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Time to try out a ‘new’ destination! We had heard good things about Douglas Provincial Park on the shore of the big man-made Lake Diefenbaker. It’s a 2.5 hour drive with the motorhome and it was the first time with our on-and-off foster kitty Smokey, who’s staying with us again for a while. He did great, not too scared when we were driving and loving the camping as much as all of us 
 The campsites in the forested area are all private and it was a short walk to the beautiful beaches. There is a concession stand / store with great homemade food (delicious burger!) right by the main beach. And the lake… just wow!
The next day we tried to walk the Sunset trail, but we were cut off by some flooding. We went back and took the other trail (we think it was how we would’ve come back, but we’re not sure) and after walking through bushes, grassland and a bit of forest, we ended up on some really gorgeous beaches! Again… wow! We decided to follow the beach back to the campground, but were cut off by a swampy part. We at first went too far to the left and ended up walking on clumps of grass but in more and more water… this was not going to work. We went back and stayed closer to the beach (and most importantly in front of the beaver dam) and found a place with less water to go through. Later on at the campsite we made a fire again and barbecued on it 
Sunday we had to leave again, we visited the nearby town Elbow. We went to the marina and had a great lunch (high quality and creative, but also big and below $10!) at the Boathouse restaurant in town. A place to visit again!
 album 06/18 – 06/20 motorhoming! – Douglas Provincial Park (SK)
Nederlandse tekst “motorhoming! – Douglas Provincial Park @ Lake Diefenbaker (SK)” »
 Thursday we finally got our passports back from LA (after 5 weeks!) and we drove to the port of entry at the Canada/US border that has an immigration office, North Portal, to officially land as landed immigrants!!! We are now permanent residents!! A dream come true after 6 years!
Donderdag kregen we onze paspoorten terug uit LA (na 5 weken!) en reden we naar de grensovergang aan de Canada/USA grens wat een immigratie kantoor heeft, North Portal, om officieel te landen als gelande immigranten!!! We zijn nu ‘permanent residents’ (permanente bewoners)!! Een droom die uitkomt na 6 jaar!
Since the weather forecasts were the best for the SW part of our province, we decided to go back to Cypress Hills. As we didn’t reserve a site, we ended up at the Terrace Campground, which was just as beautiful as the Rainbow where we stayed last year. The sites were a bit smaller and it was harder to find one that was level enough, but we ended up with #63 on a high spot overlooking all the lower levels (terraces). Gorgeous!
 We got there early in the evening last Wednesday (2nd), after having a great supper at MeiMei’s (Chinese) in Swift Current. The next day we walked to the campground office (to register) and to the core area. We spent some time in the patio of the visitor centre overlooking Loch Leven – it was ‘only’ 16°C but it felt wonderful in the sun, true t-shirt weather over here After enjoying the weather and the view for a few hours we had some fast food (near the mini golf) for supper on our way back to the campground. The distances weren’t as far as we remembered from the first time. Our whole loop today was little over 4 km (from campsite to lake was 1.3 km)!
On Friday we drove to Maple Creek and the West Block to visit the Fort Walsh National Historic Site and the Conglomerate Cliffs. It was a pretty long drive but beautiful. The Fort Walsh tour with actors was fun and the view from the Cliffs spectacular! On our last day, the Saturday, we had some rain showers, but we also played mini golf and hiked around the campground areas during the sunny periods in between. Again we didn’t see any moose on this trip, but a lot of deer, antelope, coyotes and a gazillion cows (see pics in the album)
album 06/02 – 06/06 motorhoming! – Cypress Hills Provincial Park (SK) (120 pictures)
click to enlarge:
Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park – Terrace Campground
One of the many campgrounds in the Centre Block, in a gorgeous forest setting. Terrace has 4 levels (terraces), it was 1-1.5 km away from the core area. We had an electric site for $22 and bought a Provincial Parks year pass for $50. There was a service centre with showers, but also small toilet buildings that had flush toilets and were very clean!Beautiful park, and it was nice to have all the extras open (store, food, visitor centre patio), as our first two visits were outside the season.
