We meet at the Edmonton Queen Pier. It was early Sunday 
morning (10 a.m.) and I'm sure we all would have wanted to stay in bed a little longer. But Kathy (right) and Neil had thought of everything (in their trunk: gloves, garbage bags, drinks and snacks) to get us through the morning and our section of the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup - including for me, a camera! (On loan of course - see what it was able to do!)
Minutes into the cleanup, I was having more fun than working. It was a beautiful day, and despite the fact we were looking for and finding garbage, what I saw still seemed very beautiful: Blue sky, golden leaves, pieces of coloured glass, fishing wire and fly entangled with branches to look like berries, a bicycle... actually more than one a bi
cycle and other pieces of equipment.We called out our finds so that the items could be logged. It soon became very apparent that there were many (littering) smokers in the area.
Other finds:
The interesting: Detour sign on the edge of river
The Ugly / Disturbing: Plastic bags, rubber tires, Tim Horton's cups collected between large rocks, a waterlogged leather jacket
We took away what we could, separated into what could be recycled and what couldn't. With our job done, we all headed out for naps... or at least that was what I was tempted to do.
Actually, what Joe and I did was go with Kathy and Neil to find food and visit the Valley Zoo. It was Free Attractions day, so it seemed like a good chance to see the animals for free. Unfortunately, a lot of other people had the same idea. The car inched its way towards the parking lot streets away. When we got there, our first 
"animal" encounter were guniea pigs. Over 30 of them were in a large pen surrounded by a low fence. I laughed at one in particular who had crazy rockstar hair (but was not able to catch it on camera). Onward we went seeing birds that looked stuffed (though they did blink eventually), and adult red pandas that seemed to flow from place to place.
"Look he's eating like a man!" ~ Joe
I loved watching the monkeys: A baby black one a white face clung to a large white teddy bear; Others ate, and watched us watching them. A tent had been set up too to diplay animal pelts and bones.
When Kathy and Neil dropped us off (along with the bicycle wheel Joe recovered for a project), I 
was really ready for that nap. Instead, Joe played Tom Waits's Alice on his (slightly warped)turntable. Golden light streamed in from the windows, making the hardwood floor glow. I was barefoot, and we danced in the hallway. Well, I had to dance, he just held on.
Later we watched another video - a subtitled affair with a family from Hong Kong immigrating to Australia before the 1997 return to China. It was neat to see some familiar faces and to hear Cantonese spoken in a movie (it's been a while). I even learned a couple new words / phrases. I don't think Joe understood why I thought it was so funny (cultural differences?), but we both ended up agreeing that the box had played up the encounter with a kangaroo / almost boxing scene too much.
