Couchcation: Part 3

Arlene Blackman Yolles ♦ August 2, 2020 ♦ Leave a comment

Dear Reader, I invite you to continue our journey through Canada.  And, as promised, I will tell you why my sister’s nickname was The Moose.  Read on….

In Manitoba, we stopped in Winnepeg where a Fringe Festival was on, providing us with some creative shows to enjoy.  Of course, we went where no Yolles has gone before … to “The Best of Star Trek …Live!”  As if that weren’t sufficient, the Manitoba Museum had a special Star Trek exhibit and experience.  We beamed ourselves there for a wondrous few hours.

Also in Winnepeg we enjoyed Taste of Manitoba as well as the celebration of the Proclamation of Manitoba as a province (its 125^th birthday party).  There are always many festivals, celebrations and activities in Canada in the summer as they know that, come winter, they could easily be buried under 3 feet of snow!

What’s a vacation without a visit to the zoo?  Winnepeg has a magnificent one, Assiniboine Park Zoo, where we see a statue of Harry Colebourne who bought a mascot for his wartime regiment in 1916 and named it Winnie after his home town.  Little did he know that his bear cub would become the inspiration for A. A. Milne’s classic tales of Winnie the Pooh!

On to Alberta and the little town of Vegreville.  Never heard of it?  You can’t miss the world’s largest Easter Egg in the middle of the town!

Jasper National Park with its breathtaking views and trails became our next stop.  We took a tram to the top of Whistler Mountain where the view is almost too good to be true, traveled the Icefields Pkwy where we marveled at the gorgeous views and then on to Banff and Lake Louise, beautiful even in the rain!

We are nearing the end of our trip; my next blog will take us to Vancouver and Seattle.  Stay tuned!

Now for my sister:  when she was a young woman, she dated a married man.  One evening, they were talking on the phone when, unexpectedly, his wife walked into the room.  Thinking quickly, he said into the phone, “Ok, Moose, so I’ll see you tomorrow on the basketball court.”  From then on, my sister, Marcia, became The Moose.

And here’s a poem I wrote for her in tribute to her 60th birthday in 1999: