Yeah you're not wrong, there's some awesome rides around Albany for sure, and yes the Earl is still going strong, I haven't been there myself for a while but it's still going.
Did you holiday here?
I moved to Albany in 2004 from Perth, Albany probably didn't look too different to how it did in the 90's then.
It's certainly grown a bit in the time I've been here, we have 3 x Woolworths supermarkets all positioned quite well around town, 2 x Coles supermarkets, geez we even have a Hilton Hotel and Aldi now also.
Are you an Aussie expat or were you working in WA for a while?