Regina, SK

Years ago, we were going to an Amerasian restaurant for lunch. In the same strip mall was an Army/Navy recruiting office and we had to pass it to get from the car to the restaurant. There were two uniformed officers taking a break outside the office. Well, Harmony conveniently (and she claims "unintentionally") dropped her ID badge on the street right in front of that office. (In olden days, the ladies dropped their hankies, but who carries hankies anymore?) And one of the officers called out "Miss!", picked up her badge, and read it before handing it to her. Flustered, Harmony simply thanked him and ran back to catch up with the rest of us. Of course, we teased her about it the entire lunch. And we taught her to sigh and say, "I love a man in uniform," just in case it happens again.



Well, guess what I saw today -- men in uniform! Lots of them! Well, there were women too. My first sightseeing stop was the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Academy. I stopped one uniformed man who was crossing a parking lot to ask for directions to the museum. I must have looked like a silly tourist because he smiled. Either that or he must have seen Hottie sitting next to me.

When I found the right entrance, the officer at the gate chatted with me a while, and then told me where to go, when the parade would be, and when the tour would be. Then he said to pass by on my way out and tell him what I think.

I found the museum. And right in front of it was a large quadrangle marked by yellow and blue lines. There were people already sitting on the sidewalk to watch the parade. There was also a group of about 20 cadets standing around. I approached them to ask where the best spot was for pictures and one of them directed me to the front of a brick building. I walked over there and took a few pictures of the building and a small memorial for Mounties who died. I saw a man setting up his video camera on a tripod in the shade of the building next to the memorial and I commented that I was also told it was the best place for pictures. He said that only authorized personnel were allowed in that section and I had to go back to the sidewalk in front of the museum.



At 12:45pm, the band walked past us, followed by the different troops. There were six troops with about 20 people each. They were wearing different uniforms. Some had the knee-high brown boots and britches, some had plain gray shirts and pants with stripes running down the sides. I later found out that the cadets "earned" the right to wear each piece of the uniform. No one was wearing the red tunic that was the uniform that the Mounties are known for. When they got into the quadrangle, higher ranking officers came out from that alley between the brick building and the memorial. Then the officers inspected the cadets, they did a few maneuvers, then it was time for them to go back. There were a few strange things about the way they moved. When they get to a spot or stand at attention or spread their feet at ease or make a turn, they would raise their knee then stomp their foot down. Sometimes, they would do the other side too after about a second. I forgot to ask why, but I'm guessing they were imitating how horses lift their front legs when prancing. There was also some command where they would shuffle their feet sideways inch by inch to adjust their position and that looked so funny, but they do get into alignment better, especially since they're not sorted by height.



After the parade, I quickly walked through the museum while waiting for the tour to start. At 1:28pm, I got to the front of the museum and realized that I missed the tour. One of the museum officers said that they just left and he offered to take me to the chapel to catch up with the group. But first, he had to go get his hat, because one of the rules was that he must always wear his hat outdoors. The chapel doors were locked and nobody answered his knock. I said I'd just wait until they got out, but he said that I'd miss the best part of the tour, so he went back to get the key. And he was right. The chapel was adorable with all the stained glass windows, particularly the two glass windows of Mounties behind the altar. After that, we went down a block to watch a troop learn new maneuvers in a gym. Then we went to the memorial I saw earlier, and back to the museum.

Apparently, the quadrangle was bordered by a blue line and a yellow line all around. And it is a rule that no cadet would step into that quadrangle except when doing maneuvers during parade. During war, the bodies of fallen soldiers were arranged in a square and no one went inside that square out of respect for the dead. And the quadrangle symbolized that square.

After the tour, I went into the gift shop, then headed to my next stop -- Government House. It was 3pm when I got there and there was one more tour for the day. I browsed in the gift shop (which had more expensive items than the RCMP museum gift shop) and then took pictures of a carriage on display in the hall. The tour guide arrived shortly wearing a long red skirt and a cream-colored pinstriped blouse, a costume from the time when the house was built. She said it was something that a maid would wear during that time.



Well, I had her to myself, so I got to ask as many questions as I wanted. I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside but there were some very interesting furniture. Not all of them were original though. In fact, the furniture was auctioned off very cheaply in the 1940s before the place was turned into an infirmary. Then it became a school, then it was abandoned. In the 1970s (or early 80s), they started turning it into a museum and they actually put out an ad to buy back the furniture that was auctioned off several decades prior. But they were very lucky because the only man who knew the combination to the safe was ill at the time of the auction and he died and took that combination with him, so the safe was never opened again until they renovated the place to turn it into a museum. And they found flatware and china in the safe, so the dining room set was original as well.

I saw the guest bedrooms, the master bedroom, the nanny's bedroom, the children's bedroom, and the playroom. The other side of the building, where the servant's quarters used to be, is currently being used as offices by the lieutenant governor, who, by the way, is a woman.

My final stop (well, it was 4pm when I left the Government House) was the Legislative Building. Again, I was the only one in the tour and my tour guide is a very young-looking man named Adam, who turns to be a political science student entering his third year and who plans to go to law school (which take four years here) and who wants to teach afterwards. This is his summer job.

We went up marble steps (the only marble coming from the area) to the central part of the building, where Adam pointed out its features -- the green striated marble pillars that came from Ireland, the pink marble on the floor from Vermont, the cream marble on the walls from Italy, the mural of southern Saskatchewan in the south wall (painted in the 1930s or 1940s and had to be cleaned with spit -- yup, saliva, the safest cleaning medium for the mural), the mural of northern Saskatchewan in the north part of the wall (painted in honor of the queen's visit in the latter part of the 20th century), the flowers in the roof, the fake sunlight, the opening to the lower floor patterned after Napoleon's grave.



Then we went into the room where the Parliament met. We just looked in from the entryway though; it was cordoned off. The Parliament was out on summer break. And Adam pointed out the features of this room too -- the speaker's seat, the balconies/galleries for the public, the press balcony/gallery, the painting of the queen, the origin of the phrase "to kill the messenger", the desk of the sargeant-at-arms, the gold plated mace that points to the premier's seat, which is the sixth seat from the speaker on the left side, the rounded corners of the room that imitated the crown on the table in the queen's portrait, the cameras hidden in the walls for public broadcasting of the sessions, the microphones at each table, the tapestry behind the speaker's seat sewn by nuns and donated to the city, the crest of the city (three sheaths of wheat) on the tapestry, the two statues on either side of the speaker's seat, the sculptural details along the walls.

Then we went to the library where we saw the woodworking tools of the sculptor who did all the sculptural details in the Parliament Room. The sculptor was only 21 years old when he started the work and it took him two years to finish. The library also had three of the chairs made especially for the speakers of the house. They used to have one chair made for each speaker, but that got too expensive.

Downstairs, we saw oil paintings of premiers and of speakers. A small display showed icons of the state on top of a tartan cloth -- Saskatchewan's tartan pattern.

Since I was the only one there, he offered to take me to the level where the murals were. He usually doesn't take people up there because the groups tend to be large and there were offices right by the central area.

Before I left, he gave me two souvenir pins -- one was shaped like a sheath of wheat, the other was the flag of Saskatchewan. That was so nice of him. I don't think they do that for all their guests.

French lesson of the day: Terrain du camp means "campgrounds".

More pics here.