Canada Trip - Day 6

Day 6 of our Canada Trip also happened to be Canada Day.

If you are like the boy (an aficionado of the American Revolution) who inquired, "When did Canada ever declare it's independence from someone?" - here is some background on Canada Day.

"Canada Day ...is Canada's national day, a federal statutory holiday celebrating the anniversary of the 1 July 1867 enactment of the British North America Act, which united Canada as a single country, which was in turn composed of four provinces. Canada Day observances take place throughout Canada as well as internationally."

Canada Day is generally celebrated in a manner similar to the 4th of July, with family gatherings, BBQing and fireworks.

We gathered on the 1st at my eldest sister's home for a BBQ. The kids had a "treasure hunt" and the adults played a word game. I was rather peeved when I saw what the game was "Cities and Towns of Manitoba"...how on earth would I, having been out of the country for 14 years (with short annual visits) be able to even figure out one of the answers. Even having lived in Manitoba for 25+ years - we did very little traveling around the province. It was a clever game devised by my puzzle loving mother.

There were 15 cities to figure out and the hints were alternative names for the real names such as:

vii female relatives - Seven Sisters
aviator hill - Pilot Mound
lake with whitecaps - Lac du Bonnet
chef's stream - Cook's Creek

Can you believe I won! Guess all those school years with my ear to the radio listening to winter school cancellations paid off. Most of the cities and towns I have never been to and when I wrote down the answers some only sounded faintly familiar.

After lunch we headed to a nearby park and played volleyball (of a fashion).

When the festivities ended, we headed back to my parents' place. About 15 min from home I noticed a sign "River Road". For some reason it was familiar in my mind but I couldn't really remember what was down there except maybe some high end homes - so we made the decision to take the exit.

Turned out to be a great scenic byway. We stopped and visited a couple of historic sites along the way - including the oldest stone church in Western Canada - with an awesome cemetery to boot! Unfortunately the church was closed but we walked around the cemetery and rectory. It was sad to see so many of the tombstones broken, tipped over and weathered. Sad to think that there lay someone loved and perhaps no longer remembered - the rememberers themselves were long gone...

I liked this tombstone because of its simplicity "Daisy Wife of John Ruttledge 1917"

Further down the road we came to another great site - the St. Andrews Lock & Dam. It was fun to get out and walk across the bridge and to get close to the lock & dam and see pelicans flying around.