A Saskatchewan Vacation to Visit Friends

So I grew up in Saskatchewan and during University I ended up needing a place to stay and found a townhouse with a friend. Well, really, if I’m to be honest, a frenemy.  BUT she was living with this fantastic girl that was destined to become one of my bestest friends ever. And this summer we had the privilege of staying with them on their farm for part of August… which I adored. The minutes and hours and days were too quickly eaten up with laughter and fire pits and eating and talking (non-stop between Melly and I for days. WONDERFUL). I was worried it would feel too long but it felt wayyyyy too short instead. I fell in love with their orchard and their dog and bonded with her kids and played and laughed. I tried to pass on my love of cartwheels, silliness and yoga to the kids and we watched goofy tv or movies with Mel and Sheldon at night. It was a lazy and terrific holiday. I think one of (or THE) most relaxing holidays ever. We even managed to break up the drive with TWO hotel stays. (We spoiled ourselves and it is worth it to be broke now).

 

One hotel stay was in Vegreville, SK. Perhaps you have heard of the famous egg???

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The hotel in Vegreville was exquisite. AND we happened to be in town the only day the Vegreville Train Station, now a restaurant and catering spot, is open to serve the public its famous Ukrainian food. It’s run by one woman who does everything by hand and with local food and I think that the food there will haunt my dreams for awhile yet. So amazing. I normally detest cabbage rolls but these ones were traditional and MELT IN YOUR MOUTH delicious (literally).

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The building of the deliciousness looks like this:

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After our wonderful stay in the hotel, where we watched a french movie on the laptop while the kids slept (Izzy lifted up her head in the middle of the movie, hair tousled and eyes closed to yell, “You turn that down! It’s too loud!), we got back on the road to get to our friend’s house.

Once at Melany and Sheldon’s house it is pure relaxation. We hung out on their farm. Sheldon’s parents built it up. They used to “farm- farm” but now it is just beautiful land with a small orchard. The orchard is kept up by Sheldon’s dad and he has even succeeded in getting grapes to grow in the short Saskatchewan summer. Someday I hope to have a garden or small orchard almost exactly like that. But with sunflowers dividing the rows to make it super cheery. Sheldon and Melly have two girls, Emily (10 I think now) and Adrienne (7) and they were SO GOOD with our kids. It’s not often that a ten year old and a seven year old will take a 5 year old and a 2 year old under their wings like that and spend so much time playing “little kid” games. But they totally did.  Complete sweethearts. Basically that was it. Basking in the sunshine and watching movies and eating great comfort food and BBQ and relaxing.

Next came Saskatoon!! We stayed in a nice hotel but surprisingly not as nice as Vegreville. We hung out in the pool and went to a Ukrainian festival with terrible food and too many wasps, but the kids had fun. I was miffed we didn’t see much of the city I went to University in so the Husband graciously made time for it in the evening. We got subs and went to the park by the Delta Bessborough hotel. After we ate we walked around and I took pictures, which was lovely. We also had ice cream, which instantly fixed my cranky mood. Ice cream is magical that way. I felt that the Husband and kids got a taste of Saskatoon at least anyway.

Then! the ride home. We took our time leaving and let the kids have one last day of vacation food. However, we forgot about Hunter’s delicate stomach and I think he ate too much junk before we left because twenty mins in to our 6 hour drive he THREW UP EVERYWHERE. Three times in a row. It was the most vile smelling puke ever and in large quantities. We had to stop on the side of the road:

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And change Hunter’s clothes (including underwear I believe). Then we had to wipe down an entire back seat with the small package of baby and hand wipes I had. Super gross. We got in but the smell!! It smelled like old gym socks dipped in sour milk, eaten by a cow and regurgitated in to a corpse’s mouth. We stopped and bought pine tree air fresheners and it was able to mask the smell just enough for the rest of the ride.

Our special stop on the way home was at a little place called Delia, Sk for THE BEST APPLE PIE I WILL EVER HAVE at Mother Mountain Tea House.

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Amazing. Charming atmosphere and the owners are great and the pies we had were incredible. Seriously, every apple pie from this day forward will be compared to the apple pie I had there. When it has met its match I will let you know. Just, wow. Then home sweet home!! We drove the last hour and a bit in peace and arrived home with exhausted kids in tow.

It was one of the most relaxing and most amazing vacations I have ever had.

The End.

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