Visiting Edmonton

[xzmattzx]

Now that I gave my experiences, I have questions based on what I saw and experienced, or what I noticed during or afterwards.

~ Why are street numbers so high? Why is if 104 Avenue instead of 4th Avenue (although I did see a 4th Avenue sign down near the baseball stadium)? Where is the starting point?
~ What is the steepest street in Edmonton? There's some steep streets south of Downtown.
~ Is there an extensive trail system in the river valley? I saw a couple Europeans with accents (maybe from France) in the middle of a hike, like they were in Yosemite or something, when I was by the funicular.
~ It looks like that huge swatch of land near the Alberta Aviation Museum was an old airport. What airport was that? Was it replaced by the current international airport?
~ Are Lake Telford and Lake Saunders part of some ancient river valley? I originally thought Lake Telford was going to be some kind of clean lake, but it was pretty brown, stagnant, and swampy. Then I looked at it on satellite imagery.
~ If I can get to Edmonton again, and have a rental car (which worked out very well this first time), I would want to try and go for a swim in a lake in the area again. So which lake within about 90 minutes of Downtown would you guys consider best?
~ What's the most interesting thing somewhat close to the Yellowhead Highway east of Elk Island National Park?
~ How long does it take to drive to Jasper National Park? Is there anything interesting on the way?
~ How long does it take to drive to the Northwest Territories?
~ How often do you see territorial plates in Edmonton? I saw a Northwest Territories plate on the way to Elk Island National Park, and I was hoping to see one since I was relatively close, but I was also there for just a day, so I knew time was against me. I saw three Yukon plates in Alaska near Fairbanks and in Denali National Park earlier in August, before this Edmonton trip.