Day 28: Zoo!

So, as it's Sunday, I obviously went for a long run in the morning.  I dressed for how the weather has been so far, and ended up fairly cold as it was rainy and windy for the first time!  I am a little bit worried about my knee  (I.T. band) as it really struggles with downhill/stairs but as it doesn't actually stop me running it can't be that bad.
One of the ladies I ended up running with lent me one of her arm warmers, so at least one arm was not so cold.  she also gave me a lift home for the last 2k.  She is training for the New York Marathon in November and is pretty speedy up the hills!

Once I got home, showered and fed, I met up with some couchsurfers to go to the zoo, as today lots of cultural things in Edmonton are free.  As there were a few of us, coming from different directions, it took quite a long time so it was 3pm before we got there.  our group was an English (me), a Croatian (who I hadn't met before), an Estonian, an Indonesian and a Brazilian.  The zoo was crowded (as it was free!), and some sections were closed for renovations, but it was still good and the sun had come out by then.  They had Sichuan Takin, which I had never even heard of before and they are hard to describe.  A bit like a buffalo I guess, and they burp.
As well as the usual zoo stuff they had some Canadian animals, the owls were pretty and the arctic foxes and prairie dogs were cute.  There were special stands and people around to give extra information and "hands-on" things.  One lady said her idea for environmental campaigning is that sea level rising will wipe out Florida, so she will go for a "Save Disneyworld" approach to try to get people to care more.
I liked the capybara, red pandas and spider monkeys too. 
I think I'm becoming less of a tourist as I didn't bother taking any photos.

I was just going to go home afterwards and do housework, but we decided to go for dinner in the High Level Diner, which was really nice, and then some of us went to see a free film just up the road as part of the film festival.
It was a road trip comedy filmed entirely in Alberta, called The Road to Saddle River.  Terry in particular found it hilarious and laughed hysterically all the way through.  Some of the actors and the writer came up on the stage at the end too.  The film is 20 years old and they had to show it in that particular cinema as they don't have a digital version so they needed a projector to show it.
I really enjoyed it today, but I'm so tired now and I still haven't done any of the chores I needed to do.
Ah well...