Wednesday was the first day of Steven’s Twin-Screw Extrusion Workshop! We had (complimentary hotel) breakfast together, then he was on the shuttle bus at 7:30 am, and got back past 8:00 pm!

I thought of a few other Saskatoon things I wanted to share, in case you ever find yourself here:

• They have red light cameras and speeding cameras here. The lady at the rental car place told us we can go up to 8 km over the speed limit before we get a ticket in the mail (we’re just going the speed limit, ha). (We rented through Avis and are driving a Jetta. We didn’t know Alamo was here, otherwise we would have rented with them since we like their car choices better!)
• Saskatoon is on CST, but is not observing DST… so it’s an hour behind Chicago. The sunrises are early (5:12 am) and the sunsets are late (8:54 pm). I’ll have to remember to look at sunrise/sunset times on the summer solstice!

During the morning I ran 18 miles on the Meewasin Trail and local trails. I parked at Diefenbaker Park, ran north on the east side of the trail for 5.5 miles, then did a 7 mile commercial then residential then prairie then single track loop, then ran 5.5 miles back south on the west side of the trail.

I listened to podcasts like I do for the beginning of my long runs and I think it might have been a mistake – it was distracting me from the landscape, and I wasn’t paying attention to the podcasts very well. I could have zoned out better with music. Oops!

The Meewasin trail is mostly paved, but did have some crushed stone trail, and I also ended up on dirt single track in an area called “Off-Lease Recreation Area” (I wonder if I was supposed to be running there?). I felt really great until mile 13, when I started to bonk either from fueling (I didn’t have a Vitamin Water and was super salty), running on the single track, travel, the wind, or < insert excuse here >. I hoped switching from podcasts to music would pump me up, but it was a bit of a slog back to the car. I was so happy to see the bridge and cross over the river and finish!

All that said, I really enjoyed the run, and loved seeing a lot of the city on foot. And I appreciated the variety of terrain! (Also, I felt completely safe and saw lots of other people on the trails.)

I stopped at Starbucks after to get a drink to warm up and get some “Been There” mugs. I scored big time on stars because it was my Double Stars day. Boo yah!

I ate our leftovers from odd couple for lunch, showered, then chilled. I did bit of research and found MORE vegan options to check out (Steven said the Saskatonians he talked to at the conference said it’s a foodie city, and they follow trends, and vegan is trendy now, hence all the options. Works for me!)! I took a short nap and felt guilty about it for a hot second then remembered I am on vacation and here to relax! (I had been thinking about going to an educational museum, but, eh.)

After my nap I decided to check out Citizen Cafe & Bakery in the Central Business District (CBD). I saw they had a vegan pop tart and DUH I needed that in my life. I figured coins were required to park in the CBD, so I went to a bank to exchange my US bills for Canadian bills and they wouldn’t do it because I don’t have an account there. Duh, Kim. Duh. But I did use an atm and exchange those bills for coins to park.

Then Citizen Cafe & Bakery had a free parking lot anyway. Ha!

I got a sandwich to try (it was so so), the Saskatoon Berry Pop Tart, and cookies to share with Steven later (Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie and Grandma’s Molasses Spice Cookie). The pop tart was decent! I wonder if it would be a bit fresher in the morning. I’m glad I got to try the Saskatoon berry – I wanted to! (And Steven gets to try it too – the cashier put two extra pop tarts in my bag (maybe since they were close to closing?) – score!)

I called our bank (my card got declined twice but they said it as on my end, not them, huh) and wrote a few post cards (I have 20 to send!) then left to find a place to park and check out more of the CBD. I did end up using a coin to pay for parking so IT WASN’T ALL A WASTE. I wandered and checked out shops (and got postcard stamps), restaurants, and murals (the one below is my favorite so far! I wish I had a better photo of it), and walked back down to the Meewasin Trail since the sun was actually out! (It wasn’t for my much of my run, but I still got a bit of a sun burn.)

The historic Bessborough hotel

After my walk I went to get some gifts, then got take out from Wok Box by our hotel because I saw they had vegan options (didn’t you have a sandwich, Kim? Yes I did, but I live by a rule of no sandwiches for dinner (burgers, yes, but a sandwich is depressing)). I got the Teriyaki Noodle Bowl made vegan and it was tasty! They even put vegan “chicken” in it!

Steven came back a little after 8:00 and caught me up on his day. There are people from all over the world attending this conference, and he met a lot of interesting folks! He said the networking dinner was a pretty big deal – the mayor of Saskatoon was there and the minister of agriculture. And yes, he got to see an extruder LIVE-AND-IN-ACTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The first day of the conference mostly focused on snack products, and the second day (today) focuses on HMMA (high moisture meat analogs) and TVP (textured vegetable protein).

And we tried those cookies! The chocolate peanut butter one was definitely the best! Stay tuned if I bonk my run today, due to eating so amazingly the day before. Ha!

Read Saskatoon Day 1 here