At My Place: My Vacation Adventures

Well, I did get my little vacation last week to Moose Jaw, and I had some surprises. Smaller ones on Tuesday and on Thursday, but three bigger ones on Wednesday.

I praise and thank the LORD, but I must also commend Dori, my sister-in-law, who thought these things up, and my brother Ernie who helped to make them happen.

With that in mind I planned to leave here at noon on Tuesday, and had told Maria I expected to be there at 3 pm. Once I remembered how to set cruise-control I was rolling along at the highway speed of 110km/hr, and I got to Maria's address at 2:30. (Somehow I gained half an hour).

I gave her a 1 litre container of fresh-raspberries picked on Monday evening. She snacked on them as we visited. I tried to phone Dori but my cell phone was out of range. (Maybe I should have arranged for 'roaming privileges'.) But I knew they expected to be at Best Western, between 4 - 5 pm, where they had reserved a room for the three of us.

They arrived just minutes after I did. With a rolling cooler stocked with food supplies, they soon heated up a meal for us in the room's microwave.

Wednesday morning we headed to the famous tunnels, and took the Al Capone tour (they have 2 other tours). This involved some drama with various actors taking us from one room to another for various story/scenes in that historic time during prohibition when Al Capone of Chicago set up a secret chain of contacts to bring beer and wines into Chicago from Moose Jaw, as the mayor and chief of police were paid out of Al's pockets to be blind to these activities.

This tour had our group trooping up and down wooden stairs from one business to another, as one character handed us onto the next one who continued the story. (It is not the kind of drama I'd watch on TV, but the whole tour took just 45 min.)

Next to Tim Horton's for lunch, and back to our room for rest, then we were on to the famous mineral spa. I had found two decent swim suits at Mission Thrift, but I realize now that no photos were taken.

I had fully expected to just sit on the edge, dangling my legs. Dori would not hear of it. She took me by the arm and led me down a gradual slope into the giant indoor pool. Ah, warm as bath-water! Slowly she edged me inside some curved walls with ledges where we could sit in water up to our necks, and let the jets massage our backs with a higher pressure flow.

Soon my feet wanted to bob up to the surface and I worried about what would happen to my head then. (I can't swim!) So I always kept at least one arm tucked over the tile wall behind us.

The water was so comfortable I began to relax more. We also read the giant posters on the far wall which listed the 12 minerals/elements in the water. Ernie figured it was the salt that made our feet want to bob up. Floating should be easy; but I lacked the courage to try.

Dori and Ernie was ready to walk through the pool to the far side where a wide area allowed us to go to a smaller poor out in the open air. When they each took one of my arms I agreed to go with them. Oh! The water was even warmer there, the air and breeze above us was cooler, so I was soon ducking down to keep my shoulders covered with the warmer water.

We were in the spa about 2 1/2 hours, and I'll always remember this adventure - which they considered part of my birthday surprises.

Dori had asked around and several had recommended Hopkin's House as the best restaurant in Moose Jaw, so Ernie made reservations for us, and Dori urged me to dress up.

It turned out to be an old house pre-1905 when this became a province, with three stories with antiques everywhere we looked. Each room had two or three tables with a few chairs fitted in between the antiques. It took an hour or more to get our expensive orders, and we were the only ones in this one room.

Dori told the chatty server that we were celebrating my being the first in our family to reach this ripe age. Later, the server and another one brought out a huge piece of rich cheese cake with strawberries and a sparkler, singing Happy Birthday to me, and pausing to ask Ernie my name. (The three of us shared that dessert and I had to ask to take the rest of my meal of half-ribs home). It was 9 days after my birthday, but Dori figured that just made for a better Surprise!!

Getting up several times during the night convinced me that I had truly eaten way too much that day!

The next morning Dori's goal was to get ourselves packed and out on the road by 11 am when the cleaners want to get into our room.

I left ahead of them and went to see Maria again for a short while. She was depressed and made me feel sad for her.

I got a pressure/sinus headache behind my left eye making me somewhat cross-eyed. I wished for my antihistamines, but settled for a crumpled tissue between my left lens and my eye. That allowed my right eye to see the road ahead better.

I was home around 2 pm. and as soon as I'd brought everything in from the car I curled up for a nap with a cold pack over my eye. I was fine by suppertime and had some leftovers.

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