The Beach at West Edmonton Mall
From Chicken Soup for the Soul: O Canada
By Dana Hill

Edmonton isn’t really the end of the world — although you can see it from there.
~Ralph Klein

They arrived in motor coaches from all over windswept central Canada — young and old, housewives and students, waitresses, drug store clerks, grandmothers and construction workers. All the long northern winter they came to the West Edmonton Mall to go to the beach, to sit under palm trees and sip umbrella drinks while waves broke on the sandy shore and heat baked their chilled bodies and warmed their spirits.

I was in Edmonton, Alberta, on business, but I had finished my business early and had an extra day on my hands. It was obvious to me that I should take advantage of my bonus time to look around and possibly do a little shopping in what was then the largest shopping mall in the world — the West Edmonton Mall. Besides, it was February and mighty cold outside. (Keep reading)