by, not inside due to pandemic we try to not go inside places much. Didn't realize it was a Twin arena.

Good decision on Stony, what a great town. Always liked it, now we love it. We will be back, and definitely for Christmas.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Cool thread. I was planning to visit Reynolds Museum one of these days, a place I’ve often wanted to go and just never got around to.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Cool thread. I was planning to visit Reynolds Museum one of these days, a place I’ve often wanted to go and just never got around to.

Its worth a go. We went there one year when they had an Airshow out there, then took in the Reynolds Museum just after. That was a wonderful day. If you get out that way make sure to post up on it. Tons of interesting vehicles out there. For lovers of vehicles, farm implements, homestead displays etc its a nice historic museum. That was quite awhile ago that we were there. Wetaskiwin used to have some interesting buildings as well. I used to do up these threads on Connect2Edmonton and posted on it there but now that site is dead and all the information lost. Thats why I hope if we all put in some effort maybe our stuff here could be stickied or something. Newcomers here and visitors always wonder what there is to do in surrounding area.
In the meantime heres the link to the Reynolds museum for anybody interested. Its really a must for any car lovers. Some nice planes as well.

Reynolds-Alberta Museum

 

[SupremeTeam16]

Stony is a really nice town, when we bought our house a few years ago we considered building in Genesis lakes which is a really nice development on the south end of town. We ended up deciding to stay in the city because it is a bit of a daily commute but with things recently we were able to get a smoking deal and purchase 40 acres just south of Stony and hwy 628, which is a straight shot into the west end. Our plan is for it to house our animal rescue and we will build a nice cabin on it for ourselves as we plan to make our permanent residency outside of Canada hopefully in the next decade. We felt Stony was growing but it’s still very much small town/farming. Good people, reasonable taxation,proximity to the city if needed so it had a lot of pluses for us.

Also just north of Stony, Chickakoo lake area is really nice, especially in the fall it gorgeous out there.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Its worth a go. We went there one year when they had an Airshow out there, then took in the Reynolds Museum just after. That was a wonderful day. If you get out that way make sure to post up on it. Tons of interesting vehicles out there. For lovers of vehicles, farm implements, homestead displays etc its a nice historic museum. That was quite awhile ago that we were there. Wetaskiwin used to have some interesting buildings as well. I used to do up these threads on Connect2Edmonton and posted on it there but now that site is dead and all the information lost. Thats why I hope if we all put in some effort maybe our stuff here could be stickied or something. Newcomers here and visitors always wonder what there is to do in surrounding area.
In the meantime heres the link to the Reynolds museum for anybody interested. Its really a must for any car lovers. Some nice planes as well.

Reynolds-Alberta Museum

Just bought my tickets online, my youngest son and his fiancé are going to join me, should make for a fun Saturday this coming weekend.

 

[oilers'72]

Its worth a go. We went there one year when they had an Airshow out there, then took in the Reynolds Museum just after. That was a wonderful day. If you get out that way make sure to post up on it. Tons of interesting vehicles out there. For lovers of vehicles, farm implements, homestead displays etc its a nice historic museum. That was quite awhile ago that we were there. Wetaskiwin used to have some interesting buildings as well. I used to do up these threads on Connect2Edmonton and posted on it there but now that site is dead and all the information lost. Thats why I hope if we all put in some effort maybe our stuff here could be stickied or something. Newcomers here and visitors always wonder what there is to do in surrounding area.
In the meantime heres the link to the Reynolds museum for anybody interested. Its really a must for any car lovers. Some nice planes as well.

Reynolds-Alberta Museum

As per Richard:

As mentioned, today is the last day of Connect2Edmonton. Whether it permanently goes away or is allowed to be online as an archive completely depends on how I can protect myself from the new world we live in – one dominated by anger and a cancel culture.

.....

I would hope that the pertinent info be saved. Lots of history that could be used for day trips.

 

[T-Funk]

What the heck happened to that website? Was there some odd events, or is he just worried about the future?

