When I look outside and see nothing but snow—which has been settled on the ground since November, and just when you think it’s getting warmer, and the snow is melting…BOOM! It snows again—I can’t wait for it all to end and the summer to come. For those of you who don’t live here, or have never been to Saskatchewan (and the Prairies in general) the weather really does reach both ends of the scale.

I’ve only lived in this region for almost 3 years and in that time I’ve had the pleasure of partaking in mild winters (averaging -20); the ridiculously cold (as in -50 cold, and that’s in Celsius, none of this pre-metric Fahrenheit nonsense); and incredibly hot summers where it’s been approaching the late 30s. This isn’t always true (circa summer 2010), but this is what I’ve experienced so far. However, when the summer does finally arrive…come on May!….I’ll be packing my bag, and the car, and heading to the Lake.

Now, this is something that I am getting accustomed to.

Long Weekends in Canada

Being from Europe my idea of a vacation is taking a cheap flight to Spain, staying in a villa for a week, and relaxing on beach whilst looking out across the Mediterranean. It might sound “fancy” but that’s how I grew up.

My folks weren’t rich, in fact return flights from the UK to Spain staying in a decent place can cost $250 each (which is equivalent to a single ticket from Saskatoon to Calgary…anyone else have a problem with flight prices here?), but I no longer live there. To do that I would have to add an extra $1500, so now I look forward to long weekends at the Lake.

Saskatchewan has 100s of lakes. Admittedly they’re not all “resorts” but there are many places for families to vacation at during the summer. I know people that spend days, weeks, even the entire summer at the Lake. I personally only go once a year and I’m only there for 3-4 days as, like I mentioned earlier, I’m still getting “accustomed” to this.

I know some people will wonder what my aversion is to this, but it’s because I’m not used to it. I remember camping as a kid in the UK, and if you didn’t know this, it rains a lot in the UK. So it’s probably an undiagnosed psychological scar why I don’t get that excited to go camping in the woods for a few days.

My fiance, along with her family can’t wait for Long Weekends at the Lake. That’s because for them, and the majority of you, they’ve been doing this since they were kids. I’ve been experiencing this since my late 20s.

Website Design

Having said all this, I am looking forward to this summer. That’s because a) it’s still freezing out and I can’t wait for the warm weather, and b) it means I will have got married and all the getting-married-related-stress will be long gone, and I will be able to join that post-marriage club where you can tell future couples “just go get married on a beach somewhere, with your folks as witnesses, and have a big party when you get back”.

One of the most well-known, and loved, lake resorts in Saskatchewan is Candle Lake. I personally have never had the opportunity to visit, but I have a few friends who have cabins there and I’m always told how great it is. And, with 2 Web Design having just redesigned their website I am in agreement.

Just take a look at their wonderful array of photographs. Doesn’t it look great? Even in the winter the place looks awesome!

One of the goals for the redesign was to make important information, such as Government, Business, and general Resort information, easily accessible on the website, along with the development of an easy-to-use CMS to allow their website staff the ability to keep the website updated more frequently than before.

Other new design features include:

• A rotating banner of images from in and around Candle Lake
• An events calendar to announce current and upcoming resort events and activities
• A searchable membership directory database
• The integration of Google Maps depicting Candle Lake’s location

What do you think? Let us know!

More information on this project – what we did and how we did it – can be viewed on our Portfolio.