…onto a new Province… Manitoba

Flat plains of …. Manitoba!?

Leaving Thunder Bay, the scenery through the last part of Ontario was suddenly very different from the hills and lakes surrounding Lake Superior. The land all around us started to flatten out.

We even passed into another time zone. Who knew it wasn’t at the border but just shy of 500 km inside the Ontario border.  We zoomed past it before we knew what we had passed so I didn’t manage to capture the marker in a photo.

HICCUP #1…

All was good… until I noticed it was starting to get a little warm in the car… Fiddle with the knobs a little more but to no avail… We were 2 hours from our next destination, it was 30degC outside and our A/C decides to go on its own vacation… So we withstand the closed windows for a while.

Hmmm… something’s wrong?…..

Before I was going to spontaneously combust, I cracked open our windows and just dealt with the noise and sound. We drove straight to the dealership as we had called on the road and they advised we could be seen to just assess the degree of repair needed. We roll in, everyone bright red as a lobster and pile into the local Nissan dealership… only to be told, nope.. you have to come back tomorrow morning at 7:30 am. Thanks!… not sure it was necessary to give us hope only to turn us away. Luckily this was a stretch where we let the kids play on their tablets so they were COMPLETELY oblivious fortunately for us!

Winnipeg

We finally arrive at our friend’s house or what we affectionately came to know as The Royal Salinger Resort.  The kids squeal with delight… there’s a pool ….BUT more importantly there are kids!!!! Woohoo!

Three days of relaxation and unwinding… well.. for 3 of us that is.. The hubby had to work for three days while we kicked back and just chillaxed after long driving days. Strangely enough, summer hours still followed us even though there was no set up or take down of camping sites. Play time, park time, pool time. What more could we ask for… oh yea… well… car dealership time… Oddly it wasn’t a small fix, but weighing the option of travelling across the prairies in hot weather vs the mechanic’s bill… it was an easy choice if not forced…

Bikes

Winnipeg is a huge cycling community, there are convenient and safe trails everywhere.

Our friends who were our gracious Winnipeg hosts, ride their bikes to work when weather permits and it’s not a little 10 minute ride down the street. They have substantial rides about 10-15 km rides one way! Seeing as the hubby’s office was near our host’s, they decided to ride to work together.

It was a different kind of experience (read somewhat challenging) for my husband but one that became a highlight of our trip.

Blue Bombers

Friday night saw an opportunity for my husband to get some R&R so he headed off to the Blue Bombers Football game with our friends. Traffic into and out of the games is notoriously trying in the best of circumstances, so the boys rode their bikes to the game!  Calgary was visiting and turned out to to be the victors! Apparently traffic to and from the games last year was so bad that they decided to pre-emptively try to avoid tough lineups this year by trying out new initiatives. They supported biking by having valet bike service that was such a hit they reached capacity well before the game started. And after the game, they allowed the crowds to access the field to ease the onslaught of people leaving all at the same time.

Winnipeg Folk Festival

Saturday saw us and our hosts head to the Winnipeg Folk Festival. It was the land of floppy hats, flower headbands, flowy dresses, music buffs, and a huge kids area which suited our kids perfectly!

A circus training crew were around to allow kids to practice walking on stilts, plate spinning, walking on tight wires and other activities. There was a usual outdoor play tug of rope opportunity

Clay creations, painting, arts and crafts, kids performers… what more could we ask for!?… it was all in the shade!.. booyah!.. sold! We set up for the afternoon in a spot and everyone just went their ways to enjoy all that the festival provided. Go figure, we’re in the middle of a folk festival with about a million options for entertainment and something just made me smile when I spotted this…

We stayed until early evening until our kids were showing signs of heat and physical exertion. We headed out and our friends stayed to enjoy the main show of the night: Fiest amongst others.

A little bit of packing and a good night’s rest (and a wee bit of blogging while I had wifi) and we were ready for our departure the next morning.

Observations:

• Mosquitos are well known during Winnipeg summers but we were fortunate as June was unusually dry and so we only encountered them at dusk.
• ANIMALS….
  • Butterflies: We learned that caterpillars LOVE dillweed.  Our friend’s garden was fantastic, filled with all sorts of vegetables, herbs and fruit: peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, beets, cucumbers, apple tree, and more! The dillweed had a bunch of caterpillars in various stages from wee (<1 cm) to big fat caterpillars who looked ready to form into their chrysalis!
  • Hamsters: Our friend’s also had two lovely little hamsters: Caramel and Peanut which provided much entertainment for our kids.
  • Bunny: It seems most everyone has one that runs around backyards and the Royal Salinger Resort was no different. Apparently raised vegetable gardens deter rabbits – we learn something every day.
• We saw the middle of the Trans Canada Highway just before Thunder Bay (forgot to include that in the previous posting). While we didn’t do the whole Trans-Canada Highway we certainly did a portion of it and it was neat to see the half-way mark.

Kids memories: ‘claire and gracie’