Nederlandse tekst “motorhoming! – Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park (Centre Block, SK)” »
YEEAAAHHHHH we got the email from the Canadian visa office in LA that we can send in the passports for the permanent residence visas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YEEAAAHHHHH we hebben de email van het Canadese visum bureau in LA gekregen, dat we onze paspoorten op kunnen sturen voor de ‘permanent residence’ visa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After we said goodbye to our house guest Mark, who moved back to Lloydminster this morning (see previous post under ‘general’), we started our first camping trip of the season! We wanted to go to Buffalo Pound or Last Mountain Lake and as the parks only had unserviced sites until the May long weekend, we ended up at a private campground at Buffalo Pound, Buffalo View Campground. Not officially open yet (no water, no bathrooms etc), but owner Jim said if power was all we needed we were welcome!
 The weather was decent, partly sunny and not windy (until Sunday), so we’ve been outside quite a lot. We walked around on the campground and chilled out by the water or on our site. The campground has mostly seasonal sites that are more private than the ones in the provincial park, but I missed having more space to walk around by the shore. We did hike up on the hills where you have a splendid view over the lake! And the cats were fascinated by the peacocks that walked around, must’ve been a first! As a bonus our friend Gord from Moose Jaw (who we met on our last camping trip at Buffalo Pound) came by for a visit! Definitely a successful first trip of the season!
album 05/07 – 05/09 motorhoming! – Buffalo View Campground @ Buffalo Pound, SK (95 pictures)
Buffalo View Campground
grassy and fairly private sites in the coulees by Buffalo Pound, mostly seasonal sites though. As the campground wasn’t officially open yet, we can say anything about the bathrooms and other amenities, but there is an outdoor entertainment area, horseshoe court, picnic tables, etc. As they weren’t open yet, we paid only $20/night for the site with power.
Nederlandse tekst “motorhoming! – Buffalo View Campground @ Buffalo Pound, SK” »
Last night there has been a cougar sighting IN the city (the first ever!) only 2 km away from our house, by the Conexus Art Centre at the Wascana Lake. Exciting and scary at the same time. Although it’s probably long gone, people are advised to be careful around the park.
Gisteravond is er een poema gezien IN de stad (voor het eerst!), slechts 2 km van ons huis, bij het Conexus Art Centre bij het Wascana Lake. Spannend en eng tegelijk. Hoewel het waarschijnlijk allang weer weg is, worden mensen toch geadviseerd voorzichtig te zijn in het park.
» Leaderpost article
» Nederlandse computer vertaling (Google) van het artikel (Dutch Google translation)
Last week we also had a young moose bull wander into the city. That’s less rare, but still special.
Vorige week was er ook al een jonge eland stier de stad binnengewandeld. Dat is iets minder zeldzaam, maar toch nog wel bijzonder.
» Leaderpost pictures
As spring is around the corner and the snow is melting (but you never know, we can still get new snow!), we went away for a weekend to Moose Mountain Provincial Park. We’ve camped there before and had breakfasts in the Inn – now we actually stayed in one of the Inn’s pretty queen rooms.
It was just a perfect little weekend. We got there around 2pm on Friday, which was a few hours before check-in time, but the room was already available. We spent the rest of the day there, sitting outside in the sun in my t-shirt (with 3°C, only in Canada!!), enjoying the view over Kenosee Lake and the deer walking by! We had some sandwiches for supper, watched TV, had internet, and watched the sun set over the park.
On Saturday we went for an auto tour after breakfast, to check out a bit more than what we normally do with the motorhome and bicycles. The weather was great, we saw some nice scenery and lots of deer! In the afternoon we had a nap and when we woke up again, fog was rolling in out of nowhere! DUDE, where’s my LAKE?!?! But that didn’t ruin anything… we had a nice evening and after a brunch buffet on Sunday we headed back home again. The fog was still there, but once we descended onto the prairie we got out of the clouds and into the sun again!
album 03/12 – 03/14 Kenosee Lake, Moose Mountain Provincial Park (SK) (82 pictures)
Nederlandse tekst “weekend in the Kenosee Lake Inn, Moose Mountain Prov. Park (SK)” »
Right now we’re in full Olympics mode!! The openingsshow in Vancouver was fantastic and made us so proud to be a Canadian resident!! And thanks to our wonderful neighbours Mike and Alison we finally have the Olympic mittens too now! As for the games… Dutch speedskater Sven Kramer has Gold and mogul skier Alex Bilodeau just now got the first ever Canadian Gold Medal on Canadian soil… woohoooo!!!
