We left the RV park at Moose Lake and headed up to Winnipeg. After being out in the provincial parks, I had picked another KOA for us to pull into for the full hook ups and laundry!  And we were looking forward to discovering a new province as well.

Back in about 1960, my family had just moved to Rapid City, SD and over the 4^th of July holiday, my father packed us up and took us on a vacation up to Winnipeg.  I don’t remember much but what sticks in my mind is visiting the zoo in the evening and how the sun was still up late.  But I could have it all wrong.  I asked my older sister about it, and she said, “does Winnipeg have a zoo?”  Anyway, that is one of the things I wanted to go see.  And it’s only been 65 years since then so what could have changed?

The drive up was easy, and we took the long way to avoid some of the farm roads that might have been gravel.   The farms were becoming more prevalent, and the forest and trees were being replaced with fields of all kinds of stuff.  We didn’t know exactly what any of the plantings were but most looked like wheat and hay.  We did start googling to find out and found some interesting results.  But more on that later.

We arrived at the KOA out on the west side of town, got hooked up and decided to go to our new favorite grocery store, SOBEYS, and to the old standby, WALMART!  We got settled and made plans for the next two days.

Close together in Winnipeg, there is the Assiniboine Park Zoo and The Leaf.  So that was our first day plan.  The zoo is self-explanatory and very well laid out, but its main attraction is the Journey to Churchill, a trip to the artic and to see the polar bears.  The actual town of Churchill, MB, is about 1750 miles north of Winnipeg and if you travel by train, it takes almost 2 days.  It’s only 1250 miles as the crow (or airplane) flies.  But you can’t drive there.

The polar bear pavilion is very large and features a pool where the bears can play and interact with the people below in a clear tunnel.  And we were lucky enough to get a full show!  Other bears were outside and visible from a viewing area, but they were sleeping. 

It was not what I remember exactly but I was glad to see the zoo again and take Gail along this time! 

The Leaf on the other hand is an indoor arboretum that features a tropical and a Mediterranean section under a beautiful roof and a 3-story waterfall!  The tropical garden was like being home in Miami.  But it was interesting and very nicely landscaped.  The Med side was much more arid and displayed more succulents and cactus.

On the 3^rd floor was a nice butterfly exhibit that was in a very large and high-ceilinged room.  And it compared nicely to the Fairchild Gardens exhibit in Miami and the Mackinac Island exhibit we had just seen a few weeks ago.  But seeing these butterflies up close is always amazing.

Our plans for the next day were the Mint and the Forks!  But first Gail wanted to find the “Back Alley Arctic” painted alley way in the older part of downtown.  Local artists had painted arctic scenes and animals on the garage doors on both sides of the alley.  Most were by Kal Barteski and we were both impressed by her work.  Just finding it was a bit of a lucky turn as Gail saw a small polar bear painted on one corner of the alley fence.  We took a chance, turned and there it was.  And we were glad to find it.  A hidden gem!

Then we headed to the Forks downtown.  This is a Canadian National Park area downtown where the two rivers come together.  The Assiniboine and the Red Rivers. This forms the Fork.  It is a market and nice walking area that has some interesting displays like the Oodena Celebration Circle.  It is described as a “naked eye observatory”  which is a series of structures that have star sighting features that pinpoint stars in certain constellations at specific times of the year.  And highlights their significance to the region’s history.  There is the Canadian Museum for Human Rights which we did not have time to visit, but the architecture was fascinating.

The other side of the river is the Boniface neighborhood that was originally the French side vs the English side.  The old cathedral façade was still there and provided the entrance to the new church.

Then on the Canadian Mint.  The original mint is actually in Ottawa. It mints special coinage and they also print all the currency.  But the Winnipeg mint is a major provider of the daily (distribution) coinage for Canada and for many smaller countries as well.  We took the tour and, even though it was Sunday and there was no production, it was very informative, and we learned a lot. 

There were so many stories and facts about the shape, the materials, the features, and the images.  There is not enough space to mention them all here.  Three of the most interesting facts are that 1) due to her longevity, there were 4 different  images of Queen Elizabeth as she matured used on Canadian coins.  2) the image on the new King Charles does not show him with a crown as is traditional. He chose this to honor his mother and his grandfather, King George VI,  who was actually the first to not have a crown in his coin. And 3) Each new monarch faces the opposite direction from the previous one. (We have Loonies with 3 of the Queen Elizabeth images and 1 of King Charles.)

PS. We could not take any pictures during the tour. And even though I asked politely, they didn’t give any free samples! 

We enjoyed our stay in Winnipeg but realized that we didn’t stop at the Manitoba capital building while we were there.  Oh well.  Next time.  And we plan to make up for that and not miss it in Saskatchewan!

The next morning we were off to the west again, back into the forests and a quick stay at one of only two National Parks in Manitoba, Riding Mountain National Park, near Wasagaming, MB.  This is a large area and known for its buffalo herd and other wildlife. 

But the signage to find the campground was confusing and it was very busy so there was about a 30 minute wait once we got in line to enter the campground!  We were only there one night but took the time to go see the Buffalo enclosure and did get to see several before they scooted off into the trees.  And we went for a walk in the village along the lake.  A busy national park.

So, this ends our time in Manitoba as we were off to Regina, Saskatchewan the next day.  We had a great time driving across this province and were excited about adding another province to our list.  Come along.