the whiteshell

 Remember my post about Katy's slow start at her job?

Well, just over 2 weeks ago she was told that she would be working 14 days straight

and then have 3 days off.

She really wanted to do something as a family during those days so

I got busy and found a cabin to rent in Manitoba's beautiful Whiteshell.

On Monday afternoon we loaded up the van, stopped in Steinbach to pick up Katy

and off we went.

In less than 2 hours we had reached our destination.
It was hard to believe we were in the same province and only a few hours 

from home.

I think we all miss trees!

 Of course mini golfing had to be on the agenda.

When Howard and I were first married we played a round on this course. 

It was then that I realized that I had, years earlier, actually camped with my family

at this park!

We were on our way back to Alberta from PEI and had just crossed into Manitoba.

After a long day on the road and the trailer finally set up, my brother and sister and I had happened upon the golf course while chasing a skunk.

Fortunately the skunk evaded us but I remember standing at the

chain link fence, gazing longingly at the magic of it all.

The lights were on and the people playing looked like they were on a stage.

Even as I write this today that memory is still so vivid.

There was no time to golf the next day as the horse was definitely pointed toward home!

But who would have thought that one day - 39 years later - I would be golfing at that

magical course with my own family.

 Of course the game had its challenging moments!

 The weather was amazing and no mosquitoes were to be found -

just lots of pesky little biting black flies.

 It almost felt like we were back in Europe - almost.

We just had to stop and pick some daisies. 

Their happy little faces were everywhere.

 We had to try our hand at lawn bowling as well.

 And take a "chip break" halfway through the game.

 We were good citizens and collected our own firewood.

Of course that meant we didn't have to pay for it!

 And what's a campfire without a s'more?

We had such a wonderful time together.