December Day Trip

On Wednesday December 13th I decided to head out for a short day trip.  The daylight hours are very short at this time of year, so there isn't really an opportunity to travel all that far.  My daughter Anna has been wanting to join me on one of these outings for quite some time.  She has always been reluctant, when one of my other friends was coming along.  But this time it was a solo trip, so she did indeed join me.

We stopped for fuel and a coffee on our way out of town.  Our receipt number at McDonalds was 222, which Anna proclaimed is a lucky number.  Then our order was served to us at 11:11.  Feeling like this was an omen we bought lottery tickets later in the afternoon once we returned to the city.

It was forecast to be a mild day, so I thought I would take advantage of it.  It did get very warm, and at times and in certain places the temperature got up as high as +10C.  But it was mostly heavily overcast and rather gloomy for much of the day.  The snow did not melt as much as the warm temperature would suggest.

We headed to the northeast of the city and explored a few of the small towns out that way.  Most of these places are slowly fading away and only a handful of buildings are occupied in some places.  We photographed a few of them.  Although we bought Anna a nice digital camera as a gift a couple of years back, she seems more interested in film.  She shot almost exclusively with one of my old Nikon 35mm cameras.  I did end up taking one shot with my big view camera, but that was it.

While we were out we scouted a couple of small town hotel taverns for the Beer Parlour Project.  Anna turned 18 back in September, so she was able to come in with me and experience the vibe.....

Her first comment was, "This is my all time low... drinking with my Dad in the afternoon..."

Then later when I reported to Chris in Calgary on the taverns we had visited, his comment was, "A little Daddy-Daughter time at a dive hotel bar... Father of the Year...!"

We stopped at the Victoria Hotel in Bruderheim.  I had borrowed some old letters from them the last time I was there, so that I could scan them for the Beer Parlour Project.  With that complete I returned the letters to the owners.  Anna and I stopped and had a beer there as well.....

We got a kick out of the new stripper that they have in the tavern...!

It was a great afternoon and I think Anna enjoyed it too.  I think the whole Beer Parlour thing is starting to rub off on her because she wants to join the team next time we head out to one of our locations.