Friends, Family & Forks

The days began to wind down and the countdown to get back in the car was on. Eww! I don’t know if I can take Saskatchewan again, but the only other option is America, so I’d best be getting prepared. Prior to that though, there is still more awesome things to be done and seen. The day after our last adventure into Winnipeg with the old crew, Kelpy and Cephas invited us out for one of our formerly classic nights on the town. The first massive undertaking was trying to figure out which house was theirs. Apparently I’ve forgotten – but a phone call easily fixed that.



We headed out for Chinese to a place in our old neighbourhood – Diner’s Choice. The food was…well…chickmendous. But I don’t even really know what that means.


Um…what is that native guy doing up there? Bizarre.




They always do, gentle friends…they always do.

Passing by the Forks on the way back up to K&C’s, we decided to take a detour and see what was going on at there. Turns out, not a whole lot except a lot of old people getting down in a tent.













Some of those geris were showing some serious skillz.






Trust me…this photo needs to be in black and white. It just looks dirty otherwise. Oh Winnipeg.


Geocaching?











We decided to head up the tower at the market – how have I never been up here?


The might and impressive skyscraper district of Winnipeg. Tee hee.


And…this strange geri dancing tent. Like, why?

The next day Suzy invited me down into quaint little Plum Coulee. AHHHH! This place is like a treasure trove of culture. Like, it doesn’t get more rural MB than this.




Suzy’s grocery store. Everyone, go shop there! I get 0% commission on sales, so…yeah.


Little friend #1


Little friend #2 – he was so shy that he turned away from me every time I glanced in his direction.


Um, kind of best grocery store picture ever. Bailey says “wassup.”


Suzy has them trained well.

After some Mighty Machines and nice chat with Suzy, I headed back to the farm for a good ‘ol family nosh-fest. MMMMM FOOD.








And THIS is why fatness occurs.

To jam more family activities into one evening, we headed to Kelly and Roberta’s for Marty’s familys’ pictures. Great. I get to look like a giant monster again amongst the ladies in Marty’s family. That’s what happens when you have almost a foot-long height advantage…or disadvantage.


Lil Baby Will, the sequel.













Haaaa…so I didn’t include any of the sasquatch pictures here because, well, I don’t have any and you don’t need to see them!!

Tomorrow we get back into the car for the long journey home and so I said goodbye to my homeland.







At the ridiculous hour of 5:30 AM, we were off. Eyes on the prize my friends! After hours and hours of driving, we arrived in Calgary, our crash-pad for the night. We did it up right at Sushi Kawa for Japanese.


All the waitresses are really Japanese and they wear these adorable little tuxedo shirts.





I did a bit of HST-free shopping (TAKE THAT GORDON CAMPBELL!)



Sis found her doppelganger…



And the next day we were back on the road, home so close I can taste it.





We made it home safe and sound and slightly poorer (as trips are wont to do). So, at home I will stay for the next while – I have a major project to finish for school and…I need to hoard some $$$$$$$$ (yes, the extras are intentional) for my next trip in four weeks. Can you guess where? I’m sure it’s not hard.

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Sunflower Capital of the World

Though we were out at Christmas this last year, I hadn’t been to Manitoba during warm weather since early 2007…that’s ridiculous. I was happy to find the farm all surrounded by crops while being eaten alive by mosquitoes. Like, frick. Altona appeared much the same as when I last left it. At least no matter what happens in life, you can always count on Altona – the feeling is alive! Ah…yeah. You had to be there. Turns out, I had just missed the Sunflower Festival. Of all the bad luck one could possibly have…



Oh yes, and who could forget my Mother’s behemoth cactus plant that just gnarlier every time I pop into town?



So most of the time spent in Altona is a hodge-podge of doing the odd thing here and there. Like watching papa eat ice cream.



And going to the mall and finding my cousin Matthew at the grocery store.









And, the best of all (in my opinion), finding my backpack from kindergarten. I’m thinking about using it for my first day of my Masters program.


Yes, this is so totally a He-Man backpack from SAAN that my Mother sewed Snoopy over…made of jogging pants material. Isn’t it great?

So one afternoon my Mother decided that she was going to surprise me with something I had never seen before. In Altona? HAH!



Well, colour me knocked for six – an art gallery in Altona. The town of Mennonites. As you may know, Mennonites don’t usually place a high emphasis on culture – unless it’s their own. So I proceeded with caution.












Solidarity brotha.

So the art gallery and sculpture garden was actually super awesome. It was ridiculously hot out, so we peaced-out and headed for cooler quarters.







After dousing ourselves in ice cream, we headed to Gramps’ place for a bit of a ‘schpitzere’.


RIP Granny.


He’s just a little guy! What a cutie.

After visiting with Gramps for a while, we decided to go visit Granny…I hadn’t been to visit her yet since she got put there…




No, I don’t know this person…but I dig their headstone. Not literally. I’m not digging around here.

Back at the homestead, I toiled away on exploring and cleaning up some more of my goods.








Oh B-Hay.



Mid-week, my oldest of old-school buddies and I had organized a bit of a reunion of sorts. For some reason we didn’t have a high-school reunion (it’s your fault, Facebook), so we call up all of the old crew and organized a spa day in Winnipeg. Shannon offered to give me and my other half in the “ugly twins”, Jen, a ride up into the ‘Peg.


Thanks Shannon!

We congregated first at Cora’s – the yummiest of brunch establishments on this side of the perimeter.


This is Cora.


This is her food. Now, my food.











Where’s Sheila? Oh, I think I took these before she arrived…



And a group shot! YAY! (Thanks Jenna!)



Shannon unfortunately couldn’t join us for the spa, so we parted ways there…and continued on to the Urban Oasis, where we would spend HOURS just relaxing. SpAhhhhhh.





I got a peel and the girl who was my aesthetician was kind of a crank-a-bee in a TnA hoodie (of course) who told me about how awful Clinique products were. Awkward. Not worth the $$. I’ll just go for a mud bath next time, methinks. And there will be a next time, because we’ve promised to try for another spa day in 10 years. We’ll see how that goes – there might be, like, 15 kids running around by then (though none mine – ha ha?)

After the spa, we then broke off into yet a smaller group and some of us headed over to Kelseys for the longest wait for food in the history of the world, near a lady who kept farting ridiculously loud (not pictured, sorry).



Ah, what fun. Thanks for the good times guys…until 10 years form now…? Hopefully not.

That night, I went out for coffee with my parents and decided to transform my father into someone else…




HA HA HA HA HA this app kills me.

More MB adventures to come…

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