Regina

We have come to be quite comfortable with our little town, Yorkton. It's little and ill equipped for city folk though, so we decided to take a little trip out to Regina, Saskatchwan's capital. Its about 180km and that translates into a 2 hour drive. It has been warmer here over the past few days, and then cold at night, and the affect on the trees on the road was spectacular. The extra heat caused the snow on the branches to melt slightly and then the cold re-froze it, making each tree appear to be made out of crystal. Beautiful. We foolishly decided to stop for photos on the way back, rather than on our way into Regina, and the ice had melted by then. I will not make that mistake twice. The single most spectacular winter thing I've seen so far.

We met up with Chris in Chapters (a huge bookstore). He is a friend of Claire's from Baragwanath who moved to Moose Jaw at the same time as we came here. Moose Jaw is about 80km further from us than Regina, and about double the size. The name is three times as silly, though.

A couple of amazing cappuccinos later (I'm sure they were mediocre, but our perspective is completely screwed) and we took a drive through town to find somewhere for lunch. I will leave the details of getting lost, driving the wrong way down a one-way street three times, and walking several meters through the -20degree weather out of this post, but we did find somewhere pleasant to eat, drink and merry our way through the afternoon.

Although it was just a short visit, we've already decided we are definately not small town people and can't WAIT for our next step out into the real world, with Starbucks (or Tim Hortons) on every street corner, not John Deer dealerships.

I will update you on my experiments with the cold. My first showed that it takes 20-30 minuted for a shallow dish of water to freeze completely in -16 degrees.

That is all.