My Mission: A Walk to the Park

Well, I’m home from Saskatchewan. It feels good and at the same time I miss the family time that I’ve had in the last week. The trip home was pretty good. There was a glitch in Calgary when the lightening chased all of the ground workers in doors. No luggage moved off of, or onto, planes sitting patiently at the terminals. The glitch? Lightening and heavy rain. But enough about the weather. I have one more event that I attended yesterday in Moose Jaw.

Once more, I was tempted to curl up in my room with the good book in my luggage. But I went down to breakfast instead where I saw an advertisement for Broadway in the Park. I didn’t know where the Park was, but I didn’t let that deter me. Used to the short distances in Victoria where walking is normal activity, my legs were in need of a long walk. So, being kind to my anxious legs and setting my GPS, I set out under the wide blue prairie sky, wispy white clouds air brushed across the marvellous expanse.  My first stop was at Starbucks. These coffee shops, so abundant in this Island city of Victoria, are kind of sparse in the spread out cities of the midwest. Tim Horton’s is much more prevalent.

I digress. It was hot, hot and the wind blew with vigor. Arriving at Crescent Park was a welcome respite. And there were memories here for me from my teenage years having visited Moose Jaw with the 4H Home Craft Club. The Natatorium glittered and glistened in the sun. Children and teens splashed, swam and played. Young girls sporting bikinis lounged in the sun. The Natatorium I remember was an indoor pool long past it’s prime. and much smaller. Beside the pool is a playground where children played while parents sat in use or shade and watched.

My mission was to attend Broadway in the Park and I was running up to the starting time, so I wandered in the direction of a grouping of benches, straw hats and sun-brellas (I just made up that word). Then I saw it. A bright yellow trailer - the kind that you’d see in a Food Truck area. I was hungry and thirsty after my walk. A hot dog with all the trimmings and a can of cold coke fixed that little problem. 

Then to the main event. The Crescent Park Amphiteatre is a surrounded by tall trees, with benches up a marvellous slope of green lush grass. I had no idea what to expect. When the performers from Rubarb Production company began their presentations, I was stunned. Opera, Broadway tunes, and selections from movie scores were belted out across the open green space. The acters, dressed in full costume, were absolutely professional and incredibly energetic despite the heat - for an hour and a half. In all that time, under the hot sun and in any piece of shade all of us in the audience stayed and enjoyed every minute. It really topped off my mini vacation.

“Without writers, stories would not be written,

without actors, stories could not be brought to life.”

~ Angie-Marie Delsante