Day 6

Ah, sweet sleep.

We woke up ready to take on Saskatchewan! We had a few things we wanted to see, but we were behind even our loosey goosey schedule, so we didn't have much time.

The kids were getting restless by Saskatoon - particularly Dave, who seemed to be getting road-weary. So we stopped at the big river-front park for a run-around break.

The boys, digging in the dirt. Saskatoon was as beautiful as ever - Paris of the Praries, I think they call it. I've only been there twice that I can remember, and I always think we should stop and stay a while. There's lots to do there. But we didn't have time to do anything but chill at the park.

Our first major stop was a national historic site at Batoche. It's the site of a battle between the Metis and the Canadian government, basicly over how the land should be subdivided - the settlers did strips, like in France, but McDonald, who wanted to survey for the railroad, wanted them to do blocks. The Metis dug in their heels. A battle ensued. Many died. The whole park was very pro-Metis. The woman running the admission building was Metis - and very obviously biased. But it was pretty interesting, and the kids enjoyed it.

Ask any of them their favourite part, and they'll say the golf cart! Because the park was so huge, they had golf carts you could sign out. Because we had so many little kids, and it was such a hot day, we snagged one. It was the only way to see the park - there's no way we could have seen the far reaches without it. (And it was super-fun!)