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Monday, June 20, 2011

Dad visits La Crete

Just recently my Dad came to visit me in La Crete, and his presence alone sure made this remote location feel a lot like home.



He first arrived on Wednesday, June 15, around noon. He had landed at midnight and planned to take Highway 88, but with some difficulties and set backs, he eventually found himself backtracking to Peace River and up Highway 697. Eventually, he made it here and we headed off for lunch with Chris, all day breakfast at the Country Grill.

After that I took Dad on a tour of La Crete: Duck-Shit-Lake, the old ferry landing (Atlas Landing), my office, and "hot spots" in La Crete, such as the Co-op and Bargain Shop -- yes, these are the places we look forward to here in the north.

We had wanted to head out to meet up with Councillor Dicky Driedger to get a tour of his farm, but we were both pretty tired and just wanted to catch up. Dad had just come from Los Vegas and has lots of stories to tell, so we headed home and waited for Chris. After a nice pan of homemade lasagna we introduced Dad to two Mennonite games: Settlers and Beans.

Most mornings Dad and I didn't move too quickly. We'd sleep in until 9 or 10am, have coffee and chit-chat until Chris joined us for lunch (or brunch for us!) at noon.



On Thursday, we headed off to the Mennonite Heritage Museum in La Crete. We had a lot of fun touring the old pioneer buildings and talking to locals about the history of La Crete. Then we headed in to the Heritage Centre to check out the animals on display for the Fish and Game Club awards night that evening. That evening, the weather cooperated so we had a BBQ and bonfire with s'mores (of course!). The weather was pretty wet throughout his trip, so we were lucky we decided to have a fire on Thursday.



Friday Dad and I went to Fort Vermilion in the afternoon and went to their museum. We toured around, read about the Irish Potato Famine (where we Foley's came to Canada) and learned about the Peace River and native settlement in the north. We toured a couple old houses and a quick tour of the hamlet before heading home for coffee at the UFA and board games.

We celebrated Father's Day on his final day in town, Saturday. First we headed out of town to check out the new Zip-line in La Crete. It was both exciting and terrifying. I've been zip-lining in BC, and although I'm terrified of heights I did enjoy the adventure, but here there are pegs in the post for people to climb to the top before zipping. If I ever made it to the top, I'm sure the zip line would be great, but there is NO way I would ever make it up that post!



Then we headed to Fort Vermilion to watch the York boat come in and take part in those festivities. Dad met the Hon. Frank Oberle, our MLA, a few councillors, and some of the York boat crew. We then toured the Old Bay House in Fort before heading to our favourite local restaurant: The Trapper Shack.

We had planned to go to the Mud Bog in High Level or Penner's Speedway in La Crete that evening, but we were all tired so came home to watch a movie, play a few rounds of Settler's and head to bed. Dad had to get to bed early in order to be up at 2:40am to be on the road just before 3 to head to Edmonton.

Now I'll just have to wait for Mom's visit in July. And then for my visit home at Christmas!

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