The High Level Street Car and The Fringe Festival

On Saturday the girls and I took a historical streetcar across the High Level Bridge to Old Strathcona, and checked out the Fringe Festival.

It was a great adventure.

We had a bonus adventure before we got to the streetcar. The girls didn’t manage a quick exit from the house and we missed the first streetcar, so we walked over to the Charity Sale at St. Joseph’s Basilica on Jasper Avenue. We arrived just as the first of several of the day’s scheduled weddings was letting out. The girls found some treasures and I bought a beautiful old hutch for the dining room, it’s just what we had been looking for. I was happy that there were several nice volunteers at the sale who rolled the hutch out to the truck and loaded it in for me. I found a great parking spot by the Grandin LRT station, and we got to the streetcar stop just before it arrived. There were a few other people waiting, and the streetcar was almost full.

We have taken the streetcar in Fort Edmonton a few times, but we had never been on the High Level Bridge streetcar. I like Edmonton’s historical streetcars, I like their design, the historically costumed conductors and the old ads. On the bridge, the views were fantastic, so different than driving on the bridge with all of the support beams and infrastructure.

It was our first Fringe Festival and we weren’t too sure what to expect. There were rows of booths with crafts and food, buskers and other performers, and people everywhere, including lots of families. The girls loved the Freakshow Tent where we talked to the Brain without a Body, who was answering questions. They didn’t think of any questions when we were there, but Paris kept thinking of questions she wanted to ask all afternoon.

The girls wanted to visit Chapters so we wandered down Whyte Ave, doing a little school supply shopping on the way. It clouded over and started to rain just before we got to the bookstore. It was still raining after the girls did their shopping, so we stopped for nachos and by the time we left the sun was out again and we wandered back and through the Fringe again.

The girls checked out the KidFringe, but we didn’t spend too much time there. The girls are getting a bit old for the craft and face painting. I did love the Little Lost Fringer stickers they were affixing on the smaller kids. We had planned to do some shopping at the Old Strathcona Farmer’s Market, but didn’t end up getting there before they closed. We’ll have to come back another time. We normally shop at the Downtown farmer’s market on Saturdays and the Grand Market on 124th Street if we need more supplies on Thursdays.



After an afternoon spent shopping, watching performances and wandering around beautiful Old Strathcona we returned across the river on the streetcar and headed home, tired after another Edmonton adventure.