How I spent my summer parental leave

         In Saskatchewan there is a new(ish) parental leave system in place for fathers to take 5 weeks of parental leave. This doesn't affect the mother's maternity allowance, and it can be split up or taken in once giant chunk. Naturally, with two brothers being teachers, I was always jealous of their 2 months vacation. Now I get to have a month off in July!

    For the last four years, my parents have been renting cabins at different parks for a few days every summer. Went to Waskesiu this year, each household got their own cabin, just in case the Covid restrictions suddenly became much more strict. Everyone in the family was fully vaccinated by the beginning July, most two weeks post as well.

    Prince Albert National Park, has the boreal forest surrounding you on your drive into the park. Larch trees and pine trees stand as sentinels for eager explorers in deep reverence for these ancient growths. 

    My family fell in love with Waskesiu in 2018 the first time most of us experienced it's majesty - despite the lousy rainy weather which lasted almost the whole first week of July. Rachel and I traveled back in 2020 in the fall to witness the rich tapestry of fall colours on the larch trees, we even met a new fox "friend" 

Foxy friend just wanting food

View in the fall on Height of Land lookout tower

Boundary Bog Trail

    This year was much better, only raining a couple of times. We didn't go on as many hiking trails, but there was some swimming in their crystal clear lakes and hammock time. Much to Rachel's mild displeasure, Bauche's are pretty laid back, so much so that we would just agree with any and all activities. ("We can do that or that, whichever you want to do.") I think this is mostly due to how little we actually saw each other throughout the pandemic, so hanging out and talking felt like catching up for a year of isolation. Rachel might disagree, saying we are always non-committal.

    So far, every trip to Waskesiu has an Elk walking through our cabins. I mean they were here first, he was probably checking out his old mating grounds. 

    I took basically zero photos while out on trails or at the beach, so enjoy photos from the shutterbugs in my family.

My sister in-law entertaining Rosalind in the hammock

Checking out the beach with mom

View from parent's cabin, definitely didn't look like THAT cabin

Candid papa photo, this was after Rosalind's walk with Uncle Shawn, so she was getting a bit hungry.

Staple Height of Land Outlook Tower photo

    Originally, the plan was to visit Rachel's family, after our Waskesiu trip, all over British Columbia and Alberta, showing off Rosalind - now 4 months old as of writing. Where does the time go!? 

    While in Waskesiu, Rachel's mother had a major surgery so we went to Fort Saskatchewan to help out the following weeks. Doctor's orders was no bending or lifting and you know lots of rest.

    During out stay in Alberta, we visited a few places, I found a gaming store right in the Fort. It was carrying Everdell, which Rachel as been wanting since the beginning of the pandemic. Alberta's Covid restrictions were lifted at the beginning of July, so the store had events without masks. In fact, I was the only person in the hobby stores with a mask on. 

    Juggling baby schedule and adult schedule, we made it into Edmonton for one day - if you go to Edmonton and DON'T do a Ikea trip, did you really go? Yes, but we didn't want to find out and they had air conditioning for a baby Tula walk instead of in the blazing sun. 

    Industrial Park Games was the one hobby store I wanted to check out, it was well reviewed and lined up with our southern route through the city we were planning to use. With so many options, I wanted to be as quick with the hobby browsing as possible, one and done. My wallet would thank me. 

    The new Age of Sigmar tiered starter sets were supposed to be out, after much debate, I would only sample the new models and get the Warrior set. With the Warrior set, you get the sweet Killaboss and the Knight-Arcanum. Vindictors don't have too much Sigmar iconography on them, making them perfect to be come kitbashed Myrmidesh Painbringers or Chaos Chosen? Could even use the kit's spears and weapons on the lamer posed Liberators I have collecting dust.

    While I was in IPG, Rachel did some quick googling to find, The Clumsy Dragon Tabletop Guild. It was right on the way to Ikea, it would be fine to deviate a little.

    Still in the heart of the industrial area, this store had a small retail area up front and a large warehouse in the back for a subscription gaming club area. For a monthly fee, gamers have access to terrain, tables, painting supplies, and 3D printed models which could be bought after painting them. Really great place, focusing on building community in the Edmonton area. I really liked the setup and had a good chat with the owner, highly recommend checking it out if you live in the city.

    This was the haul that I picked up, the Age of Sigmar Warrior box was from Dragon's Den in Saskatoon. All the other places had Dominion, but their starters weren't shipped out in time. The Sentinels of Order hasn't been in stock anywhere I have looked, glad to finally pick it up. And hey, might as well get a Death Guard codex in Alberta for lower sales taxes. Was hoping to play a casual tournament in Estevan, which is why I grabbed the codex, but we had some health concerns to look after when we got home. The Tournament also was focused on being beginner friendly, but asked people to bring 2000pts? That seems like a big ask for people just learning the hobby. Epic Encounters has some pretty sweet looking Snakefolk.

    

    Resident Evil 2 expansion was 50% off at IPG, it adds two survivors - Hunk, an Umbrella agent attempting to flee a zombie infested Raccoon City with a stolen sample of the T-virus and Tofu - a parody character of Hunk, who is a giant walking piece of Tofu that only had a knife to fight off the horde.

    The drive to Alberta was quite hot in mid-July, by the end of the month it was cooler. We didn't have air conditioning, so we left early so that I could start the journey home as the girls slept in the back. 

Rosalind was pumped to cross the border into her birth province

    We still had 6 hours of driving to go, but did Rosalind care? She slept great for such long drive, only needing to 2 stops to tank up. It was nice to see family and friends in another province, but we definitely missed our cats and I'll miss my summer off, back to work now. 

Next on the Hobby Desk

One of my friends, Michael, has organized a Paths to Glory campaign that started once I got back home. It will be running for 3 months, increasing in points each month. First game was the day after we got back, small game to try out 3rd edition, only 600pts. Should be posting it soon.