Friday was our first full day to explore Saskatoon together!

I started the morning with a short run in the neighborhood east of the hotel. It’s definitely a newly developed neighborhood, and was safe and easy to run in.

We went to Darkside Donuts (the donut place recommended to us by the waitress on Tuesday) late in the morning. They had eight donut flavors, two of which were vegan. We got the two vegan ones and four regular ones to try (flavors below under the photo)!

(Clockwise from top left): Darkside (vegan, dark chocolate fudge dip), Avenue Bee (passion fruit glaze & chocolate pudding), Cherry Bop Hop (cherry & almond fritter), The Susan (lemon poppy seed cake donut with sourcream glaze), Pow City (grapefruit sugar), and The Merry Mansion (vegan, coconut milk hibiscus glaze & rhubard filling)

I could tell right away that the Darkside was dark chocolate; and I liked it! The Merry Mansion was my favorite though, which surprised me, because it’s the first rhubarb thing I’ve ever eaten and liked! Their donuts were GOOD. I love yeast donuts the most (over cake – I like those too, they just aren’t my favorite).

We went to Broadway Avenue in the Nutana neighborhood (where I was the day before) so Steven could see the shops. We had an interesting conversation with the owner of a Lebanese restaurant (Steven is one half Lebanese). He told us our family is large and respected in Lebanon and that he had a neighbor of the same name. He also brought up the Trump/Clinton election and his opinions on it, which is not the first time that’s happened here.

After that we went to the Wanuskewin Heritage Park northeast of town. People kept recommending it, and I kept seeing it all over the local social media feeds. I actually didn’t know much about it, except that it “depicts the history of First Nations people in the Northern Plains,” which I wanted to learn about!

I should have looked in to it more, and especially, gone to their actual website and seen that it was under construction – the physical site, not the website (ha ha). I expected there to be a museum and exhibits, but there wasn’t much of that (maybe that is what they’re building?!). There were some nice walking paths, with a few informational markers (I learned a lot about how buffalo are killed…), but the paths weren’t marked well, and we weren’t in the mood for a super long hike. Oops. Bad planning!!! (And it was $10 CAD each to get in, but we could have just parked and walked the paths without paying…)

The most interesting thing was talking to an archaeology student from the local university who is working on a dig there as part of a six-week summer program. He explained their dig process and the types of things they find. He’d found a buffalo molar that morning, and I was shocked at how huge it was(!!!) and how much they can learn from drilling in to it (which they were going to do back at the lab on campus). We learned a lot from him and enjoyed that conversation.

And we enjoyed the beauty of the place, and appreciated seeing the landscape outside of town, but wouldn’t really recommend a visit. Maybe after they finish the addition to the building?!

We did have some excitement when we left and saw what looked like a least weasel run in front of the car carrying some small animal in his mouth!

We went back to güd eats for lunch because I really wanted to try their chicken products. We ordered the Mini Chickn’ Drumsticks and Not-Chos to share, and Steven got the Baja Skrimp Tacos with poutine, and I got the Southern Friend chicken burger with onion rings. Everything was amazing again, especially the nachos and my burger. And the onion rings. AND ALL OF IT!

We stopped at The Griffin Takeaway, a gluten-free and vegan bakery recommended by our waitress on Tuesday, to get a few things to try later (and one cupcake to eat immediately)! They had SO many vegan options, it was hard to choose just a few things!

Mango coconut cupcake – delicious! More coconut-y than mango-y

And after that we went on the Prairie Lily Riverboat Tour. I remembered to ask someone to take our photo! The woman who took our photo is a German living in Saskatoon, and her parents are visiting. We had a nice conversation with them, and I was relived to hear they thought the Wanuskewin Heritage Park was meh, too (I felt like I was missing something). They did recommend the local art museum, so we might check that out today. I had it on my maybe list since I have a hard time appreciating art museums, but they mentioned some Picassos are there, which I would like to see! And it’s only $12 CAD each to go.

The boat is docked north of town and goes south down the river, then back up. I was looking forward to hearing about the history of the city and its construction, but the other passengers were so loud I couldn’t hear it well. Bummer. I enjoyed seeing the city from that viewpoint though!

Remai Modern Art Museum

Afterward, I’d had enough time around people so we went to the hotel to chill! We had a quiet night. We stepped out to look for some magnets (no luck) and to get the Beyond Burger at A&W to share.

It tasted like a fast food burger – very similar to the Whopper, actually – which is fun and what we expected! A&W also has the Beyond Meat Sausage offered as a breakfast sandwich, which we hope to try while we’re here. It’s exciting these vegan options are coming to fast food places, for when we’re in a pinch!

Back at the hotel, I had one bite each of the Griffin Takeaway Goodies. The chocolate chip cookie had a good flavor, but was too dry for me. The salted peanut brownie was good, but very rich! The star was the raspberry brownie. I love raspberry and it was very raspberry-y! I am glad I have some more left to eat today! (And no, I don’t always eat this much junk, but I am enjoying vacation. I did say to Steven yesterday that I probably would not like Saskatoon as much if it didn’t have so many good vegan eats!)

Read Saskatoon Day 1 here, Day 2 here, and Day 3 here.