 

[Drivesaitl]

What the heck happened to that website? Was there some odd events, or is he just worried about the future?

I can't comment on the thread but I could in PM. Richard even left the message why it was shutdown as per a message that was up for about 1mth.

 

[oilers'72]

What the heck happened to that website? Was there some odd events, or is he just worried about the future?

- Connect2Edmonton

 

[Stoneman89]

What the heck happened to that website? Was there some odd events, or is he just worried about the future?

A few lunatics took over the board and chased most everyone else off. The most negativity I have ever seen on a site.

 

[Drivesaitl]

A few lunatics took over the board and chased most everyone else off. The most negativity I have ever seen on a site.

Yep. It really was deplorable. The last 6mths to year I didn't even post there anymore. Or very rarely. Basically anything was attacked by the same handful of posters. The same ones that were doing that for the whole time the site was up. It was impossible to have any topical discussion there, actual legitimate discussion.

 

[bellagiobob]

Yep. It really was deplorable. The last 6mths to year I didn't even post there anymore. Or very rarely. Basically anything was attacked by the same handful of posters. The same ones that were doing that for the whole time the site was up. It was impossible to have any topical discussion there, actual legitimate discussion.

Was never on the board, but were there not
mods that could have booted these guys off the site?

 

[Oilhawks]

Was never on the board, but were there not
mods that could have booted these guys off the site?

Sounds like the admin gave in to mob pressure so that mods would have their first name and last initial as their username. Basically doxx bait. I’d be afraid to ban someone in case they managed to track you down and harass you in person.

 

[T-Funk]

Sounds like the admin gave in to mob pressure so that mods would have their first name and last initial as their username. Basically doxx bait. I’d be afraid to ban someone in case they managed to track you down and harass you in person.

What a terrible idea. I don't think I have ever seen real names on any forums like ever lol

 

[Drivesaitl]

Was never on the board, but were there not
mods that could have booted these guys off the site?

Richard was diehard against any type of censure. I had extensive discussions around that with himself. It was so bad in there that there was a holocaust denier posting for months, I mean posting tons, and seemingly for the purpose of utilizing or stretching the bounds of "free speech". But this is going OT here in this thread now. I'd only mentioned the site as I and others lost a lot of information.

 

[oilers'72]

Richard was diehard against any type of censure. I had extensive discussions around that with himself. It was so bad in there that there was a holocaust denier posting for months, I mean posting tons, and seemingly for the purpose of utilizing or stretching the bounds of "free speech". But this is going OT here in this thread now. I'd only mentioned the site as I and others lost a lot of information.

True. Lots of info lost. The C2E part should be made into an OT thread called "How to kill a message board".

 

[Drivesaitl]

Gonna just leave this here. Looks like I'm gone again. 3 strikes, that whole thing. somebody can take over the thread. Been a slice all. Might be back in a few months, or not.

I have enough civic passion and regional passion to contribute in threads like this. But I can't support what Pro sports on this continent has become. I can't continue to support that, even by writing about it or following it at all.

Like Richard, and for similar reasons I'm signing off. Or I'm punted off by cancel culture. Doesn't much matter which at this point.

 

[Rpenny]

Day trip threads from Edmonton?

 

[bellagiobob]

One of my favorite spots to go walking is the Strathcona Wilderness Centre, east of Sherwood Park. About 15 km of trails, all natural grass, no paved trails, and nice and spread out, about 15-20 wide on most trails. No dogs allowed, no bikes, just for walking/running. A nice change from the busy river valley trails and it's sometimes funky smell. The gates close at 4:30 PM, which is perfect for me, as I like to get there a couple of hours before sunset, and just park outside the gates. Usually the only one there at the time, so have the whole area to myself. Lots of wildlife (squirrels, grouse, etc). Had a stare down with a moose today on one of the trails. Looked at each other for about 5 minutes, and neither of us was budging. I finally deferred to his larger physique and turned around and went on a different trail. Great place for cross country skiing as well.