» photo album 2009/0409 ~ CBB Gathering in Gravelbourg

We spent the past weekend in Gravelbourg, less than 2 hours to the south west from us. CBB-er Cees organized the “prairie CBB day” from his motel there and we had 3 really fantastic days with everybody!!! The CBB is a forum for Dutch (speaking) emigrants who want to move to Canada or already did. I don’t mean to exaggerate, but we really had an amazing time in the Gravelbourg area. First of all of course because of Cees, Carlien and the kids, but also because of coffeeshop-owner Toos and her husband Darcy, Fred and Jackie (CBB-ers who also live there) and of course all our fellow visitors – thank you all!

We already traveled to Gravelbourg on Thursday. Had a late breakfast, but no lunch, so after spending some time with the Brouwer family, we went for an early supper to the Mayfair. Later on we strolled through the town and made pictures, until Toos took us in at Cafe Paris because she thought we could be the early arrivals she heard about. A very warm welcome from Toos and Darcy!

Friday morning we slept in a little, a bit later we had coffee-Dutch-style (stronger) with Cees and Carlien and after that we had lunch with Toos and Darcy at the Mayfair Inn (Toos’ own Cafe Paris was closed on Good Friday). In the afternoon we went for a drive on the prairie with Cees for a few hours, to Thompson Lake and McMaster Manor, a beautiful bed & breakfast on a gorgeous location (on a hill near a river). Unfortunately for the pictures it was a cloudy day, but oh well, we couldn’t let that keep us from going out. In the meantime some more CBB-ers arrived and we went for Chinese food with the whole bunch. At night (almost) all of us had some drinks at Cees and Carlien’s. Good times.

We started the Saturday with coffee and donuts in the ‘ballroom’ 😉 We considered going to the Tompson Lake again, now that the sun was shining again, but time flew by just chatting with everybody 🙂 With several others we had lunch at Cafe Paris and met Jacky there. In the afternoon Cees had organized a little ‘scavenger hunt’ that sent us all through town to end up at Cafe Paris. Me, I went with Carlien in the car (I had to cut my participation short because of a still healing inflammation in my foot) and we arrived at Cafe Paris at about the same time. After the coffee/tea/pop break the gang went to the Museum a few doors down, where curator Louis Stringer gave us a tour. On a next visit I’d like to snoop around there on my own time. After that he took us to the cathedral – an unreal beautiful and big building (incl. impressive paintings inside) for such a small town! We also visited a chapel/library and then they let us go back to the motel, tired but happy.

After some chilling out etc, the ‘ballroom’ opened for the bbq night, and again we had a good time (and great food!). In the early hours we were entertained by Toos’ stories and we had a hilarious time looking all sorts of things up on YouTube (Dutch artists, songs from old TV shows, various music). Mark, Cees and I were the last ones to roll out of the ballroom at 3 in the morning

After a short but sweet night we had breakfast again at Toos’ with the people that were still there (we missed a few, because some had to leave early again) and drove home in the afternoon. Picked up the cats at VIP Pet Care, they seemed to have been very comfortable there.

See you again soon, Gravelbourg!