A little R & R

Well to my surprise and delight I was granted vacation on my chosen week...and so the frenzy began. I was given permission at the end of the work day on Thursday and had plans for that night and Friday night, so basically I actually got to packing my stuff at around 12am Friday night (Technically Saturday morning). By the time I had packed everything, cleaned house, showered, and taken care of my cat it was about 3am and I set my alarm for 5am wondering if sleep was even a good idea by this point. Little choice I had in the matter though as my eyelids would no longer stay up and my body ached for the comfort of my mattress. I fell asleep the moment my head hit my pillow and woke up resignedly at 5am. I took the first half an hour to get dressed and then called a cab and managed to arrive at the airport at around 6:15am. This wasn't necessarily late...well not very anyway, but my heart rate did increase slightly as I got closer and closer to the massive lineup that was the Air Canada terminal. It took me a few moments of sheer panic before I realized that my 7:05am flight had been bumped to 8:15am. Even then by the time I had gotten through the line, through security, used the washroom, and grabbed myself a magazine it was already 8:10am. I was one of the last people to get on the flight which wasn't much of a problem since the flight was not likely to go anywhere without a pilot. Yes that's right...we happened to be a pilot short, so, after a few desperate phone calls from the Air Canada staff, a pilot who was just coming in agreed to fly us to Winnipeg as soon as he was done landing his current flight. We waited a little while and then finally I could feel the plane move and bump along the tarmac. After that the flight is a complete blur. I was very tired and fell asleep soon after take off, though I was awake long enough to buy earphones and select the movie "Date Night." But it took me four days to remember that, so needless to say I didn't really watch it. I landed a few hours later to warmth and humidity.

My parents were waiting for me when I got into the arrivals area and were eager to go. I was famished by this time so they took me to the original Pancake House at the Forks Market. After a delicious apple-cinnamon baked pancake we walked around to enjoy the vendors and the local sites. After about an hour of that my eyelids started to get heavy again, so my parents took me to their suite for a nap. I woke up a few hours later and we went out to meet my Aunt and Uncle for dinner at a quaint little veitnamese restaurant. As usual I was sadly disappointed by the food (I've been ruined for veitnamese food ever since they closed down my favorite restaurant in Calgary). After dinner my Uncle took us all Geo-Caching (a very popular new hobby involving using GPS's to locate hidden treasures). It was pretty fun but I was very ready for bed after an hour of wandering around looking under signs, over fences, and inside random parkades. We stopped at a desert house in hopes of being refreshed (my Dad and I shared a giant piece of chocolate cake) and soon after decided to call it a night.

The next morning...er afternoon we woke up to another beautiful day and after a quick espresso headed out to meet my cousins at the local Perkins which is their favorite after-Church hangout. I hadn't seen my cousin Bonnie in person since we were good friends at the age of 3 and so was excited to meet her again and to meet her and her sister Kayla's children. Bonnie has one adorable little baby girl and Kayla has two. Kayla's oldest Serenity took a shining to my Mom and myself and spent most of breakfast staring at me giggling from under the table or trying to sit in my lap and play with my camera.
After the meal was done and we had all chatted with one another for awhile, my parents drove us towards their favorite fishing hole just a little ways out of the city. We stopped at a beautiful old church to walk around and enjoy the scenary. We were not allowed to go inside, but I enjoyed the outdoor tour regardless of the now scorching heat. From there we quickly arrived at the fishing area and spent the rest of the day and some of the evening fishing.

