Not Everything's Flat on the Prairies

Once upon a time, there was a girl. A small town girl with big dreams. One day, she left her small town and her little family. She studied and lived many places in the world, saw many things and met many people. Yet she made sure to return at least once each year to her small town and her little family. This is the story of one such visit.

* * *

Since I had booked the my plane ticket on sale some 4 months earlier, I had a relatively comfortable wake-up time, a neat trip to the airport on the train and a direct flight from Vancouver right into Winnipeg International. My beloved, on the other hand, didn’t decide to come along until a couple of weeks before, so he had to buy a ticket with HST, wake up significantly earlier than I did and switch planes in Calgary, all so he could arrive in Winnipeg at approximately the same time. Mr. International Travel didn’t seem to mind, though! Also, even though I was the one with the direct flight at the reasonable hour, my suitcase was the one that got delayed. Pffft.

Despite the disappearing baggage, we had no troubles finding each other again in Winnipeg thanks to the quaint size of Winnipeg Airport and their genius positioning of escalators that take all arriving passengers and put them on public display as they descend from the lofty gates into the baggage area. Once reunited on solid ground, we proceeded to scan the crowd for signs of any Giesbrecht, most notably my Dad – but there was no sign!

This is strange, we thought, as images of car accidents and heart attacks crept their way into my subconscious. We tried calling home but had to leave a message, and just when we were about to start searching the airport in concentric circles, did we hear a familiar, fatherly voice from behind us. “Hey guys. I got stuck in traffic.”

Apparently Winnipeg has traffic.

Well, I didn’t notice much traffic (or people, or trees for that matter) as we made our way back through the city en route to the old Sunflower Capital, stopping only to satisfy us hungry travelers with some serious A&W. Now this is what I spent the last two months working out 4 days a week for. Let the vacation begin!

We arrived safely at the homestead in the late afternoon to be joined in short order by the rest of the family: mother, sister and brother-in-law (evil cat-niece and cat-nephew to be seen at a later time). To celebrate our arrival, the family had made some grand evening plans: dinner out on the town at one of the finest establishments this side of Rosenfeld - Pizza Haven. The fam insisted on ordering the local favorite: schmauntfat pizza (schmauntfat being a traditional cream gravy made with sausage drippings and various other fattening substances). It might have a different name on their menu, I’m not sure. The other toppings included ham, bacon, fried onions, salt and pepper and mozzarella cheese (how can it be a pizza without mozzarella cheese?) Well. Even though I grew up eating schmauntfat on a regular basis, I don’t know if I was quite ready for that pizza, especially after the traveling… and the Uncle Burger. I ate a piece to be adventurous, but then pretty much stuck to the normal taco pizza.

(Remember when taco pizza was a new and jazzy thing? I do. Does that make me old?)

Anyway it was a super fun evening just spending time with everyone. I got to see a few old friends as they stopped in for their own pizzas, actually. And just as we were getting up to leave, I heard my name once more. Jen… hey Jen… I turned around to see this group of three cute girls who had been sitting at the table behind me the whole time. The one was waving at me and smiling – and I had no idea who she was! I came over to her and said hi, I looked at her with squinty eyes, like, I’m so sorry! I’m trying to remember you! Then she said it’s me, Norma…

And then like ten light bulbs turned on in my brain. But Norma my friend. Seriously. We’ve known each other since grade 4. You were the “N” in the Jeneric Club. And you always had really curly long, dark hair. And no glasses, I might add. And here you are with short, pin straight fabulously highlighted hair and sporting a pair of designer glasses. Hellooo!

Yeah she looked way different and totally great and it was awesome to see her. I ended up chatting with her and her sisters there for so long that most of my family just left me in the restaurant and went home.

Two whole blocks, how dare they.

That night we crashed at my parents’ place and were greeted in the morning by a gentle courier at the door with my suitcase. Just. In. Time. We were already packing for the long weekend and our camping trip to the lake, and I really didn’t want to have to wear my sister’s underwear the whole time! So, my belongings once again in my possession I was feeing infinitely better as we hooked up the boat and Dad’s homemade camper (aka “The Cramper”) and cruised on over to Rosenfeld to meet up with Steph and Trevor.



Warning: parents whose kids have moved out will often downsize the seating capacity of their vehicles. This may force certain adult children to ride in the back of a homemade Cramper.





Out in Rosenfeld, we removed ourselves from the Cramper (it wasn’t a bad ride after all!) and got a little tour of Steph and Trevor’s new house! May I present homestead #2.



