our great, grandbrother

Our day started with letting people sleep in as long as possible. After a late night of swimming, and a schedule that keeps changing with the time zones, extra rest is always helpful. My job for the morning was a bit different. I had the task of getting the oil changed, and tires re-torked all in time for our brunch at Jake's house. It seems that some of our best days off, are with friends and in homes.  This was no exception. Later that morning we had a windy, but sun filled hike at a local marsh area, and education centre. And so for the rest of the day, we turned off the GPS, and Jake sat in the front seat and gave us a first hand tour of some of his favourite spots in Winnipeg. We are blessed to know him, and it was refreshing catching up our lives with one another. These moments with friends and family, add colour and context to the map we've been on. They bring Joy and are part of the many blessings we are bringing back with us. Thanks Jake for some great time together!

-Joseph-

believe it our not, for this trip I've made it all the way to Manitoba drinking my own "roasted" coffee, the three origins I chose for the trip have been holding up ok, but it was also nice to finish the kenyan at jakes house...with or without 10% cream for some...   :)

Lets just say, that on this trip we have had our share of many different waffles in many different places. However, the waffles Jake made us were special, we wondered if it was the maker, the technique, even quizzed him on the recipe, only to find out that one of his secrets was a mix. I did not promise to keep it a secret though, and now you know.

almost everything in Jakes house that was made out of wood he "made", after our megabrunch, we had a chance to see his workshop, and some of the tools.... 

one thing we found out later in the day, was that Manitoba is 41% marshland, which can explain why everyone recommended this place as a good start for understanding the province.

as some of you may already know, new birds can haunt me, this one in particular the "yellow headed black bird" was seen by me on the side of the road for less then a second...and upon hearing my yell, those in the vehicle thought I was avoiding an accident....I was hoping for a better glimpse of this new bird, but zoomed in from the observation deck, this was about as close as it came - still a treat!

later in the day we went to "the forks" a place downtown where two rivers meet, this building was actually the first railway station, and is now a thriving artisan area selling many thoughtful things...one of them was the "Tall Grass Prairie Bread Company" started by the church that Jake started many years ago. They also had another business that allowed people to do their own canning, as well as sunflower oil pressing. As a motivator to get to Thunder bay in good time....We have two containers of chocolate banana bread pudding for our drive out of town tomorrow.  :)

this was one of the nicest skate parks I"ve ever seen in my life, unlike the wavy, and "organic" shapes of the california parks we saw, this one was all "geo" with inlaid metal on all edges...the attitude was best described with quote on the wall and the general attitude of this place and people.  

samaritan and so forth

After working in the studio for a few years, one of the things we soon realized was that the easiest “shot” on the shooting list, usually ended up being the most difficult. Today, the road was flat and straight, and our only main concern was keeping our windows clean when trucks passed. Other then that, it was un-eventful until we were able to drive at slower speeds, and on the smoother roads of Regina. It was then that I realized a low grade noise in the left side and knew I needed to have it looked at. After being turned away at the first two places, we had an answer to prayer and found a service center who cared. The manager asked “Iliac” to stay a bit later, found the part and said if we came back in an hour or so they should be done. After walking through a few box stores in the area, we came back to thank them and were on our way. Its a blessing to be on the receiving end of good customer service (which sometimes requires empathy). We are inspired. We were thankful to be driving smoothly again and very much looking forward to Manitoba!

-Joseph-

we tried to make the mall more interesting, looking it at a "new" angle...but to no avail, we wanted out and were thankful when our time was up and we could start walking back to the repair centre who cared.... 

this was our souvenir from the experience, and its coming home with us, under my front seat

Today we went to Days Inn and they had a pool and a waterslide. The waterslide was a tube. I first down with Joshua and liked it. Then I went all by myself! The tube was dark and spiral and was fast. When I got to the bottom I put my feet out and I went underwater. I think I did it 30 times. I liked it a lot!

-Isaiah-

 

waiting for "takeout" gives me 20+ minutes to explore downtown...this time it was downtoun Regina, a mixture of old and a bit new, for a province with migratory workers who have been staying more then 4 months in the same hotel we were ( and probably chain smoking)  it had a number of vacant houses in its downtown core...and thus the suburbs were booming with everyone trying to get things done on the weekend.

badlands goodlands

Some observations from my journal today: rainy Calgary, clean Super 8 , delicious Joseph coffee in Bodum, yellow wheat fields, scattered oil pumps, children texting grandparents and friends, Royal Tyrell Museum-beautiful!, van lunch again, badlands, Town of Drumheller – dinosaur everything, sitting in the back of van with kids, Abby in front, walking outside to indoor pool, flurries in Medicine Hat.

another bird that has been sighted many times, but hard to photograph has been this "magpie", you can see by their long tail that they stand out quite easily from other birds, their even more magnificent in flight - as their tail fans out and almost acts as a wing

this museum, had an open glass wall into a fossil preparation area, and we were able to watch the scientists at work 

Today we traveled from Drumheller to Medicine Hat.Only a three hour drive it was very enjoyable. We started the day with a wonderful visit to Royal Tyrell Museum. It had wonderful exhibits, Large fossils, bone collections, and many other things. I have to say though my favourite was the prehistoric sea creatures. The first exhibit was a stunning one. It required you to step onto a glass floor with strange model creatures under it. It was so fun! The second one was a life like coral reef. I could have stood there four ever! You always could find something new. How lovely. We continued towards Medicine Hat only to hit wind and snow! We were very surprised but I was glad to sit in the front with dad. We eventually got there, and went swimming. The only down side was you had to run outside to the building in your bathing suit, which was COLD! But it was still fun. We then went to supper. We got there with the help of Magellan, but dad and I got pretty upset when we missed three turns because she was so slow. We came back very cold so we crashed in the hot tub! What a wonderful day! Thank you Jesus!

-Abigail-

even during a long day, someone can rest against the curves of a triceratops, 

with the falling rain, adding to the rain that fell the last two days, we were able to see the earth in "action" as sediments washed away from badland hillsides, creating streams of colour and shape

after Abigail weighed herself on a museum scale ( and realized she was 90lbs) she was now able to move to the front seat, which meant Katrina had to brave the boys...

when booking a month in advance, it never occurred to me to ask if  the difference between the room we were staying in, and the heated pool would be a flight of stairs and a cold, wet, snowy parking lot.....but these are the things I'll be better at asking about the next time.