Saskatoon Visit

On the Labor Day weekend of this year I headed back to Saskatchewan to do some old fashioned labor and help my brother Lawrence shingle the roof at his cabin. I headed out straight from work at noon on Friday and made it to Saskatoon just in time to pick up my nephew Liam and head out to the Huskies Football game.

It was the season opener and also Military night and the place was packed and jacked for the season to begin. They even had a couple of jets come fly over. It was awesome - literally no one seems to care about collegiate football in Alberta and in Saskatoon they have freaking jets!

Sunset at Griffiths Stadium.

The Huskies won easily, embarrassing the visiting University of Alberta Golden Bears 32-0.

We hung out after the game to see the celebratory fireworks. It was great being back in Saskatchewan to watch a football game. The good folks in the province really understand and appreciate the game.

I got to Lawrence's at Humboldt Lake (aka Stony Lake) mid morning on Saturday and we promptly got to work.  The non-sided structure is the new addition that Lawrence built to attach to our old Humboldt Mini-Golf Office / Greenwater Cabin A.

We stripped the shingles off one side of the old cabin revealing the bare plywood - which was in surprisingly good shape.

You can see the plywood stamped from its original purchase and build of the cabin - 1983. I have some memories of the original construction at the time, but I don't know if I fully 'trust' them. I remember it being pretty hot and Geoff and Dad seemingly pounding nails for what seemed forever.

The view from the roof as Lawrence fixes the staple gun.

We didn't get as much of the work done as we intended as the weather played havoc on us with rain and wind. Thankfully we were able to get some work done and put down a protectant before the rain soaked into the attic.

A little physical work was actually a good divergent activity from my usual life in the office. It also didn't hurt that I got to hang out with Mom a little bit, visit quickly with Auntie Olga and Richard and have a couple of my favorite snacks prepared for me - taco salad, fruit salad.

Bonus - I claimed some trippy pillows for my place that Mom made.

Golfing at Fort In View

It has been an active year for me on the golfcourse. Being in Business Development has meant more work tourneys than usual and the odd 'meeting' on the links. You would think that my game would be improving but you would be wrong - except for nine magical holes.

A couple weeks back, Chris, Ivan, Adam and myself headed north up to Fort In View golf course. Along the way we saw the most 'interesting' in memoriam I have ever seen.

On the course Chris is all intimidation.

The infamous tripod driver up the but putting stance.

Adam has possibly the worst hook I have ever seen on his woods. He will often line up about 45degrees to his left and still hook it into the rough on the right side of the fairway. Very impressive.

Ivan is new to golf and is all power. 

On our first time out we got about 14 holes in before we were chased off the course by rain and lightning. For me it was a mercy kill as I was really hitting the ball horribly. Thankfully the course gave us a free pass for 9 holes as a consolation.

The next time out we were all hitting the ball well but I was really just...on. After putting up a snowman on the first hole I found my groove and ended up with 2 pars and a birdie over the rest of the holes for a respectable score of 45.

A couple more pics of the boys.

Pause and Reset

After an electronics breakdown of my hard drive/cell phone and the move of all of my stuff to Chrissy's I am now ready to start blogging again. Sorry for the delay - new stuff coming soon.

Riding in Style to the Fringe and Old Strathcona

My favorite festival in the City of Edmonton is also it's largest - The International Fringe Theatre Festival. Even when I used to live in Saskatoon I would occasionally drive the 5 hours to come and hang out. Way back then that was pretty much all I would do though - hang out,  people watch, bar hop, and suck in the ambiance. It wasn't till only a few years ago that I actually started going to shows. This year Chrissy and I were pretty busy during the festival and only took in one show - House of Dopes. It was entertaining, filled with mexicola rock and some weird one liners.

For the last weekend of the festival Chrissy and I headed down to Whyte Ave from the downtown on the trolley car to take in the sights and sounds of the Festival.

Our ride to the site was on the Hannover #601 (vintage 1970) 

For big weekends like the Fringe the Edmonton Radial Railway Society operates two trolley cars on the same line. To avoid pesky little problems like collisions they have a series of procedures in place like the baton system. When the two trolleys meet in locations where the track can accommodate two cars (like the South Side of the High Level Bridge) they pass coloured batons indicating direction of travel. Below you can see the pass off.

Our trolley driver is passing on the blue baton indicating that he has travelled across the bridge and is receiving the yellow baton. If for some reason we return to the bridge before meeting the other trolley we won't cross it as we are in possession of the yellow baton. Only if you have the blue baton can you cross the bridge.

