Good times in Arborg, Manitoba

For a journalism/advertising assignment we were instructed to break into small groups and travel "beyond the perimeter" to a small town of our choice. My group consistent of the lovely Jen Hanson, John Rymon and Tammy Karatchuk, and on Friday we piled into Tammy's new car and hit Highway 7 all the way to Arborg.

*Interesting Fact: Tammy Karatchuk was born in Arborg.*

The drive down was filled with... shall I say interesting.... conversation, I'd tell you all about it but what happens in Tammy's car stay in Tammy's car. After about two hours of driving down the foggy highway we finally saw it, the town sign, Welcome to Arborg.

Tammy took us on a driving tour of the town... which only lasted about 10 minutes, and we ended up at her old high school. In Winnipeg they won't let you just walk around a high school and in classrooms while school is in session, but in Arborg they just let the four of us walk right in. We even got an impromptu interview with the school principal, Arlene Perry. She told us all about the new band program and raved about Arborg Collegiate. Graduating from a high school where my graduating class was just under 300, I found it very strange to see a high school being so small and looking at grad pictures with only 32 graduating students.

After the high school, Tammy drove us to the bar at the Arborg hotel. The hotel and burned down twice since its opening, and had just re-opened. The decor was stunning, bamboo floors and black tables. It was not what I had expected to see in a small town bar. However they were playing the country music that I had expected to hear.

The hotel itself was just as impressive and classy as the bar. As Owen Eyolfson, the owner of the Arborg hotel said, " Just because you're in a small town doesn't mean you have to make everything look like a tin shed."

After that we decided to stop in at the Chicken Chef for lunch, where I had the best onion rings. I still dream of those onion rings... and that milkshake... mmmm milkshake.

Anyways, we then went to see the curling rock and as any good tourists would do we took crazy amounts of pictures in front of it, managing to get some weird looks from the locals.

On the way home we stopped at Tammy's farm and got a brief tour of where she'd grown up. Then it was back to reality and the big city for us. Sad to leave the small town atmosphere, but very happy to be near a Timmies again!

I would also like to thank Jen Hanson for allowing me to use her photos of the trip on my blog. Thanks Jen!