Op dit moment zijn we helemaal in Olympics stemming!! De openings ceremonie in Vancouver was fantastisch en we zijn erg trots Canadese inwoners te zijn!! En dankzij onze geweldige buren Mike en Alison hebben we nu eindelijk ook de Olympische wanten! Wat de Spelen betreft… schaatser Sven Kramer heeft Goud gehaald en de Canadese mogul skieër Alex Bilodeau heeft zojuist de allereerste Canadese Gouden Medaille gehaald op Canadese bodem… wooohoooo!
Time for some winter shots. We had a big storm 3 weeks ago with 27 cm of snow and snowdrifts many feet high, which left many people stranded in their own driveway or street for a day. Lots of digging to do, like Nico and Randy from acrosse the street are doing here.
Tijd voor wat winter foto’s. We hadden een flinke storm 3 weken geleden met 27 cm sneeuw en sneeuwophopingen van enkele meters hoog, die vele mensen deden stranden in hun oprit of straat voor een dag. Er was veel uit te graven, zoals Nico en Randy van de overkant hier doen.
Moose near Regina! Unfortunately we did not see any yet, this photo was uploaded to the Weathernetwork website on Feb 5 by Todd Harder, photo was taken near Grand Coulee.
Elanden in de buurt van Regina! Helaas hebben we er nog geen gezien, deze foto was opgeladen op de Weathernetwork website op 5 februari door Todd Harder, foto is vlakbij Grand Coulee genomen.
And when it gets too cold, we’ll just go to the new Walmart Supercentre that just opened.. it’s HUGE!
En als het te koud wordt, gaan we toch naar het nieuwe Walmart Supercenter wat net geopend is.. het is ENORM!
Further updates: medical went well as far as we can tell, we learned that our file has been moved from Buffalo to LA (Buffalo’s too busy) and little Smokey went back home after 10 days. That’s it right now!
Verdere updates: de medical ging goed zover we konden zeggen, we hebben gehoord dat ons dossier van Buffalo naar LA verhuisd is (Buffalo had het te druk) en kleine Smokey was na 10 dagen weer naar huis gegaan. Dat was het!
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welcome! We are Nico and Marlies Wobben and in February 2008 we moved from the Netherlands to Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada on work permits. In June 2010 we finally became permanent residents (landed immigrants)! Nico is an RN at the General Hospital and I (Marlies) am an administrator at Canada Life. And we have 3 cats!
Wij zijn Nico en Marlies Wobben en in februari 2008 zijn we verhuisd van Nederland naar Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada op werkvergunningen. In juni 2010 werden we eindelijk 'permanent residents' (gelande immigranten)! Nico is verpleegkundige in het General Hospital en ik (Marlies) ben administrator bij Canada Life. En we hebben 3 katten!
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most recent album:
6 random images 1985-2009!
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The campsites in the forested area are all private and it was a short walk to the beautiful beaches. There is a concession stand / store with great homemade food (delicious burger!) right by the main beach. And the lake… just wow!
For the past 4 months we had our friend Mark staying with us, as he had been transferred to Regina, but was still trying to get his house in Lloydminster sold. Long story short… 2 weeks ago he was asked back at the Lloydminster branch and since he still hadn’t sold his house there that
he never really wanted to lose to begin with, he was more than happy to accept it and move back. I don’t like to see him go, will miss his company.. but we know the feeling and are very happy for him!! He also got us some thank you gifts… a book with cookie recipes for me (I’ve started to try making cookies recently with varying success 
) and a book about weather lore for Nico (as he is always extensively checking the weather forecast), so they were spot-on! Thanks Pruimelke and good luck back in Lloyd! 
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