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Author's notes: 1) I don't want to use any names, so I will refer to people by their initials. 2) Thanks to M for letting me use his photos and video!
It feels like we've been living in the car for a week. Actually we left mom's last Friday morning, with the burning goal to make it to Winnipeg on time for Canada Day festivities. None of us had ever spent any time in Winnipeg, so we thought we'd check the city out in party mode. We left Bonfield (North Bay) around 8AM, crossed the US border at Sault Ste Marie to cut under lake Superior. We spent 2.5 rather uneventful days, whizzing through Michigan, Wisconsin & Minnesota, marveling at the small differences in the cultural landscape (hardly anyone speeds).
We made it to Winnipeg Sunday afternoon and managed to get the last tour of the day at the Royal Canadian Mint. The road leading to mint is lined with foreign flags. We learned inside that the facility mints coins for 75 countries. We were able to fondle a big bar of gold that was chained to post. And we were given a super-enthusiastic tour of the facility by
a young man named Ben. Ben showed us all kinds of rare coins, and filled our heads with scientific details and humourous anecdotes - like the story of the employee who wore boots two sizes too big to work, and then left work with his boots filled with coins, every day for about a year. They then installed metal detectors for mint workers.
Monday we began at the Science gallery of the Manitoba Museum (M's pick). We then took in a street fair in Osborne Village, and then went to the site of the big event at The Forks, a big downtown park. There was a stage with live bands that changed every hour and people sitting on blankets and milling around. People of every size, shape, and skin-shade, thousands of them. The atmosphere was relaxed and familial - lots of security and police patrolling. We spend a long time at the skate park, watching (mostly young) boys do amazing things on skateboards and trick bicycles. We had some great filipino bbq from an unfortunately named canteen. Of course, M asked me to explain what the name (Pimp your rice) meant -the joys of step-motherhood! Fireworks were scheduled for
11pm, but we burnt out around 8pm and went back to our hotel, knowing that today, we had 1000km planned
Tonight we are bedding down in Medicine Hat, and tomorrow we head to Dinosaur Provincial Park for a Fossil Safari..
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Rose
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Good Morning.
This was a pleasant surprise. Thanks for including me. Looking forward to your posts.