A Moose Jaw Gem: Wakamow Valley

So much happened in Wakamow Valley while we lived here.  Long walks, longer runs, winter picnics, and play-dates with friends.  It's been cold, it's flooded, the colours explode in the fall and the humidity sticks to the foliage in the summer.  

It's where we go to calm our senses and take in the changing of the seasons.  

I'm really going to miss Wakamow Valley...it's such a gem in Moose Jaw.

Moose Jaw Main Street

Few things were as striking to me as Moose Jaw's Main Street when I first moved to town.  I mean, really!  There is the cobbler, the coffee shops, the Mae Wilson Theatre.  At Christmas they string lights across the road (think "It's a Wonderful Life" come to life) and in the summer they shut it down for Sidewalk Days and small town parades.  While some things have changed, much has stayed the same for a number of years.

Main Street in Moose Jaw is where you see the tourists pop in for the Underground Tunnel tours and where locals sit out on benches to watch the world go by.  You see more people meeting and greeting on Main Street than anywhere else in the Jaw.  In the winter you might see someone skiing down the middle of the road and in the summer, people strolling by shop windows.

My good friend Daniel visited a few weeks ago and he marvelled at how many people were walking from place to place.  That's the thing about a small town with a Main Street like this...you can walk and talk and slow down and breathe and notice things you just don't when you are whizzing by the miles of strip malls prevalent in so many cities these days.

At one end, Main Street is flanked by the old Train Station, now a Saskatachewan Liquor store, but still maintaining its grace and stature at the end of the road.  The other way leads up, up and away toward Diefenbaker Lake or Saskatoon, depending on your mood.

Main Streets are passing fancies in most places...relics of times gone by.  I'm happy to know that Moose Jaw's continues to thrive and create spaces for the people who live and visit to enjoy their town just that much more.

Moving Time!

Friends, it's been a hectic summer.  No lie.

Dave and I were in the midst of decision making.  At the beginning of the summer, we were deciding what direction we were going to move in next and then the military, during the first week of July, made that decision for us...

Winnipeg, here we come!

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The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of cleaning our condo in Moose Jaw, putting it on the market, selling it (including all furniture), visiting Winnipeg for a week for a house-hunting trip, finding a condo there, squaring away paperwork, hosting a friend of our from the States who came to visit...and...just keeping up with life!

We will be moving to our new home at the end of this month.

The change of scenery will be good and lucky for us, we have amazing friends family in Winnipeg that will help make our transition that much easier.

One of the benefits of being in the military...you have friends everywhere!

We are savouring our last couple of weeks here in the Jaw.  We will be doing some things we've always wanted to do...camping at Buffalo Pound Provincial Park, visiting the Western Development Museum, taking pictures of murals and enjoying the last little bit of summer with our friends family here in Moose Jaw.

It is a bittersweet time as Dave has been here for almost a decade and this is where we began our life as a married couple.  While we are excited for the change, we are sad to be leaving such incredible people and this friendly community.

Stay tuned.  Lots of updates over the next few weeks.  I plan on being a tourist in this little prairie city...will you join me?