What a perfect place for those two! Huge yard, garden, two-car garage – and a teeny tiny cozy house.

We weren’t long for Rosenfeld, though, because the Whiteshell Provincial Park was calling our names! We entertained ourselves during the car ride there with Subway sandwiches, huge prairie cloud formations and invigorating conversation. Who knew car insurance statistics could be so terribly engaging? :|




Making up for the schmauntfat.


Are we there yet?

Alas, before we knew it, the car ride was over and we were rolling into our new forest-home away from home. Setting up camp was a weekend-long adventure for the boys, as was cracking sunflower seeds and sipping on Heineken for Mom and me. I did occasionally assist in certain areas such as campfire-making, cooking, and cajoling people to come swimming with me in the lake.


Get me in the water!




Aww! Aren’t you glad you came along to the beach?

It’s always great to spend time with the family. Sometimes I have no idea why I live so far away from everyone, but it’s just where life has led me, I suppose. Plus Vancouver has less mosquitoes. Today I get the whole package, though: family and mosquitoes!









On one afternoon we decided to put the beer and snacks aside and burn a small percentage of the camping calories by going on a short hike. The lovely Whiteshell Provincial Park, being in eastern Manitoba, is smack in the middle of all the lakes and trees and giant rocks that make up the Canadian Shield. For prairie dwellers like my family it’s quite exciting, you see, because it’s not flat as a board. Our hike was fun. We got to climb on lots of rocks, eat some fantastic little wild blueberries, get some really muddy shoes and some good, hot exercise. In the end we were even rewarded with a bit of a panoramic view!



One other activity that allowed us to deviate from our general lounging around was some good ol’ fishing. You may have noticed my dad’s snazzy Alumicraft fishing boat in the pictures above. When planning this trip, I had communicated to my dad very early on that I would be a really really happy little girl if we could take the boat camping. And it turns out when you don’t live at home anymore your parents will actually sometimes do things you ask :)

So on one other fine afternoon, we grabbed some snacks, put our hats on tight, and with our specially-purchased out-of-province fishing licenses in hand, we motored out into the middle of Big Whiteshell Lake. Destination: that big rocky island out there that looks like a place fish might like to hang out.

It was so great just being out there on the lake. So beautiful and peaceful.


I know why people have yachts

Peaceful is great until the fish start biting. Then it’s game on!

Hey – I think I got a bite!


A clam?!

I’d never caught a clam before. Boy was that thing hard to get off my hook! Clam-jaws of steel!


It wasn’t long after the clam that I started catching actual fish.


And then Dad started catching fish.

At one point, we also went for a little excursion/pee break on the big rocky island.


Here’s Dad in a touching display of Winnipeg patriotism.

By the late afternoon, I had three good-sized walleye in the live well, just waiting to be dined upon, and Dad had caught 4 or 5 smaller ones and a perch that he released, but poor Chris looked like he was on his way to getting skunked! Now, I’ve caught plenty of fish in my life, and Dad has probably caught truckloads, but Chris had never caught a fish ever before (as far as he could remember). He was a good sport, though, and was really enjoying the boat and the lake as well, and was ok when we decided to go in after trolling past the island a couple more times.

Then, suddenly his rod jerks, he stands up, he starts reeling, and before we knew it, there he was, holding the biggest walleye of the day!


Oh yeah!

Back on dry land, I let my daddy gut and fillet the fish that I’d caught, but Chris got right in there and did a good portion of it himself (under the tutelage of the Master Angler, of course). He even kept the fish cheeks! Mmmmm. (No really, the cheeks are awesome)


Gotta love a man with fish cheeks. Blub blub.

Back at the campsite, we proudly displayed our catch to the family and began to prepare the feast. I concocted a lovely beer batter for the fishies and dad pulled out his camping specialty, a big pot of oil on the camp stove and homemade french fries! We didn’t eat Chris’ big catch that night, however. No, it was placed in a ziploc bag right next to the ice packs in the cooler, as it was to come home with us and be a special present for Grandma G.

As the long weekend came to a close, so did our big family camping trip. Thanks to Trevor and Steph (and go-mode) we took down the tents in record time, hit the road again and made it back home for dinner and more chillin' on the patio. I guess we had more relaxation in us after all!

As we weren’t heading back west until the end of the week, we made sure to have plenty of visits with grandmas, cousins, aunts, uncles and friends, as well as the all-important trip to the MCC store and a new tradition – the sculpture garden. What a cool town.


Grandma K had us over for cabbage roll casserole. I think Chris had three plates.


