The Frisinski’s went on an Adventure today!

We set out for the oldest Ukrainian Church in Canada. We toured the grounds last year too and enjoyed it tremendously. I recently sold a book about Ukrainian settlers East of the Red River and C-man and I have enjoyed reading it and then to tour it was really cool. What a better way to know more about Manitoba than to tour it. Oh, but we had a superb time! Even Jade was into it. She read all the information there was to be read either on rocks, or plaques. She also took interest in finding out how many young children may have died and were laid to rest in the cemeteries. I think she even mourned the loss of some of the young kids and babies that we found. It was nice to see our daughter gain some empathy.

We started off in Vita with some ice cream, then to Gardenton. After Gardenton we headed the few miles outside of the town to the Historic Ukrainian Church. It is officially called St. Michael's Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church. It was established in 1899. I found this link if you’re interested: Oldest Church
Get this! After just having arrived the site and been there maybe 3 minutes, a guy I went to school with from Kleefeld, got out of the car. He and his sister had plans to photograph the church and ground also! Small World indeed.

After spending some time at the church and grounds, we headed out and ended up in Tolstoi. Then we kept heading west to Overstoneville, where we eventually turned down a road towards Woodmore. We headed just west of Woodmore towards the Senkiw Swinging Bridge and stopped there to enjoy the newly refurbished swinging bridge. It was a short walk but lovely walk to the bridge. This bridge was built because settlers had built a school on one side and then eventually the river became too high and a bridge needed to be built. In 2004 the bridge was refurbished. Each wooden plank represents the name of someone who has donated money towards the bridge. The metal works that you will see in the pics are what the settlers originally used. We met a nice man there who told us that before this bridge was reconstructed they were literally walking only on the cables! This was how badly the bridge had rotted! And to think I was scared to walk across this! We left the Senkiw Bridge and headed towards Roseau River town, from there we took the highway and stopped in Rosa to walk around the church grounds. The church in Rosa is over 75 years old as well. From there we headed back home, driving through Sarto and stopping at the Willow Plains School. A one room school that was recently reconstructed as well. We took a few pics of the churches in Sarto, (one is still used to this day) and then headed home.

I can’t tell you enough how great this afternoon was! Wonderful weather, great sights and great family time!

Here are some of the things we saw and did. Click on the link to enjoy more photos.

Sunday Drive