Days 82-83 (July 23-24): Saskatoon, Sask.

I enjoy bugging the crap out of my friends that hail from Saskatchewan because, primarily, well, they hail from Saskatchewan and, secondarily, they are all such damn pleasant people.  It is strange to admit that this was my first foray into the trapezoid province.

Frankly, at first glance, it is gorgeous!  Granted, I am basing this on a small sample size: 48 hours in Saskatoon and the train ride into the province from Alberta. (The train left Edmonton around 12:30 AM and arrived in Saskatoon around 8:30 AM. I was awake at dawn; I am assuming that most of what I saw between 4 AM or so and arrival was Saskatchewan. In any event, it was the Prairies...) There are not enough words to describe the countless shades of green and yellow that roll away to the horizon. (And, contrary to popular belief [or my misconceptions], it is not an unbroken horizon; there are groves of trees to 'break' the rolling fields.) The horizon then melts into the biggest sky I have ever seen with huge ballooning clouds where entire continents could seemingly play hide-and-seek. The over-all effect: stunning, just stunning.

Highlights from my Saskatoon stay:

- Within my hotel (The Senator, seemingly the only downtown Saskatoon hotel that charges less than $150+ a night) was located Winston's, an English-style pub. They have over 50 draft taps. That is not a typo: 50+ taps. In downtown Saskatoon. Again, as per The Underground in Edmonton, there was no theme (and to be clear, there is absolutely nothing wrong with no theme): English ales (e.g., Fuller products, including the Bengal Lancer IPA, which I have now seen twice: in midtown Manhattan and here. Go figure.), US craft beers (Rogue), Canadian craft beers from Ontario (Spearhead!), Manitoba and BC.  They also had a fine selection of bottled beers including Lagunitas products (a brewery which you may recall I visited in Petaluma, Ca.) and, of course, Pil!

(And, come on, you were expecting the following, weren't you?) So Saskatoon can support a 50+-tap bar, Edmonton a 72-tap bar, but Podunk beer lovers have to slink from bar to bar hoping they carry one or two craft beers, along with the dictatorship of crappy mass-produced shite that most of our small cartel of publicans hoist on us?  Jeebus. Someone make it stop... Thank the gods for the Dom. (That was me shamelessly sucking up to two of my faithful readers...)

Oh yeah, the bartender at Winston's bought me a shot, so the comped drink count is now at n+1.

- University of Saskatchewan

I walked around the rather large UofS campus. Some highlights:

The UofS curling rink:

The UofS grain elevator:

And, of course, this:

In all seriousness, I was quite surprised at the campus's large number of research institutes and laboratories, many of them branches of federal science-based departments and agencies. It makes me wonder where UofS ranks amongst Canadian universities for research.

Also on campus is the John G. Diefenbaker Museum, evidently the only museum devoted solely to a Canadian Prime Minister. While the Museum gave a good overview of Chief's life within and outside politics (man, he was quirky), it was a little lacking in outlining his accomplishments as PM. I went in knowing that his Government had cancelled the Avro Arrow contract and left knowing that his Government cancelled the Avro Arrow contract and that Diefenbaker got along with Eisenhower, but not with JFK. It seems to me there should have been more; maybe the issue is that there is not that much to tell?  The Museum does include replicas of his West Block office and of the Cabinet room as it would have appeared when he was PM, complete with copies of Cabinet documents. This gave me pause until I remembered that over 50 years had passed and that they were in the public domain. Once a central agency analyst, ...

- Wildlife update:

¤ About two hours east of Saskatoon, I saw what appeared to me to be a pronghorn. While they are present in Saskatchewan, they do not  supposedly range this far north; however, the animal I saw had what looked like 6 or 8-inch long, very dark horns or antlers that were arching backwards.

¤ I saw white pelicans on the South Saskatchewan River which passes through Saskatoon. I did not know they ranged so far north.

¤ There was a myriad of ducks and other waterfowl in the wetlands that border the train tracks.

¤ And, of course, prairie dogs!

Random comments:

- I saw Hutterites!

- I am now 'missing' only two provinces; later in the trip, I should be visiting PEI and Newfoundland and Labrador.  (Yes, I have been to all three territories.)