Grandma G took us out for an awesome restaurant lunch.

It was right in the restaurant, too, that Chris pulled out the old dirty beer cooler with the walleye fillets in it and proudly presented it to Grandma. She was thrilled!

It was so good to see them. When I’m out in Vancouver I tell myself every couple weeks to call them, but then it often just doesn’t happen. *sad feelings of a bad granddaughter*

Now, it being 2010, I may or may not have graduated high school 10 years ago. (Taco pizza, anyone?). My elderliness aside, 10 years is a reason to party, is it not? Thanks to Facebook, people apparently don’t have real big high school reunions anymore, but thanks also to Facebook, people can stay in touch with the people from high school that they actually like, and meet up with them for some good times when they come back to town!

As luck would have it, the other one of our gang to live out in the B-dot C-dot (the one and only Erin) was visiting Manitoba the same week as I was! How could you not organize a brunch and spa party with all your girls? How could you not???

It all started when I got picked up in Rosenfeld by none other than Shannon in her fancy new car. Yes, we’ve come a long way since high school – but that doesn’t mean we can’t still listen to ‘90s music!


Go MxPx!

We met up with the other girls in Winnipeg at the most adorable little breakfast place with awesome fruity-decorated dishes.


Did I mention it was adorable?


Narmmmummm.


Luckily some of my friends are smart enough to take group pictures.

Oh… here’s one that I managed to find!


What is this? Did I just put all of their grade 9 pictures on the internet? OH YES I DID! I’m evil.

Moving along with our day, after our petit dejuner, we were off to the spa because we are classy sophisticated women now, after all, and such women go to spas.


Classy, sophisticated women also try on sparkly hats and printed sunglasses at Urban Planet. What, you didn’t know?

As Shannon couldn’t accompany us to the spa, Erin and I got transferred into Suzy’s minivan.


Yes, she has a minivan. You know why? Because she is a classy and beautiful and talented entrepreneur and mother of two! Hm, what have I been doing these past 10 years??


Oh Erin, you’ve always liked fancy toys…

Ahhhhhh. The spa was fantastic. I don’t have any pictures from inside because, well, a lot of it involves half-nakedness. But it was sure fun! We all got fluffy white robes, they served us a big fruit tray out by the mineral pool, we soaked in there a while and then each girl went in for one treatment or another. Some got pedicures, massages, etc. I sort of went all out (I was on vacation!) and got a Japanese Seaweed Scrub Body Polish and Vichy Shower. What’s that? Well let’s just say afterwards all my skin felt (and smelled) really really awesome. After our treatments we all hung out in their little lounge in our robes and snacked on the spa’s finger food buffet and just chatted for a really long time (Yes, finger food buffet. Could it get any awesomer?)

Should we make a booking for 2020? I think maybe we should!!

After the Spa, I met up with Chris and Steph and Trevor, who had been exploring Winnipeg on their own that day. Apparently they lost track of Chris for a while, and when they found him again, he was very excited and said he’d been… dancing with wolves. I’m still not sure what he meant, but he came out with a bunch of pictures like these:




Wa-pi-ti

For dinner that night Steph and Trevor catered to our yuppie side and took us to a locally-sourced, trendy restaurant called “Fude”. Apparently it’s just pronounced “food”, but I insisted on saying “fyoud”. People still seemed to understand.


Here’s steph with a southeast Asian curry made with bison meat.

Chris mentioned that he was now very familiar with bison meat. Hmmm…


Cheers! Here’s to sisters and saskatoon berry sangria! Mmmmm.
With that delicious meal, we concluded our big day in Winnipeg. Only one day left to spend at home, better make the most of it by taking in some of the famous sculptures.




I love this picture. The fist is so powerfully random.

Some last moments with family were spent where else but on the patio. After yesterday I was feeling the spa-love and gave both Mom and Steph pedicures.


Cute toes! Now all we need to do is get you in some high heels ;)

The plane ride home was great. Air Canada entertainment systems rock, by the way. Last year I flew to Orlando with some American airline and I was sorely disappointed with pretty much everything. I guess we’re spoiled up here!

My suitcase was even overweight by about 2 pounds but the agent let it go. So awesome. It even arrived at my destination this time around. But why was my suitcase 52 pounds? I may or may not have raided Steph’s garden a little. Garden fresh Manitoba red potatoes weigh a lot! Who knew?


Best souvenirs EVER.

Thanks for a great time you guys!
Remember, you're always welcome in Vancouver too!