Road Trip Recap: Muenster, Saskatchewan - September 20-21, 2013

A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to head out to the town that I lived in for my first year of university. Muenster, Saskatchewan is home to St. Peter's Abbey and St. Peter's College, where I was a student right after high school.  The abbey is a wonderful place to visit, especially in the fall. The grounds are expansive with beautiful trees, fields, lanes, and little buildings spotting the property.

The reason for my visit this time was a youth ministry planning retreat, I am part of a team at my parish that plans and runs the youth group for the high school students at our parish. We've had a planning retreat at St. Pete's before and I'm glad we decided to go back.

On my down time I decided to take a walk through the trees. The weather was so beautiful and I realized that I had actually never taken a walk on the paths that wind through the grounds. Never. I lived there for a solid eight months and have been back to visit numerous times in all of the different seasons and I had never walked the trails. Once I made this realization I had to rectify the situation immediately.

I put on my sweater and grabbed some seeds and nuts for the chickadees (there is one lane that the birds will come and eat right out of your hand - they have been doing this ever since the monks from the abbey came to the property). I had actually never fed the birds before a visit this past winter, so I was excited to try again. Unfortunately, the birds never came to me... I think it had something to do with the fact that right around now they still have access to pretty much whatever food they want, whereas the last time I was there was in the dead of winter, with extremely cold temperatures and, therefore, very little food for them. Anyway, once I realized I wasn't going to see the birds I continued on into the trees. The leaves had just started to change, making my path a colourful one.

This actually leads down to the cellar that can also be accessed through the kitchen

 Stunning flowers in the abbey garden

 Breaking in my new oxfords while exploring the trails at St. Pete's

I have been extremely fortunate to be able to head back to visit St. Pete's in the years that have passed since my days as a student at the college. Sometimes I feel as though I really didn't make the most of my surroundings. I rarely stayed the weekend, with the city being only a little over an hour away, but I so wish I had.  I don't have regrets about my time there, but not really experiencing the school and the abbey and the atmosphere that they offer is something that I would say comes pretty close. I guess I've grown a lot in the past few years since my time there, so I'm just able to appreciate what St. Pete's has to offer more than I was able to at the time.

Do you have a "St. Pete's?"



P.S. I was super excited to be able to stop by the town of Bruno, SK on my way home from St. Pete's to pay a visit to Amanda. I always love seeing her!