Candle Lake, Northern Saskatchewan

On our way back from the Maritimes, we called in on some of Tina's numerous relatives, some of whom had decamped from Prince Albert to Candle Lake. A fab day was spent speed boating, jet skiing, tubing and visiting. By a strange twist of fate, one of the chaps in this photo, Tina's Uncle Marcel, spent last winter building the ice roads in Northern British Columbia that Charlie drove along for work in the oil patch ( and might be doing so again this year with his wife, Heather).

Northern Saskatchewan is very pretty and is boreal forests, lakes and swimming holes. It is not at all like Southern Saskatchewan, as people may think.

In our week in Saskatchewan, we spent part of week in Prince Albert with Tina's Aunt & Uncle, Majella & Don (who Tina had lived with when she went to Rivier Academy, the all-girls' catholic school for high school). It was a special time for Tina to visit with the family who loved and cared for her during those years.

We also enjoyed our time visiting with relatives on Tina's Dad's side in his home town of St. Isidore de Bellevue. Along with Uncle Aurele and Aunty Jeanette, we were able to spend time with cousins, Julie and Gisele (just missing Andre by a few hours, unfortunately). Uncle Firman was also there, suffering from the heat and humidity. Charlie enjoyed discussing topics with Firman about running power lines in the Northwest Territories.

As a side note, the road leading into Bellevue ( this is near the National Historic site of Batoche, where Louis Riel had his last stand) was the worst that we encountered in Saskatchewan, possibly even in the entire country.