Manitoba - Day 3

Being our last full day in Winnipeg, today was our time to explore this very enjoyable city. It's smaller than I anticipated and older as well. All the housing we saw was circa 1960, all WWII houses that would have been demolished in short order in Toronto decades ago. The super houses in Toronto have no match whatsoever to Winnipeg's well-kept lovely homes when it comes to ambience and pride.

Though it didn't happen first chronologically I did find the perfect title slide for the day.

The Basilique Catedrale de Saint Boniface was not at all what I expected. My experience with cathedrals has always been grandiose, centuries old and dripping with opulence and over indulgence. This was quite under-stated and obviously much newer than most. I also was not aware until we arrived that it is the final resting place of Louis Riel.

Winnipeg's Legislature was well worth the visit even though we could not go in. Interior tours are only available on Fridays – missed it by that much (one day). The Golden Boy atop the structure is very well known to everyone but me. I am familiar with a similar topping in Denver. The Ukraine memorial was very touching and once again the view from the grounds was so inspirational.

For some unexplained reason I really wanted to see the Forks National Historic Site. The meeting of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers is something I was very much aware of so being this close it seemed a shame to bypass it. The natives of Winnipeg are certainly a hardy bunch. I saw a few wearing sandals and shorts. I thought it was actually quite cool so was more than a little surprised.

We finished our visit to Winnipeg with a trip to Murray's boyhood home in the early sixties in Saint Vital. No surprise given what I have said about the age of the homes here that it is still standing. We took a few photos of the house and street to send to Murray. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to revisit a home you grew up in? Sadly, most are long gone. 

We wanted to Facetime Murray but my phone was at about 2% battery so we couldn't. That became a real issue pointing out just how reliant we have become on these damn devices. As soon as I connected a cable to the phone to charge the battery the car had a stroke and lost Bluetooth connection along with all guidance features. That meant relying solely on my phone which was audio only and required me to perform the ultimate distracted driving. Fortunately we found our way back and went right to Enterprise to get everything rebooted and learn the secret of fixing it because I guarantee this will happen again.

Tomorrow we're off to points north. Stay with us.   😎