The West Trip

Uncle Bernie and I ventured out today all over the country
side all the way to Grand Beach.

You must start with a good breakfast! Vickies was quite the

hangout in its day. My parents spent some time here. And we were

were served byVickie herself. The food was excellent. Very cool.

Down the road a few kilometers, we stopped

by at the church where my parents were married.

Built in the 30s, it is no longer in use but quite a nice

building. I had seen this church in films of that day but

it was cool to see it up close.

A little further and we saw the site of the famous Staska Grocery.

Of course, it is no longer standing - it was on the grass part in the

picture. The people that bought it still live here, however.

After driving around Grand Beach, we ended the day at

the Beausejour Museum. It is very cool. Instead of artifacts

under glass like most museums,This one has entire buildings

that you could actually walk through.

They had an entire house there. An entire store that closed

45 years ago. In the Teacher's Cottage, Bernie found a picture

of the Staska Grocery store on the wall! This is a cropped

picture of the picture. Nice job Selena!

Here is Bernie with a volunteer at the museum. They went

to the same school but not in the same class. This

is the store that closed in 1975. Bernie said that my Uncle

Willard went to grade 12 in the upstairs of this store.

In that store, Bernie found a picture of his father that he

had never seen before. He figures his dad was about

20 years old in the is photo.

It was a very interesting day with all the history. Thanks Uncle B!

Visiting in Winnipeg

The sky turns dark, and the lightning show starts as we approach Winnipeg....


from the side view mirror

as we were driving Dean suddenly pulled over, I thot we had a flat tire or something ( visions of mine and Maddie's trip a few years ago ) but no he points to the odometer.... we hit 100000, we sang a dance and did a quick jig in the car, then continued on our way....

we arrived at 11:30 pm and Geo stayed awake to greet us!!!

the next day Dave - u came to visit, he was heading out to Montreal the next morning so he couldn't stay late, but he came to say hi and have a beer. He gave me a shirt from way back when we volunteered for the Labbatt Lite relay, good times....

Val and Randy popped over too, we were all sitting outside and then the rain came, crazy lightning, great show, we tried our hardest to capture it on film, but we failed. We all ran into the garage and sat in chairs watching the light show... me and Maddie ran out to see how hard it was raining.. and we got pelted!!!

so then Katieface and me walked to the end of the driveway to see how the sky was beyond the trees, and what we saw wasn't good!!! it was Black black black!!! comin our way.

so we moved inside and played a few games of "Dice" Geo won every time!!

Katieface served us "dicey" salsa...

the next day Dean and I drove out to the beaches... first Winnipeg Beach. We walked the boardwalk and went to see the old cabins...

when at the beach one must walk on a "matchstick" dock.... this one is on Poplar street, our first cabin was here.

then off to Gimli, Russy was born here, so I thot Dean might like to go visit, up until we drove into Gimli Dean had thot Gimli was just a small town, not a lake front vacation spot!

we went to visit the giant viking

and had the local fish, Pickerel, on the water front. It's funny for me to be a tourist here, when I spent so much time here as a kid, but there I was taking a whack of pictures...

that night we went to visit Dean's family. Starting from Maddie and going clockwise, Kevin, Aunt Nettie, Sandra, and Dean. We stayed til 2:30 am, and laughed til our faces hurt!!

next mornin we went to the Lockport festival and met up with Uncle Bernie.

and we got to meet Aunt Alice. It was soooo hot today 33 and stuffy, we stayed under the tent but sometimes there wasn't enuff wind, and we were melting slightly, hence the many beer!

in Lockport there is a store that sold Fluevogs!! Lockport is a tiny town so i wonder how many of these they sell?? These boots in my hand and 549.00 dollars!!! and apparently you can only get them in this store, Fluevog gave the owner permission to design a pair of boots, and these are her design! Very kewl.... but too rich for my blood!

after Lockport over to the South side of the city to see my family. We met all the Beaton's at Montana's by Bishop Grandon. Nicki and Dean didn't get their supper with everyone else.... but they did get free dessert for the table afterwards!

the whole lot of us, ( Nicki's hubby and kids were camping so they missed the dinner ) Aunty Pat, Uncle Jimmy, James, Dana, Avery, Nicki, me, Noah and Maddie. Thanx Dana for organizing and thanx Uncle for Supper:-)

