This evening my husband and I are rejoicing! Yesterday afternoon we drove to Estevan so my husband could do his part in a service of ordination at the church there. It was a lovely service and it was very nice to see so many people there both of us are aquainted with. There were many nice visits both before and after the service with all those folk.
Before the service we were very hungry, so stopped at the first restaurant we came to for dinner. The restaurant is Eddie Webster's and it wasn't too bad at all, despite the grubby appearance of the outside of the building. My meal was a bit overpriced, as my quarter chicken was more like an eighth, BUT we have never seen so many vegetables on restaurant dinner plates in years and years. They were delicious, grilled beautifully, not a mushy piece in the bunch. My husband had fish and chips and for a relatively reasonable price was given four pieces of battered fish and a bowl of the freshest, crunchiest cole slaw he has ever eaten. He loved it. On each table in the restaurant was a welcoming bottle of wine; in our case it happened to be one of our favourites, Torreon de Paredes merlot, and that made up for my chintzy piece of chicken...teehee.
After the service and the subsequent coffee hour we drove over to our hotel, Western Star Signature. What a lovely treat for us both! The hotel is very nice, we love the decorator colours and fabrics and furnishings. It is new enough so as to still be clean, relatively unmarred by all the guests tramping in and out of the suites and dining room, so we thoroughly enjoyed our brief time there. We both slept very well after watching the last half of the Calgary/Montreal football game...those poor Alouettes were just trounced by the Stampeders. While the winner of the game was not in doubt by the time we picked it up, it was still a fun game to watch.
The complimentary hotel breakfast this morning wasn't too bad actually. There was sufficient variety that we could ignore the gleaming, overcooked, rubbery fried eggs and fatty sausage patties and enjoy the English muffins, whole wheat bread and peanut butter, a couple of teensy potato latkes and yogurt. There were muffins, waffles, bagels, cereal and a few other things available as well. The chairs were comfortable and the dining tables large enough to hold all the food and drink a person could handle.
While my husband was working very hard all day doing pre-Synod presentations for the local priests and delegates, I took myself shopping! I spent several hours wandering about the town and decided if I found some things worth buying, I would for once spend my quarterly sales tax rebate on myself. There is little left downtown for shopping options. The end of the oil boom has pretty much decimated the retail and restaurant sector in that part of the town. However, I got a good morning walk out of my explorations before driving into the newer segment of the town....ooh, sorry, Estevan has "city status"....no disrespect intended by calling it a town. It just happens to be a very tiny city.
Anyway, even the mall was only half occupied, but I did find a couple of bargain treats at Nutters and Eclipse to make me happy. I found a fat and cholesterol free caesar salad dressing that I hope will be tasty AND I was SUCH A GOOD GIRL: there was quite a large selection of No Sugar Added chocolates and candies and I purchased NONE of them...not even ONE!! YES!! I also discovered a little farmers' market in one corner of the mall parking lot. I bought my husband a corn product free saskatoon pie and a half dozen corn product free cinnamon buns. I so hope they are tasty and he enjoys eating them. I bought a large bag of freshly dug carrots we are looking forward to eating! I found a dollar store that carries his favourite small bags of cashews, so got a couple of those for him as well.
After touring the mall I took a quick spin through Canadian Tire and Peavey Mart, just to gawp about and waste a bit of time before it was time for lunch, which I ate at the local Original Joe's. The fish tacos were delicious but the caesar salad wasn't very good at this particular outlet...just a teeny handful of lettuce, a half dozen bits of fatty bacon and a huge blob of gooey dressing plopped on top of the pile. After scraping off most of the dressing it was edible, but I have not had one of their salad side dishes that was not presented in a separate bowl and three times or more the amount I was given today. Blah!! O well, the tacos were fantastic!
Since the restaurant is near a No Frills, I decided to take a quick tour through that grocery store just for fun. I came away with several products that I enjoy eating but that cost far less there than they do at the other Loblaws brand outlets here in the city.
I decided I must have exhausted all shopping possibilities at that point and headed back to the church where my husband was about to start his afternoon sessions. Oooh, hey....there a WalMart I missed seeing on the way over here...must stop and look in there just for fun too. I walked up and down every aisle in the store...twice....to get some post prandial exercise before returning to the church.
Once I arrived back there I checked the time and discovered the sessions would be ending in just over an hour, so I found a comfy chair in a brightly lit small room and did a few crossword puzzles from a book I brought in my purse from home.
When the sessions ended, my husband and I visited with the local priests for awhile, then had a very pleasant drive back to Regina. My husband decided he couldn't wait for me to get us home and make dinner, so we stopped at the Travelodge on the way back into town and ate dinner at their Knotted Thistle pub. What a wonderful, wonderful treat! We liked the somewhat dim lighting, the little gas fireplaces, the general coziness of the space and the efficient, friendly staff. There was music playing, but it wasn't blasting us out of our seats! The menu items looked interesting but we chose to try the special of the night: Guiness beef stew. We decided after dinner that it was the best beef stew we have ever eaten in a restaurant in our lives. The small chunks of meat in the Guiness gravy were cooked to perfection, tender without falling apart and LOTS of them. There were onions and small pieces of turnip and a side of mashed potatoes to spoon into the gravy in the stew bowl or to keep separate. The bowl was topped with a large, square of buttery puffed pastry and it was rather delicious when folded and dipped into the gravy...I have to say. No, I wasn't counting cholesterol tonight!! The side was a salad of mixed greens and the dark balsamic vinegar on the green leaves paired perfectly with the hearty flavour of the gravy. We will definitely be returning to this pub in the near future. How have we not discovered this little gem before now???? YUMMY!!
If I wake up in time tomorrow morning I will head off to church, but my husband has no morning committments, surprisingly enough, so he may just sleep in. I don't mind sneaking off and just letting him rest for a change.
We had great weather for our trip! It was warm and windy, just cool enough to need to wear a light coat this morning, perfect for driving...the predicted rain did not materialize apart from a few drops just as we got back to the city.
My husband is watching football again so I think I will go and join him since Edmonton is one of the teams.
No comments:
Post a Comment