Summer plans, part 7: SK, MB

Part 1 - The prep

Part 2 - The trip west

Part 3 - Okanagan

Part 4 - Smithers

Part 5 - Eastbound

Part 6 - The badlands

Part 7 - Saskatchewan & Manitoba

Eastward bound, we hit the province of Saskatchewan.  Our next stop was Moose Jaw, where we stayed at the same inn that Lily and I had used on our way west a month earlier.

Back in the pool!

Complimentary breakfast

We spent some time downtown, checking out the murals that grace a lot of the buildings.

Next up was a visit to the Tunnels of Moose Jaw, a theatrical tour about Prohibition-era goings-on with links to Al Capone. No photos were allowed; it was quite worth seeing.

Then, downtown's Crescent Park treated us to some impressive sculptures carved out of the trees.

When Moose Jaw exhausted itself of cool stuff to offer, we hit the road again. This time we were headed to humbler accommodations: camping! As we drove towards Spruce Woods Provincial Park in Manitoba, the weather turned and we enjoyed driving through copious amounts of rain; we hadn't seen much (any?) rain in weeks. Despite the wet welcome, we enjoyed camping out for a night.

Sandy environs

Nearby was the Spirit Sands trail, a hike through the province's sand dunes. Walking in sand isn't particularly easy, but maybe it helped that it was wet. The downside of wet was, well, that we got wet! Rain was in the forecast, and it definitely found us.

Carrie was so gung-ho to hike, she even offered to carry Nora.

Had the weather been nice we would have spent more time exploring, but it was not to be. Once we were drenched, we called it quits and went back to the car to dry off and move on. We were already packed up from camping, so we started the two-hour drive to Winnipeg.

Soaked.

Ooh, it's Holland!

Winnipeg! The wonderful land of, um, I don't actually know. I do recall some restaurants and some zoo stuff.

We'd booked at the Victoria Inn, a hotel with a pool and waterslides. It was a busy place, unlike all the other hotels we'd been to. And the pool area... what a zoo! Insanely loud and busy. We let the kids have their hour in the water before we hauled them away.

I think they're happy?

One evening for dinner we went to P.F. Chang's, a Chinese chain I'd heard of but had never been to before. It was okay. Carrie had seen a busy Indian restaurant but the wait time was too long. Instead, we did a late lunch the next day at the Indian place. It was very good and enjoyed by all!