When the wet white's gone and mild weather starts to tickle the prairies again I always think of the words of a friend and world traveller I knew growing up in Regina: "There's no better place to be in summertime than Saskatchewan.''

With each passing year I'm more convinced he was right. The rest of Canada hears much about Saskatchewan's resource sector and the growth and job opportunities it's generating. I'm guessing most folks outside of Saskatchewan and Alberta remain unaware of the variety and beauty of our landscapes.

I was back to the Great Sand Hills in southwest Saskatchewan last summer. In the late 1990s I was there with our young family. This time, I travelled with my daughter Kira and her friend Nic who were visiting from Montreal. I had a hunch 15-metre-high sand dunes might be an interesting stop on a two-day, whirlwind tour of southwest Saskatchewan, particularly for a Montrealer like Nic who hadn't travelled a great deal in Canada. I'm pretty sure I was right.

Frolicking with Kira in a landscape of bright yellow sunflowers near the Big Muddy Badlands seemed enjoyable, as did their hike up the hoodoo-like Castle Butte formation in the heart of the Badlands. A stormy nighttime encounter in Assiniboia with a fawn temporarily separated from its mother may well find its way into Nic's Cafe Tales from the West. So, too, I suspect, might the cattle drive we witnessed or the bustling little city of Moose Jaw, which seemed to capture his imagination.

No question he enjoyed watching from afar and then deliberately spooking a herd of antelope we stopped to admire while rolling along the old Red Coat Trail between Eastend and Shaunavon. Even at half a kilometre away, the alpha male animal turned to face us head-on while his flock of two dozen fled the waving and gyrating Montrealer running towards them from the edge of the highway.

It's safe to say the best part of their visit was a one-week vacation at our favourite old resort in Meadow Lake Provincial Park. The kids, who've been going there their whole lives, used to call it "our lake.'' I suspect they now know it's also a state of mind.

Please note: 2010 marks the 125th anniversary of the Northwest Rebellion (or Northwest Resistance, depending on your perspective). Check out the colourful commemorations at Trails of 1885

. . . That's it for now. Thanks for dropping by!

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