Pentecost Weekend

Driving in Winnipeg is STRESSFUL!

I don't think that I've ever been as 'on edge' as I was while driving around Winnipeg! The roads and intersections are strange and small, the roads were of poor quality, the street signs were tiny, and worst of all - the drivers... some of them drive like they're maniacs. I guess that last part applies to any major city, but seriously, not a fan of the Canadian road systems.

Yes! We were in Canada! - This weekend Charlene and I took a jaunt up to Winnipeg, Manitoba to celebrate Pentecost with our brethren in the area. We met together for the Sabbath service on Saturday and then got the chance to have some fellowship time at a restaurant called Montana's. BTW Montana's has fantastic steak - I would say the second best steak I've ever had. We got to meet some newer members and some others from quite a distance away--Calgary to be exact. We stayed on the floor on an air mattress of one the couple's from Winnipeg (which was surprisingly comfortable) and met again for brunch with the other members. After brunch we had our Pentecost service. We learned so much over this weekend!

Char and I got to load up on ketchup chips and Canadian Coca-Cola, which tastes better from Canada btw. We bust that stuff out at parties like it's some sort of exotic treat - which it is!

~~~transition to Char writing~~~

Before we headed home, we went to "The Forks/Le Fourche" (French in Canada!!!) to stretch our legs before a long drive and take some pictures. The Forks is where the Red River of the North joins with the Assiniboine River which flows in from the West. It was a big trading area back in the day of people transporting stuff by river. Probably a lot of beaver pelts involved. They used to be quite the hot commodity!

Here is Luke being all monkey-like and climbing a tree (I actually told him to in order to create a photo op! I was in heels! I couldn't climb anything!). He obviously was having a good time! This tree was probably surrounded by water a few weeks ago when the river crested in Winnipeg. If they hadn't been expanding their spillway since 1997 downtown Winnipeg would have been destroyed! Fortunately it all survived!

Here Luke is doing a controlled slide down the side of the tree. I feel like the words "controlled" and "slide" don't belong together... Luke was complaining about how I was the only person in the blogs at first... and now he's here in all his glory! Cessez de regarder son bout!!!

Here you can see Luke's artistic side. Over by the Manitoba Children's Museum there's a constellation guide and these big metal arch things point in the direction of certain constellations on certain dates. They had the explanations written in three languages: English and French of course and then something that looked like squares and triangles to me which must be some sort of "first nation" language. (In Canada they call Native Americans "First Nations").

Here's a better look at the constellation guide area. This is me in my modeling pose... tres chic I know. Kids were mostly climbing all over the pillars and not reading about constellations...

Another artistic shot by Luke. Very nice! I'm not sure what type of stone it is (some type of sandstone) but it was everywhere! Must be a quarry nearby.