Touring Around The Olde Town of Saskatoon

You know what I really haven't done in Saskatoon? Tour the various landmarks...that is, until this past weekend!

This past Saturday was a work party/photo scavenger hunt. To spruce things up, every team was given a theme. There were the Awesome '90s, the Radical '80s, the Swinging '50s, and then my team...the Depression Era. The Dirty 30's.

That's my team on the end. Despite our best efforts, we still looked like Hudderites wherever we went.
Anyway, here are some of the highlights! To set the tone, we didn't smile in any of our pictures, and set the camera to permanent sepia tone.

Here's the team at Waniskewan just north of Saskatoon. To get to this teepee, we walked through the First Nations Culture Centre and interrupted a tribal elder giving a speech while dressed in whole traditional feathers/buck skin outfit. Afterwards, we realized that there was a path outside the centre bypassing all of this. Whoops!

Then we took a short break to take photos in a farmer's yard by some dilapidated sheds. Super-authentic!

Here's a picture of us at the Blairmore Ring. What is this? Well apparently

"The Blairmore Formation, a layer of water and sand far below the earth’s surface, had caused flooding of the mine shaft. Huge cast-iron rings, some five metres in diameter, were put in place to keep the water out."

And now you know!

 

Here's me purchasing a Dollarama Pregnancy Test. I'll admit to being a little embarassed to look like a Hudderite and buying a birth control test for $1.95

 

This is one of my favourite photos. The team is doing a human pyramid on top of Diefenbaker Hill. Notice again, no smiles here. The man who took the picture took forever though. He'd been sitting in his car eating Cheetos, and his fingers were quite orange. He didn't want to get any on my camera, so it took a moment to clean his paws up.

Finally, here we are at Sports on Tap, having a shot with the manager. Good times had by all!

And that's about it! It was tons of fun, we saw lots of stuff, and realized just how friendly people are when you ask them to take a photo of you dressed in silly outfits.

Hammelltime Envelope Extravaganza: Debut

For those who follow along with this blog, you may have noticed that I’ve been extra bad at posting this year. So I’ve decided to do something awesome, and it involves YOU! This is official debut of the…

“Hammelltime Envelope Extravaganza!”

Basically, I’m going to mail 50 Canadians for autographs, anecdotes, personal opinions, and see who gets back. I’m going to mail actors, authors, musicians, business people, newspeople, politicians, unique personalities, internet celebrities, hometown heroes and whoever!

If they have a mailbox in Canada, I’m going to mail them a hand-written letter, with a pre-stamped return envelope inside. Then, when it comes in, I’ll post it online here for everyone to see!

Why? Because getting mail is awesome. In today’s day and age of emails, text messaging, and Facebook, it’s becoming a novelty to send and receive hand-written letters.

This is where you come in:

Who do you want me to mail?

Post it in the comments here, on Facebook, email me (address available in my profile section), or call me up.

Want me to mail Canadian-film Superstar Paul Gross? Okay, you got it!

Should I send a letter to the Premier of the Northwest Territories? Sure!

You want to see what Cornel Dobrin, the man who holds Canada’s record for bicycling from one end of the country to the other has to say? Let me find out for you!

Does your neighbour drink too much beer and loudly play his Nazareth CDs into the wee hours of the morning? That’s really got nothing to do with me so leave me out of it.

Don’t worry about providing me with the mailing address of person you suggest, I’ll track it down. (But if you happen to know it, please feel free to share).

I’ve already got a good start on this list, but give me any suggestions or requests. Just let me know their name, and why I’m mailing them. Such as “Stephen Harper – Canadian Primeminister.”

Local hometown hero? National superstar? Doesn’t matter, the Hammelltime Envelope Extravaganza will send out to anyone in Canada.

Hopefully the end result is pretty entertaining and together we get a good response and some entertaining results.

So, let me know...

Who do you want me to Mail?

Trippin' Across Alberta

I was in Grande Prairie this past weekend to visit friends I haven’t seen in almost a year, and my girlfriend’s family. It was an awesome time, but the best part is the 9 hour drive.

Maybe not so much, but yesterday Jen and I decided to break the trip up a little and stop at a few of the landmarks that we always cruise by, but never stop and see. So here’s a few of the local landmarks we passed on our way to Saskatoon yesterday!

First up, the Crooked Creek Ice-Cream Cone!

It’s a hard ice-cream shack. Jen tells me that when she was little, the cherry on the top had a light in it that would rotate and flash when the cone was open, and she would beg her parents to stop and get ice-cream when they’d drive by.

Next up, The Jets sign in Valleyview!

Little known fact, the Winnipeg Jets never actually left Canada. It was all a clever ruse, and they actually moved to Valleyview Alberta.

Then we stopped in Mayerthorpe to see the Fallen Four Memorial.

This was actually a really nice memorial, and we took a few extra minutes here to look around. It’s bigger than it looks, and if you’re ever driving north of Edmonton it’s definitely worth the five or ten minutes it takes to stop and see.

Finally, we made one last stop in Vegreville to see the giant Ukrainian Egg.

I’ve been in Vegreville 3 times now, and this is first time it wasn’t an emergency stop.
The first time was when one of my ties blew out and I had a three hour layover in the saddest Canadian Tire, with pretty much nothing in it, I’d ever seen.

The Second time I was with a bunch of guys making a fuel stop as we were running on fumes at 2 in the morning.

And this time, seeing as how yesterday was Easter Monday, it was a very appropriate stop. It was sunny, warm, and the Hudderites were out playing baseball.

At this point, we both got sick of making these stops and drove home uninterrupted. I hope you've enjoyed the photographic tour! Next time I have a long drive, I’ll let you know where I’m going, and you can let me know what and where the highlights are.

Happy Belated Easter!