Village Vet at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Regina, with his friend the anorexic giant bison
More below the tangled orange border fence.
Today is my birthday. I am fifty-five, having outlived all the other men in my family for many generations. I am not sure what to make of that. I guess I am on borrowed time.
My wife and I decided to go to the other major museum in Regina, the Royal Saskatchewan Museum. (We went to the RCMP Heritage Centre yesterday. My wife did not ask about Snidley Whiplash.) It is a museum of natural history, and cultural development of natives of the area.
http://www.royalsaskmuseum.ca/ Royal Saskatchewan Museum Official Site
https://www.flickr.com/... Our Trip photos Official Site
FredFredZ getting friendly with Bullwinkle
The museum notes that north-central Saskatchewan is also known as "The North American Duck Factory." If you fancy duck hunting, grab a shotgun and drive on up.
Afterward, my wife wanted to take me out for traditional Canadian cuisine for my birthday. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a traditional Canadian cuisine.
The only truly Canadian restaurant, Tim Horton's (now the owner of Burger King so Burger King could avoid US corporate taxes), was packed with a line so long it gives a new Orwellian meaning to the term "fast food."
Instead, we went for more traditional fare: Indian food. (That would be curry, not Sioux.)
That restaurant was fantastic. (As it turns out, in the alternative newspaper here - The Prairie Dog - the restaurant has won its best restaurant award five years running.) Though it wasn't really inexpensive ($37 for two people), it was well-worth the money.
On the way back to the hotel, I noted the front tires on our car are severely worn, so much so I am not sanguine about driving it back to Nebraska in that condition. So we will be bringing another souvenir from Canada: tires from Regina's Smart dealer (assuming I am allowed to service a USA Smart car in Canada without voiding my warranty).
Speaking of the car, a couple days ago a woman with a child leaned out of her car and snapped a photograph of the back of our car on her smartphone. (I wonder who she sent it to.)
The child was excitedly pointing at us. (Since there are Smart cars here in Regina, I assume it was the Nebraska Gold Star family plate with registration "87" and the odd bumper stickers on our car: Human Rights Campaign Marriage Equality sticker, dev/car, the Liberal Gun Club.) Likewise today, a Sikh fellow stopped us in the street and commented, "Cool licence plate." (In reality, I would rather have my father than a cool licence plate.)
Tomorrow early we are off to the airport. Germany, you have been warned. Air Canada has warned us we may not carry our Smart car on as a carry on bag; we'll have to leave it at the airport.
Sun May 31, 2015 at 10:30 PM MT: I am watching The National on the CBC at the moment. The show is comparing the differences in campaign spending limits imposed on the Conservative, Liberal, and New Democratic Parties here in Canada (the general election is coming up) and the unlimited free-for-all that is campaign advertising in the USA.
(Adverts here are also more about the candidate and his or her positions, though the Conservative party has a rather sophisticated attack ad on Justin Trudeau.)
The CBC is comparing Canada's own advertising style with that of the USA. (The example ad they show is the fellow who argued for the II Amendment and used a rifle to shoot a copy of the Affordable Care Act and toss it in a wood chipper.)
They also note that the two parties in the USA work to raise money for each other: Look what the other guys said about us! Quick! Send an E-mail and ask for more money! Sheldon Adelson! Send another $10Million!