Killarney, Saskatoon and Home

It was time to point the wheels west, towards home.

Killarney

We arrived at the Ag Society campground in time to enjoy a beautiful sunset view of the lake. 

We spent a few days visiting my brother David and his wife Rhonda and their family.  It was different without Mom and Dad.  In the past our time was filled with visiting and running errands for them.  Now we had time to enjoy the lake, the farm and getting to know their little granddaughter. We also took some painting time for me, volunteer work time for Dave and preparing for our next adventure.  Stay tuned!

Saskatoon

It was back across Saskatchewan, taking time for lunch at the Red Barn in Moosomin, and ice cream at the Twisted Sisters in Chamberlain.  

We arrived in Saskatoon at the Gordon Howe campground, got squeezed into our site and enjoyed toasted tomato sandwiches for supper. The next couple of days we spent hanging out with Dave's sister Marilyn and her husband, Ron. The one afternoon we walked around at the River Landing, enjoying the warm weather with lunch and ice cream dessert.

  

We ended the day with a bonfire at our campground.  With all the fire bans this summer, it was our first campfire!  This was as close as we got to making s'mores.  

When you're on the home stretch, the camera stays in the bag, the mind is reliving the best memories, and the miles creep along.  

We made it! Since May we've been south, north, west and east; altogether about 14,000 kms.  What a wonderful summer it's been. 

  

 

Sioux Lookout

We continued east from Winnipeg to Sioux Lookout, Ontario.  Sioux Lookout is the Hub of the North, but in actual fact, it's south of our home!

We were camped at Abram Lake Resort just a few miles from town.  What a wonderful three weeks we had with our grandchildren.  Our daughter and her two girls came from Spruce Grove, AB and the four cousins had the best time.  Nora kept saying, "Today is the BEST day!" everyday.  

During our visit, it was also Blueberry Festival in Sioux Lookout.  It’s a full week of activities celebrating everything blueberry.  There were events for all ages: from float plane rides, pony rides, golf and ball tournaments to speed knitting competitions and duck races to name a few.  Various community clubs sponsored food events so one could have free burgers and hot dogs somewhere almost every day!  We participated in as much as we had energy for with four youngsters.  They went to bed happy and tired every night.  (Well, maybe not every night, but that’s another story. Let's just say that a baby that's teething is not a happy camper.)

To get into the spirit of the season, Katherine took us all out to the bush to do some blueberry picking.  The kids' buckets were still mostly empty, but the tummies were full!

Blueberry Bert.  

Bouncy castle waterslide

face painting

The balloon drop event.
Balloons were dropped over the beach from the float plane. Nora won a slushie.

Children's carnival games

Pony rides for all three!

wooden plane rides at Sky Care 

In between the Blueberry festival events, lots of time was spent hanging out together at the beaches and playgrounds, in the backyard around a firepit, in the front yard on the trampoline, downstairs at the clay studio, and in the garden.  What a wonderful summer vacation for all of us.  

Going off in All Directions - Part 3 - East

 

There’s camping and fishing, and then there’s the road trip.  This next portion of our holiday was the latter.  We were anxious to put the miles on, but to also enjoy the journey.

Road trips may include unique small town coffee shops, ice cream pit stops and fuel stops.  Sometimes, if we take a bit more time, we’ll look for markets, thrift shops and maybe even garage sales.  It’s the journey, not the destination.  Wait. No.  It’s the destination.  The grandchildren are waiting!

After we left Castlegar, we drove until we stopped.  The first night was in Crowsnest Pass.  It was a campground right along the highway, no services and lots of truck noise. That’s all we could find.

That was the fire above Sparwood.

The smoke of the fire behind Crowsnest Mountain. 

We're prairie people.  We love the wide open spaces!

The next night we got to Willowbend campground in Maple Creek SK.  We'd planned to boondock at the Cypress Hills Winery, but when the temperature hit 38 degrees, we knew we couldn't cool down the trailer enough for sleeping without a generator or A/C so we opted for the campground nearby.

Instead, we sampled some delicious berry wines.

and saskatoon berry pie.

The next night was at Moose Mountain Provincial Park, south of Whitewood, SK.  We'd been there once before many years ago.  It's definitely a destination park with a lake and lots of activities.  We didn't do it justice by just rolling in at suppertime and leaving again the next morning. 

Some of the interesting spots for meals and snacks.

We arrived in Winnipeg at the Town and Country Campground after following some intense clouds and listening to our phones ringing with tornado warnings.  Fortunately, nothing came of it and we remained dry setting up camp for the next few days.

In Winnipeg, we spent time with family, running errands and being a tourist. The Canadian Museum of Human Rights is a fascinating experience.  We spent three hours and only absorbed a portion of it.  It tells the stories of Canadian and world history where human rights have been violated for various people groups for various reasons:  race, religion, gender, disabilities.  It also is encouraging in showing the progress that has been made in righting wrongs.  But it’s sobering to think that if we aren’t vigilant and stand up for human rights, they made be taken away.  There was a lot to process. 

View from the top of the museum.

The museum is at The Forks which is where the Red and Assiniboine rivers meet.  The area used to be a rail yard but has been transformed into a wonderful tourist destination with restaurants, shops, museums and ball field.  It's always a fun place to visit and meet up with friends, although this time we explored it on our own. 

Had to have a hot dog here!

We went on a boat cruise on both the rivers.