We had plans for today, but they didn’t pan out, so were left with a surprise “free” day. We weren’t all that sure what to do with ourselves.

Edmonton’s very own resident artistic director, award winning actor, and now crowned great philanthropist, Jeff Haslam, took pity on our aimless blithering, and offered us tickets to tonight’s showing of On the Banks of the Nut by Stewart Lemoine. We are both excited to see this, as any play presented by Teatro La Quindicina has always proved to be an entertaining and memorable experience. Thank you Jeff. If you are interested, dear reader, it’s on at 7:30 p.m. at the Varscona. Call 780 433 3399 for tix.

Michael and I decided our sugar levels were lowering so visited the Candy Boutique out in St. Albert early this afternoon. If you remember a few blog entries ago, I was moaning about finding a supplier of Battenburg cake. The Candy Boutique has a more than ample fresh supply, so we went to pick up a few more for our tea time treat. That hit the basket, as well as a few other English treats – including a McVittie’s Lyle’s Golden Syrup cake, Caramac bars, Fruit Salad chewies, and Orange Club bars for Michael. I selected a pack of clove flavoured gum. Michael can eat all that candy and cake and not gain a pound. I chew on a single stick of gum and I gain five. Unfair!

After our shopping spree, we wandered through the very lovely old part of St. Albert, and we came across the new Stella Blu Cafe found at 50-24 Perron Street.

As you can tell by the colours, the influence is all things Italian, and as most of us agree, the Italians know espresso, they know pastry, they know sports.

We chatted with the owner behind the counter, and he explained that they have recently opened, and plan to have a Grand Opening in early June. They have two large flat-screens in the shop, and he hopes to show proper football (soccer) to his clients throughout the week.

The place was spotlessly clean, had a nice display of sandwiches, and a good supply of Portugese tarts. The cappucino had by Michael was deemed “good”, and my new favourite, a shot of espresso with a touch of creme was devine. I limited it to one today, so my temples wouldn’t throb.

Stella Blu is a wonderful place to have coffee, the cafe is nice in it’s own right, but the thing that places it an edge ahead of other coffee shops, is its location. It has a lovely patio overlooking the Sturgeon River which happens to have the loveliest of walking trails along side it. And that’s exactly what we did. We did a small loop between two bridges – one foot, one vehicular, and enjoyed watching red winged blackbirds do their crazy landings on the reeds along side the river.

If you are ever looking for “something to do” on a Saturday, highly recommend hopping in the car, and zoom out to St. Albert. Who knew? I had St. Albert pegged as a town with a bunch of big box shopping centres. The old part of town was a pleasant surprise.