West Edmonton Mall, Edmonton, AB

Did you know that Edmonton, AB, has the largest shopping mall in North America and the tenth largest mall in the world?  It had the world's largest mall 'til 2004.

Well, it does ... it's the West Edmonton Mall.

The West Edmonton Mall covers a gross area of about 6,100,000 sq ft.  There are over 800 stores and services and parking for more than 20,000 vehicles.  More than 23,000 people are employed at the property.

I'm not a big shopper but I had some time to kill until I could check into my hotel so I spent it there.

I took a picture of where I parked so I'd remember.

Most of the stores are the same chains that we have in Toronto ... in fact, there are a couple of the same stores in the mall.

Here are some of the highlights ...

I'd never seen a tattoo parlour in a mall before ... there were a few of them in this mall.

There is a large-scale replica of the Santa María, one of the ships sailed by Christopher Columbus, that you can tour for $1.

Next to the boat, is a sea lion show.

Ice Palace is a scaled down version of an NHL regulation sized ice rink.

Galaxyland is the second-largest indoor amusement park in the world and features 24 rides and attractions.

World Waterpark is the world's largest indoor waterpark with a size of over 20,000 square metres (4.9 acres). The park has the world's largest indoor wave pool. The highest slides in the park are the Twister and Cyclone, which is 25.3 metres (83 ft) high. The wavepool has six wave bays, each with two panels with a total of 1,500 horsepower (1.1 MW) generating waves up to two metres high.

Had I planned it better, I would have stayed at the hotel in the mall so I could hang out here!  Hard to believe it was -7 and snowing outside!

Conscious that I just brought a small suitcase (that I want to take on the plane with me), I didn't want to buy much.  I couldn't resist buying a blouse and a suit that were on sale.