The next morning we woke up semi-early to prepare for our journey from Winnipeg to Kenora Ontario. It took about 3 hours to get there and many hours after to find a hotel that was suitable. After looking at pretty much every hotel/motel/inn/ in the area we finally ended up settling on the first place we had stopped at, an interestingly designed Best Western Hotel. My parents and I managed to get adjoining suites with a lovely lake view! By the time we had settled in I was getting grumpy because we had yet to eat a meal. We ended up driving to the downtown area and getting out to walk around and find something. We found a cute little Italian cafe that was actually open (small town and holiday monday) and settled down to eat our food. I was munching on a delicious cheese, mushroom, and artichoke pizza when something fluttered wildly at the window where my parents and I were sitting. After it settled down and perched itself neatly above the ledge it became clear that the animal in question was a little brown bat who had clearly woken up earlier then he was supposed to and had to find somewhere to wait out the excruciatingly bright pre-dusk sunlight. After dinner we walked around town and then made our way back to the hotel for the evening. My Mom and I stayed up to play a game of Scrabble and enjoy some snacks and port.

The next day we woke up late morning and lounged around for a bit while my Dad tried to figure out where we could do some land fishing. We ended up going out to Sioux Narrows a reserve area to the South that was rumoured to have good fishing. It took a few hours to get there and once we did we found a nice spot under a bridge and set our poles up. After a few hours with no bites we decided to find a new spot and drove back north a bit in search of lakes. It didn't take us long to find a really nice river spot just off the road where the fish actually were biting. We spent most of the rest of the day there sunning, reading, and fishing. We caught a lot of small mouth bass which ended up being very fun to reel in (they jump out of the water and spash around). After we had worn ourselves out we made our way back to our hotel and had dinner at the fancy restaurant on the top floor. I had a delicious meal of fried walleye pickerel, garlic mashed potatos and a cute array of veges (including brocolli, corn on the cob, cauliflour, and red peppers). After dinner we were all pretty exhausted and went to bed early. The next day was my Dad's only actual work day during the trip and so after a delicious breakfast at the restaurant we made our way North in search of Malachi Lake. The directions were not very clear and after about 45 minutes on a very bumpy windy back road it became pretty clear that we were lost. After turning off about five times we eventually decided that it had to be at the very end of the road and *thank goodness* it actually was. My Mom and I spent the afternoon there fishing while my Dad took a  boat out to the cabin he would be looking at. After that it was another long bumpy road out of there. That's pretty much all I remember of that day since I was nauseous from the car ride. The next day we took a short trip out to a beautiful provincial park called rushing rivers. We fished for a bit then went for a nice hike.   

After that we were all famished so we stopped in Kenora on our way back to Winnipeg and grabbed some subs than headed out. By the time we had arrived back it was almost 1am and so we pretty much just went straight to bed. The next day my Mom and I went to my Mom's favorite spa at the Clarion Hotel in downtown. We both got massages (mmmm), sat in the relaxing mineral bath, and got our feet pampered with a spa pedicure. The spa was really nice and included lots of goodies to enjoy (tea, coffee, spa water, hummus and veggies, cookies, etc). After our day of pampering we went shopping at the large mall next door. It didn't take long before our stomaches started growling so we headed back to the hotel to meet my Dad who wanted to walk around downtown in the artsy area to find a nice restaurant. We ended up eating at a really nice French bistro. My Dad and I both had delicious beef dinners and my Mom had the tourtier. From there we walked all over stopping to enjoy the large walking bridge over the red river, the beautiful old church structure on the French side (which was hollowed out after being burnt down many years prior), and stopped for some tasty gelatto. 

The next day I packed up early so we could spend some time exploring the parliament building before I had to be dropped off at the

airport. The Winnipeg Parliament building was

much prettier and more interesting than I imagined. We wandered around looking at rooms and stopping to appreciate the art. One room was round and had a large hole in the ceiling. My Dad insisted we each take a place facing the wall on either end and whisper to each other. The acoustics are set up so that sounds travels around the wall easily. In the middle of the room a person is applified. My parents begged me to sing a verse for them so to my deep embarrassment I did. It wouldn't have been so embarassing if the place hadn't been so quiet. From there we took a few moments to read about and take a look at the Magna Carta which was on loan from England. Once we returned to the car it was apparent that if we didn't hurry I would miss my plane, so my parents rushed me to the airport and saw me off. The plane ride was uneventful and I landed back in Calgary a few hours later!