Saskatoon

Travels to my back deck

/ Greg / Leave a comment

Now more than a year without so much as a glance at airline seat sales, let alone the feeling of waking up jetlagged in a foreign country, there are early glimmers of hope for traveling in 2021. It is likely that traveling for me, this year, will be about reuniting with family out east, some western Canadian road trip adventures, and maybe, just maybe, a flight to a Canadian city later this year for some big city fun (eating in restaurants! going to bars!). Something holding me over until safer days ahead, and something that helped me hold it together in 2020, was the simple pleasure of hanging out on my back deck.

In the early pandemic days of 2020, my deck became a bit of an escape…an oasis really. A place for my wife and I to separate from our suddenly home office-focused work weeks.

Back deck, Saskatoon
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A staycation in five parts

/ Greg / Leave a comment

This past October, I took a needed week off of work, but due to rising pandemic case counts, my travel options were severely limited. I’m normally the type of person who wouldn’t dream of spending a handful of vacation days in my own city. I’ve always felt that a proper vacation needs a hotel and a plane ticket (or at worst, a very, very long road trip). 2020 threw up a lot of constraints for planning a proper week off, so I embraced the idea of a staycation to shake me out of the doldrums of what was a year of too much sameness for my restless spirit. So here’s my Saskatoon (and extended area) staycation in five parts.

Part 1 – An afternoon of mural exploration

I drove downtown, parked the car, and armed with nothing more than a list of interesting murals on my phone, wandered around my city as I might do when visiting a new place. This simple act made for a lovely afternoon and helped me see parts of Saskatoon through a fresh lens. I spent most of my afternoon wandering around the Riversdale neighbourhood where there is a wealth of vibrant public art in the form of murals. Here’s a small selection of what I explored.

Downtown Saskatoon murals
Downtown Saskatoon murals
Downtown Saskatoon murals
Downtown Saskatoon murals
Downtown Saskatoon murals
Downtown Saskatoon murals
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Family on the prairies

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When Jodi’s parents visited us this past summer, there was one place they were itching to get to… the West Edmonton Mall. While the idea of visiting a mall normally induces dread akin to an upcoming visit to the dentist, the idea of a prairie road trip with family to a city that’s really grown on me sounded like a great way to spend a weekend. Another plus for me? You can’t really road trip in Canada without pulling over somewhere beside a roadside attraction, so on the way to Edmonton, here we are in Vegreville in front of their famous pysanka. Unbelieveably, at three and a half stories high and more than 5,500 pounds, it is only the second largest pysanka in the world due to some deft one-upmanship from Kolomyia, Ukraine.

Vegreville Pysanka

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Playing the host

/ Greg / Leave a comment

I am now a little over two years into being a resident of Saskatoon, and if I’m being completely honest, it feels like I’ve been living here forever (in a good way). When I got a text from my sister asking if I’d be around to play host to her on a side trip to Saskatoon from a conference she was attending in Edmonton, I immediately went into planning mode, determined to show off this great, under the radar city to my sister. I wanted her to like it here as much as do I.

With a list of ideas for restaurants, bars and interesting sites completed, I was partially foiled by the usually spectacular weather here. My sister arrived under grey skies and spent most of her visit exploring an uncommonly rainy and dreary Saskatoon. Luckily for me, I had an ace up my sleeve. A welcoming ambassador greeted her when we arrived home after a short drive from the airport. My sister, a dog lover like me and the rest of my family, got introduced to Chloe. And suddenly the rain didn’t matter. Dog selfie time!

Chloe and Nik

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The meaning of “home”

/ Greg / 2 Comments

Home. A simple concept. Or it least it was until I moved to Saskatoon.

I’ve purposely resisted saying “back home”, choosing to say “back east” when referring to Halifax, or Nova Scotia, or really anywhere in the Maritimes since moving to Saskatchewan. I try to live a principle-based existence and one of the principles at the core of how I want to live is “home is where my feet are.” While that started out as mind over matter in the early days in Saskatoon, as the days turned to months, it became much less of a mindset and became a matter of the heart. And like all matters of the heart, it’s complicated.

My heart’s position on home got tested in June. Heading back to Nova Scotia for my sister’s wedding, it was the first time my wife and I had been back there together since we moved away in the spring of 2016. My heart at times ached. Like when I played the role of a magician and made my niece and nephew “disappear” to everyone at my wife’s brother’s house (the kids still don’t know how I pulled that one off). Or just hanging out with my mom and dad and catching up. An afternoon visit to play with the kids, a cup of tea with my mom or a pint and a hockey game with my dad were things I took for granted a couple of years ago. Now, they’re treasured, and at times like tonight in Saskatoon as I write this, missed.

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A year of Saskatchewan firsts

/ Greg / 2 Comments

It has been quite the year. Early on the morning of March 31, 2016, I headed to the airport in Halifax with two suitcases of clothes and belongings. About nine hours later, I landed in Saskatoon, took a cab downtown and walked into a temporary apartment a few days before starting my new job. Those early weeks were a jumble of emotions, especially until my wife joined me almost two months later. I have laughed a lot, learned a lot, and shed a few tears during a year of establishing my life on the prairies.

Looking back, it has been a treat to experience Saskatchewan’s uniqueness. In no order, here are some of my favourite “Saskatchewan firsts” in the year I’ve called Saskatoon home. Not surprisingly, a lot of these are going to be weather related.

1. First Riders game – To make me feel right at home, the green guys lost by falling apart late in the game, just like every team I’ve cheered for. This trip down to Regina to take in a game will be an annual tradition for us.

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Across Canada, Chewy’s last trip

/ Greg / 1 Comment

After moving myself to Saskatoon to take a new job in early April, I returned to the Maritimes to pick up my wife and our dog for a 4,000km, seven day car trek from her family’s home outside of Fredericton, NB to Saskatchewan. I had missed my wife and dog something fierce for the six weeks. When I left them in Halifax at the end of March, before leaving our home to catch an early morning flight, I made sure to say a special goodbye to Chewy. He was suffering with some health issues, and I wasn’t sure I would ever see him again. Fast forward six weeks and a number of vet trips later, Chewy was there for me in New Brunswick.

The night I surprised him with my return, he jumped on the sofa beside me and laid down on top of me.  Our dog likes to be close, but not too close, so I could tell he really missed me. And the next morning, he wouldn’t let me out of his sight, even camping outside a bathroom up a steep flight of stairs to make sure he could be close. On this early morning, he had no idea the adventure he was in for…

Chewy in Nackawic, NB

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Feel the Rush

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I’ve been to my share of interesting sporting events on my travels.  So it felt pretty natural to buy a ticket to a lacrosse match for my first Saturday night in my new hometown of Saskatoon.   I had watched parts of a few games on TV, but hadn’t had the chance to take in a game in person.  I had no idea what I was in for.

Without a car, I hopped a very convenient express bus out to the SaskTel Centre, the home (field? arena?) of the Saskatchewan Rush, the only professional sports team in Saskatoon.  The early bus gave me some time to get familiar with what is now my home rink.  Although located in the middle of nowhere, it’s pretty nice all in all.

At the Saskatchewan Rush game

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