weblog.lowpro.ca

9/11/2008 – 9/15/2008

Olds – Regina – Kenosee Lake – Oxbow – Kenosee Lake – Regina

Another day of driving–Tim Hortons stops included!–and we arrived in Regina at my Aunt Donna’s house. After dinner and a sunset run we sat down to a game of Shanghai Rummy. (We play a version similar to, but still distinctly different from, the ones mentioned here.)

Friday morning we went to the hospital to visit my great aunt (sort of) who is very sick, then after lunch drove down to Kenosee Lake, where my great uncle Bob lives. The lake is in Moose Mountain Provincial Park and is a pretty nice place to live. A tasty dinner of ribs at the golf course across the road and then it was off to bed for everybody.

I woke up early the next morning to run before we headed out to Oxbow for my great grandmother’s graveside service. At the cemetery we encountered the worst weather of the trip–windy, rainy and cold– but the tea afterwards had quite a good turn out and was nice. I was the youngest person in the group of 30 or so people by approximately 40 years, which was a bit strange. We then drove back to Kenosee so we could watch the Saskatchewan Rough Riders vs. BC Lions Canadian Football League game upon which I bet and won some money!

On the 15th we drove back up to Regina, where we would be until Thursday.

Reading: The Balkans; A Storm of Swords.

8/30/2008 – 9/1/2008

Due to my silliness in Eugene I arrived a couple of hours late, and even though Jimbo had been at the train station looking for me earlier (his phone was dead) he managed to borrow another car to come pick me up. Great! We stopped by Powell’s and grabbed a slice of pizza up on Hawthorne before heading back to his house. We went over to Nathan’s house to watch the Oregon Ducks football game, then kept hanging out there in the evening drinking beer for a while. Ended up in somebody’s basement watching people play music.

On Sunday we again hung out at Nathan’s with the big screen TV, eventually ordering a gigantic amount of fried chicken while watching Uptown Saturday Night (which was really great!). After eating way too much we went back to Jimbo’s to recuperate before heading to the west side to go to a karaoke night Casey had organized. He managed to get many of Portland’s famous and not-yet-famous musicians to show up and hang out, many of them singing a song or two. It was weird because I recognized many of the people in the room from Eugene. Apparently most of the U of O moves to Portland after graduation.

Monday afternoon I headed across town on the bus to meet my ride. I got on the wrong one the first time but managed to figure it out in time and was lucky with the timing so didn’t miss my ride.

Reading: Started reading Jimbo’s copy of Bomb the Suburbs–it’s great!–but I left my copy in Eugene so I’ll have to finish it later. Also still working on The Balkans.

Departure: Craigslist rideshare to Seattle, $15.