Corner gas

Ok.... so the Corner Gas sign is gone, and you can't look into the Ruby... but Oh My gosh what a rush to walk the steps of Oscar and Brent!!! We weren't expecting much, seeing other posts of the old Corner Gas site, knowing that most of the stuff was gone, the Ruby sign ect... but it was sooo kewl. We illegally broke the laws to get a picture of the Kia in front of the "pumps" filling up with gas. Then we went into town. We were denied Brent's famous chili cheese dog, because they don't serve food on weekdays... but we did eat, buy t-shirts, gas up, mail a letter ( complete with a dog river postmark ) bought booze at the liquor/insurance store... yes it is both just like in the show! we went into the Dog River Hotel, and stalked the house that "Emma and Oscar" lived in.... we got a picture of the sites around town and had a blast. It was so worth the trip, it's only about 40 clicks out of the way of the highway... but come on... we stood on the Corner Gas lot!! Go... if you get the chance, and if you go on a weekend, have a chili cheese dog for us!

Hank and Wanda


where's Davis and Karen, I guess we'll have to do

creepin Oscar and Emma's house.....

yep insurance and liquor!! And the funny thing is, we can't seem to find these Caramilk coolers anywhere else except Winnipeg... and Rouleau AKA Dog River

wish we could've bought some of the crazy headline papers....

pretend there are handcuffs that Maddie is twirling in her fingers there....lol

parked at the Ruby

fillin up with gas

the Corner Gas set

behind the gas pumps, these have been added recently

in the opening credits Brent waves to Lacy over on the deck

the Grain Elevator still has the Dog River name on it, the water tower however is changed back to Rouleau

me pretending to be Lacy

like a kid in a candy store, so excited to be here! We all were, it was really fun!


as we drove up, the song just happened to be on the radio.... ok fine, on our disc!

things you don't often see

We were at McDonalds the other day, and we pulled up behind this car. Inside was a full wedding party, Bride and all. You don't often see that in McDonalds!!

82 years ago...

Cliff Hanna was born.....We went to Cliffy's birthday party last night , he's 82!! And still funny as ever! I had to google and see what else happened in 1928...

The cartoon star Mickey Mouse appears on November 18th in Steamboat Willie, an animated 1928 short film produced by Walt Disney.

The First Yo Yo Factory Opens making YoYo's in Santa Barbara, California.

The House at Pooh Corner by Author A. A. Milne is published in England

Lady Chatterley's Lover is banned for being to explicit in England and the US

Aviator Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to successfully pilot an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean

Alexander Flemming discovered penicillin in 1928 and changed the world of modern medicines by introducing the age of antibiotics and his discovery of penicillin has, and still, saves millions of people

Home Pregnancy Test first introduced which tests for the presence of hCG which doubles every 48 hrs during early pregnancy and is checked using a urine sample . Introduced by Selmar Aschheim and Bernard Zondek

Looks like it was quite the year!! Happy Birthday Cliffy :-)


me and Annabell

Maddie and Cliffy

Happy birthday to Cliffy

Annabell

heading South, then East...

Since we flew into Victoria and drove to Nanaimo, it was time to check out and head back to the airport. We said our good byes, had lunch, did a couple of touristy things then handed our car back over, and flew home. Sigh... that was fun :-)

bye bye to Gramma Fifi

kisses for Bella, she called Maddie her "friend" all weekend, that or Alice lol

a fruity summer patio drink,

no, that face wasn't for the drink, it was for the seafood that we ordered... lol we started out our first day with a Vegan restaurant, but you have to have seafood on the Oceanside when you're in Victoria... Maddie didn't' approve.

she did approve of the scenery tho.

Maddie made a statue come to life. As soon as she dropped her coin in the hat, he was off that pedestal quick as a wink doing a dance, and giving her a hug.

the Parliament tour was half an hour, so we went on that and learned some fun facts about the building. There was a window given to Queen Victoria and when they built the library addition they had to dismantle it and place it somewhere else. They forgot about it and it sat in the basement lost for 62 years! Also the guy that designed the building, was only 25, and he lied on his resume about the buildings he had designed! But he got the contract and here the Parliament sits still :-)

Dean paid his parking tickets. We were 9 minutes late getting back to our car today, and we all held our breath until we saw there was no new ticket on the windshield.

Maddie and Dean got an icecream....

I wanted a waffle, from "Wannawaffle"

and we went thru the wax museum, how appropriate that they had an Alice display! Now to board the plane and fly home.