Disembarking in Old Strathcona

First stop - The Farmers Market. For the last couple of years I have been scouring the local farmers markets and greenhouses and harassing the producers looking for white turnips (not purple topped -yuck!). This year I had given up the cause and actually took to growing them in our garden to middling success. Upon entering the market this overcast afternoon I was drawn to a table along the East wall where I spotted the most beautiful white turnips. It was a moment of pure bliss and to commemorate the occasion the lovely lady of August Organics posed for a picture with me.

We wandered around the Fringe site for a while and checked out the discount ticket booth for an impromptu show.  We couldn't decided on anything so we continued to wander coming across this great mural in the alley behind the Wee Book Inn.

After all the walking we needed to re-hydrate so I angled towards the beer gardens across from the Market where we could watch the street performers. After the usual 5-10 minute set-up and build to gather a crowd our performer got to the serious entertainment.

He put on a good show and his helper from the crowd had some great animation in her face enhancing the whole bit. Christina had to look away every once in awhile though as he would pop his shoulder in and out to get through the hoops - at that point the real entertainment is watching Chrissy's face.

Nearing the end of the afternoon we hitched a ride back on the Trolley this time taking the restored Edmonton #33 (vintage 1912) 

I loved the little touches like the visible filaments in the new lights and the old advertisements adorning the interior.

Baton switch - we are getting the blue baton to cross the river.

View from on top of the High Level Bridge.

Arriving at our destination after a 'fruitful' (or vegeful) day.

For me the end of the Fringe marks the end of Summer. But for residents and visitors of Edmonton there is one more week to ride the old trolley cars before they are put away for the winter. If you haven't already done so this year; labour day weekend is your last opportunity. Jump on the trolley while you still can.

Alberta Beach

Continuing our summer of daytrips and small towns around Edmonton, Christina and I found ourselves at Alberta Beach.  The whole 40 minute ride out there I kept on singing that it was "far away in time" but the reference was lost on Chrissy.  Kids! pffft.

Th beach was ok but no sign of Martha or her Muffins.

Wherever we travel we like to get a bit of the local colour so we headed to Jungles Bar and Grill as it had a deck overlooking the beach. It was a busy place with motorbikers and their 'old ladies' so I surmised that they may serve Old Vienna.  Success!

Christina ordered chicken fingers and fries and we settled in enjoying the sun, beer and the people around us.
However, after about 50 minutes we started getting agitated that our lunch that we pre-purchased hadn't arrived.

Eventually, about 80 minutes later, lunch arrived.

It was pretty average but it soothed the savage beast within.

So in summary, the beach is ok but not worthy of dedicating a 1980's rock song to and don't bother going to Jungles for grub, only beer. I think I got this town figured out now. Maybe I'll check back in a decade or two.

Big Yellow Bus

Last week Mom was in Edmonton for the Canadian Catholic Womens League annual conference.  Between Monica and I (mostly Monica) we were her chauffeur during the conference shuttling her back between Grandma duties and the Shaw Conference/Westin.

On one particular drop-off a picture worthy experience came up and Christina was quick with the camera to capture the moment.

Finally after all of these years I got to make mom to the big yellow school bus.

Edmonton Cariwest Festival

For a guy who doesn't like parades, I sure go to a lot of them.

Last week in Edmonton was the Cariwest Festival celebrating Caribbean Arts. Its a fun little event with great food (jerk chicken & roti) and cheerful people.

The celebration of the Islands actually exposes a pretty weird little dichotomy in the city. You have two competing events literally right across the river from each other that are laser focused in their individual demographics; Cariwest with people of African descent celebrating together to raucous music and Edmonton Folk Music Festival where people mostly of European descent hang out swaying together on a hill.  Its a chessboard in the city of Edmonton.

Nearing noon on Saturday (the parade never starts on time) Chrissy and I settled in along 102ave to watch the parade and snap some pictures.

Jamaica, who are celebrating 50 years of independence, where front and center in the Parade.

 They were followed by Trinidad and Tobago who were also celebrating a golden anniversary. After the two countries paraded through it seemed to break up into random dance crews.  

 Definitely the highlight for me is the costumes and the giant personal floats/costumes.

They even got their pets involved this year.

I'm not sure if it was just me but the parade seemed to be a little thinner than previous years. However, it was still pretty great and got my seal of approval