Confucius and Gandhi in Regina.

I am in the heart of Roughrider Country. Everywhere I go I see  Saskatchewan Roughrider jerseys or I hear a Saskatchewan Roughrider game on the radio.  Tonight the game is in stereo with two campsites tuned in.

I have stumbled into Regina, Saskatchewan. I found myself a quiet little campground north of the city. The past couple of  weeks has been go go go! I needed to get away and chill for a while. So the little enclave campsite in the trees will do. No cities. No sirens. Lights out at 10 PM. I am out cold by 10:15. Only 15 minutes from Regina and research.

I began my discovery of Regina by walking the streets of downtown. To my surprise it was at the same time as the farmers market and the communities biggest parade – Buffalo Days. Yah00 I think to myself! So now research takes on a whole new meaning as the streets were blocked off and traffic redirected.  No more Albert Street or Victoria Avenue. Two main streets gone. For a new comer to the streets of Regina that made researching a tad more interesting. It came down to parking the vehicle and setting out on foot to do my downtown research.

The downtown was busy this week with Buffalo Days. I walked by stores with sales. There were people selling hamburgers and hot dogs for charity. Too bad it smelt good. But I am trying to stay away from meat.. not always.. just limiting my beef intake. Many people were out and doing their business. Might be the sunshine drawing people out. It has been hot for a while. Might be the big parade. People were lining the streets on Saturday. It definitely was not because of me.. ha ha.

Wandering around town I found that I came across many old buildings – mostly brick – and this time not all of them were churches. Some were  museums, restaurants, stores, pubs or coffee houses. In amongst, the older buildings were some new taller – some glass – some funky shape – corporate like buildings. In the middle of the downtown is a small, 1 block by 1 block park named Victoria Park. It is the green space downtown with park benches, picnic tables, a memorial and flower gardens.

Wascana Park is the big attraction park in the community. On the park grounds are many buildings and facilities including  the University of Regina, the Parliament Buildings and the Queens Building. The gardens at the Parliament Buildings were impressive. The park encompasses Wascana Lake. A path – the Blue Path – circles the lake connecting to viewpoints, islands, gardens, lookouts, marinas, benches and picnic tables.  The paved path is a very popular community walking, biking and roller bladding path. Great scenery. There was a regatta going down too so I got a whole boat load of kayak pictures. No pun intended.

The south end of the park consists of mostly the University and an Art Centre.  Near the art centre is a Waterfowl Park. It is over populated with ducks, pelicans, swans and geese and tons of bird poo poo.

Pelicans on posts in Wascana Park in Regina

Again with the pelicans. Now they are everywhere! I had to climb a fence to get a picture of some pelicans I spotted sitting on some posts just off the shore of Pelican Island. It was a fabulous shot! It took some doing, but I snapped a few beauties.

Also in the Waterfowl Park I cross paths with a mouthy pelican. The pelican walked right in front of me on the path. Started waddling in front of me. Stopped. Turned around to see if I was still there. He then just snubbed me and moved on.

The Devonian Pathway is another route of paved trails, similar to the Blue Trail in Wascana Park , but instead follows the banks of Wascana Creek. It is a less populated trail, used more by locals. It is not on the tourist info maps. They did not even mention it?  Had to find this out on my own as the info is not even on the local maps. However the Regina Tourism experts sure tried to sell me on paying to go to museums. If you know me I am not really a museum guy. I have seen hundreds by now and many seem all the same at this point.

Meditating with Confucius

My Regina tour takes me to a stop at City Hall today.  I drove by it earlier in the week and saw the fountain but have not come back till today.  Had to come back and get a shot. As I hauled the tripods and camera equipment out I notice two statues. Curiosity lured me over to the first one. It was a head shot of Gandhi.  So Gandhi and I put our heads together and pondered peace (picture above). The other statue was Confucius and I put our hands together and focused on our inner strength. Korny eh?

Cheers!