Purple Quest - Exploring Saskatoon

A friend of mine sent me a link to a magazine article about one of Canada's best kept secrets...purple beaches... and it ended up being the impetus for my most recent travels - to Saskatchewan.

Not only was I, of course, interested in perhaps seeing purple sand/beaches, but I also thought that a nice way to celebrate Canada's 150th Birthday would be to see a part of my beautiful country that I've never seen before.  Other than driving the Trans-Canada highway across Saskatchewan I'd not seen anything of that province at all, so combine the two and you have the destination for a little trip this summer.

So I started off here:

Saw the sunrise on my way to the airport:

Left this behind:

And landed here:

Who knew there was so much water in the prairies??

My first glimpse of the South Saskatchewan River

Saskatoon is the largest city in Saskatchewan, and it straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River.  Although not the capital of the province (which is Regina) it is often seen as the province's cultural and economic hub since its founding in 1882 as a temperance colony.  Saskatoon is named after the berry of the same name, which is native to the region, and is itself derived from the Cree misâskwatômina.

One of the city's landmarks is the Delta Bessborough Hotel, known to locals at the Bez.  Built by the Canadian National Railway, it was among the last railway hotels to be started before the Great Depression of the 1930s brought their era to a close.

The South Saskatchewan River is a major river in Canada, flowing through Alberta and Saskatchewan.  Saskatoon is known for its diverse and vibrant culture and its six (with a seventh currently being constructed and an eighth in the planning stages) river crossings, which has given it the nicknames "Paris of the Prairie" and "Bridge City".

Taking a little cruise on the Prairie Lily, Saskatoon's riverboat, along the river was a lovely thing to do:

"The Marr" is Saskatoon's oldest building still on its original site.  It was one of the first substantial houses to appear in the original Temperance Colony of Saskatoon - built in 1884.  The Marr family were the original inhabitants, and then a year after it was built it served as a field hospital to accommodate and treat the wounded during the Northwest Resistance (in 1885).

This house, built in 1920, was the former residence of  distinguished musician and influential piano teacher, Dr. Lyell Gustin, whose piano studies were known nationally and internationally for musical excellence.

The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist was constructed in 1912:

And while I was in Saskatoon I happened to see a newspaper article naming Homestead Ice Cream in Saskatoon as one of Canada's best places to get ice cream.  (http://saskatoon.ctvnews.ca/saskatoon-ice-cream-parlour-named-one-of-best-in-canada-1.3526322
"Dill pickle flavoured ice cream"???  Better try that!

(Not bad at all actually)