Another road trip

We had a lot of fun in Saskatchewan. True, its flat, but there were many things to do and see and it has its own beauty. When they say its the land of the living skies, they really mean it. We saw incredible sunrises and sun sets. The entire sky was ablaze it the beauty of the morning sun, bright reds and the sunset bounced its color off the clouds, turning greys into pinks.
We're home now, but in a few days head back on another road trip too...yep, Saskatchewan, but this time to Saskatoon, where we'll be working for three weeks. I'm hoping I'll have more road trips stories to write about and since this is my first effort, next time I'll try to be a little more informative, post a few more pictures and hopefully, not got lost, because....i have a map!!

Twisted Sisters

Not far from Regina is the village of Chamberlain. Located on the main highway is a really cool wheat elevator and...Twisted Sisters. When i saw the sign it told me, "this i have to check out". Stopping almost at its front door. As it turns out, Twisted Sisters is an ice cream and hamburger joint. The twisted part comes from the "twisted" soft ice cream they serve. I mean, its the real meal deal. Not like the frozen ice milk you get a dairy queen, nope, better and bigger. Being one to be adventurous when it comes to ice cream, i check over the different flavors, and after much thought, settle on...""soft vanilla cone please..very original i thought. If you ever head towards Regina, stop in Chamberlain, check out twisted sister, and get a cone. Great ice cream and lots of different flavors, besides vanilla

Qu'Appelle Valley

A must do trip when in Saskatchewan is to go to the Qu'Appelle valley. Approximately a 45 minute drive east of Regina. It took us two attempts to get there. Firstly, i believed it to be on the way to Moose Jaw, so off we headed, only to discover we were going WEST instead of east. Upon arriving back in Moose Jaw, i broke down, pulled into a garage, bought a map. I know its a guy thing to think we can make our way around anywhere without asking for directions but this time i knew i had gone wrong. Purchasing the map, and a cost of $5.20 proved in the long run to be invaluable. Opening the map i discover i was way off base, should have been east instead of west, and settled on the return trip with getting the the valley.

Now straightened out, our second attempt should prove successful, after all, we now have a map. We head out, again, for the Qu'Appelle valley, assured we would get there, got onto the main highway, only to discover instead of going east, we were headed NORTH. No problem here because all we had to do was find an exit, take it and go back. Of course once your on the freeway those exits are far and few between, but, we did finally make it. We arrived in the valley, actually we ended up at Fort Qu'Appelle. A quaint village. Drove around a bit, had lunch gassed up. While gassing up i asked the attendant, "where's the fort?" I was expecting an old fort, or at least the remnants of one. The look on this guys face was a puzzle. He just shrugged his shoulders, said we were in Fort Qu'Appelle and in fact, there was no fort. I couldn't believe it. No fort in Fort Qu'Appelle? Oh well, the gas was less there than in Regina so was that a bonus? Further driving led us through the valley and it was beautiful, the leaves starting to turn. We somehow got off the main road, ended up on a gravel road, which seemed to cut through the farms and with luck, found our way back onto the main highway, ALL WITHOUT USING A MAP!!. I guess the bonus was, coming upon some old farm building, seeing more of the country and having a great road trip.

saskatchewan road trip continued

After enjoying time at the spa in moose jaw we headed for a walk about in the town. WRONG...we step outside to wind and rain and figure our best bet was...the casino directly across from the spa. Entering, we check our bags and sit down at a machine, hoping for a winner...wrong...the casinos don't tell you this, or make you feel this way, but, we're all loosers when we go in there. We gladly give them our money, have high expectations of getting a return, but the fact remains, enter a casino and the real welcome is...welcome looser. So, after dropping a few bucks, we leave, heading back to regina. The drive home is uneventful but the scenery is the same, fields of golden wheat. I can't seem to get enough of the golden fields, watching the farmers harvest their crops. There are more trips to write about while we were in saskatchewan and these will follow over the next few days, and oh yeah, this blog is about our adventures with our kids and we have to let you know now, we did take them with us, of course.

more adventure: saskatchewan road trip

our adventures continue. Over the past month our never ending journey took us to regina, saskatchewan, where we worked for a month. It was a journey, as it gave us an opportunity to see more of our beautiful country. Many things amazed us as we drove from edmonton to regina, this being our first journey to the province of saskatchewan. As we drove along the highway, entering saskatchewan through lyodminster some things struck me: I thought saskatchewan was completely flat!!, which is not the case, coming in from the north; I expected to see nothing but wheat fields and grain elevators; i realized the beauty of driving in saskatchewan is you can see where you are going before you get there; the wheat fields do not cover acres but rather miles; they grow more than wheat in saskatchewan. Arriving in regina we located where we were to work, without much difficulty, but not without getting lost, which seemed to be the theme of things while we were there. Never one to sit around, our first day off was an adventure out. We were told that a must see was moose jaw, where they have tunnels, supposedly used by the infamous al capone. Moose jaw was an easy find, you just head west and about a 45 minute drive, if you don't get lost first. We ventured west, after going north, turning around to get our bearings and finally heading west, althought it felt like we were going south??. Arrived in moose jaw finding the way to the tunnels, but, alas, the tour we wanted had already started. Figured we would get a later tour, headed for the spa, we had heard it to was a must to when in moose jaw. Walked into the hotel where the spa was, firstly going to the restaraunt, wrong way, looking down the hall, no sight of a spa, and finally bowing to pressure and asking at the fron desk "wheres the spa?". Got that all straightened out, went to the change rooms, suited up and spent a glourious 1/2 hour soaking in the warmth of the hot springs. More to follow...