Saturday, February 10, 2007

Les & Sherri's Tasty Travels

Yes, you are right, I've been missing in action...part of that is just busy life things and part of that is the recent trip that my hubby and I took to Edmonton. For the third year running, Les and I headed to Edmonton at the end of January for the Breakforth Conference. The conference was awesome again this year, and I hope to post more about that in the future, but I thought I'm mention first a few of the tastier parts of trip. You see Les I spent a couple of extra days in Edmonton to shop and relax after the conference, and we had a great time at some of our favourite spots, so here are a few of our tips that had us eating at way less than $40-a-day!

- What's a trip to Edmonton without visiting IKEA?! And did you know that they serve some of the best coffee that Les has ever tasted? Also they run a breakfast feature until 11 a.m. each day...breakfast for a buck! So one morning for $1 each we had scrambled eggs, sausage and a croissant. It was very good and totally fueled us for the next few hours as we shopped. We actually made it back to IKEA at the end of our trip too as we were snowed in in Edmonton for an extra day and Les had missed having his Swedish meatball lunch. They have a deal for somewhere around $5 that includes salad, a meatball entre (with lingonberry sauce) and coffee/tea. Did I mention that their tea is pretty awesome too?! Gotta love IKEA!

- The Old Spagetti Factory was where we had supper on the night the conference ended. This was a favourite of Les' family growing up and he still orders the veal everytime he goes there. So knowing that we might head there I checked to see if there were any deals to be had online before we left. And sure enough, visaperks was offering a promotion where if you paid with your visa you would get a free entree for every one you purchased..so basically, my hunter's chicken that night was on the house:) (And yes, I cheated and had the wee dish of spumoni ice cream that comes with your meal that night too:)

- White Spot - this is our favourite place to eat at from back in B.C., and thankfully there is one in Edmonton now. Many people here in Saskatchewan don't even know about White Spot, but trust me, you would love it. It's kind of like a Kelsey's or a Moxie's, but WAY better. The first time I ate there when Les & I were dating I had the cheddar grilled chicken and to this day I have not had anything else there. It's SO good, and I get there so infrequently that I always order the same thing...yum! Les's favourite is the double double (double the beef, double the cheese). And thanks to letting our server know where we were staying (just down the road), we got 15% off our total check!

- Starbucks! When Les and I travel (which isn't much), we try to go to as many different Starbucks as we can. One of our favourites is on Whyte Street in Edmonton...a perfect break for an afternoon of walking up and down Whyte Street and exploring the ecclectic shops there (including Avenue Guitars...the BEST guitar store ever!) It's upstairs in an old brick building that is now a Chapters...the view and the windows are completely charming. Another Starbucks highlight was at the downtown Starbucks one of the nights during the conference...we had a short period between our afternoon and evening sessions and both weren't too hungry so we indulged in the Starbucks-fair... I had a sugar-free cinnamon dolce latte with no fat (so basically skim milk and expresso, but it tastes so good) and a low fat scone. In Edmonton the Starbucks have French Toast Scones. Doesn't that sound good with my doce latte?!! Mmmm.

- Red Robin is another favourite of ours whenever we are in Alberta. We both are in love with the teriyaki chicken sandwiches. They grill pineapple and put it on the grilled teriyaki chicken breast. It's delightful! Since I was sure we would try to get to Red Robin at least once, I did some searching online for deals before we left and found that if you sign up for their newsletter, you get $3 off your meal the next time you are there. So, yet another deal!

- O'Byrne's Irish Pub - this is an Irish Pub on Whyte Street. We ate there on Tuesday night because on Tuesday nights they have a real Irish session. The atmosphere was so authentic...music was awesome (even though we couldn't stay later to see the dancers), and Tuesdays are all-you-can-eat fish and chip nights for $7.95. And let me just say, that neither of us could eat more than the initial portion they brought, but oh, the fish was so good (not all batter)...and what a treat to have chips!