Bear down in Winnipeg

Woke up this morning with the intention of doing some laundry, but a funny thing happened on the way to the laundromat, the weather got nice and my curiosity got aroused.  One thing led to another and before I knew it I was downtown Winnipeg researching, driving, walking and clicking my camera like a mad man. I guess it is in my blood!

What was going to be a catch-up chore type day turned into a research day. How did it happen? Well.. it started out that I was making a quick trip into town to raid the tourism info centre and then I was going to do some laundry. It just happens that the tourism info centre is one of the buildings in the Fork Historic Site. There were so many people and the sun was out and … well you know the story by now.

So I began my day walking the grounds of the Historic Fork (no I did not misspell fort. It is actually called Fork because it is where the two rivers meet).  The Fork also links up to the Red River, Assiniboine River, Juda Park, Parliament Buildings, St. Boniface Promenade and the Riverwalk.  What I figured would be a quick walk about turned into a full day affair on foot. Not that I am complaining as it was beautiful out most of the day.

The Fork is a big piece of green space at the foot of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. There is a market, museums, plaza, tower, boat tours and a beautiful paved Riverwalk. I found the walk along the rivers to be entertaining and full of people entertainment. I passed by some mountain bikers, roller bladders and joggers all day. There were people picnicking and reading books all over. And there were people talking to themselves too who I figured might not be playing with a full deck of cards.

Bikers heading my way on the Esplanade Riel Bridge

The Riverwalk crosses the Red River via what is called the Esplanade Riel. It is a funky pedestrian bridge that links the downtown with St. Boniface on the opposite side of the Red River. In the middle of the bridge is an elevated restaurant. Have not come across a restaurant before with such a unique location.

While I was walking the bridge, I had my head down for a moment fiddling with my camara when all of a sudden I heard a “Heads Up”. I looked up quickly and just in time as a wave of mountain bikers were coming straight at me.  So my “Survivor Man” instincts kicked in and I did a little dance to avoid the attack of bikes. My quick recovery skills enabled me to still get a good picyure of the tail end of the bike group. To my surprise the photo looks pretty cool.

From the Riverwalk I made my way to the Parliament Buildings. Pretty nice building I’s say. The building fronts the Assiniboine River. It is lavish structure with a stone dock and stairs leading up to a statue of Louise Riel and a fountain. Up close and personal the building is huge and is surrounded by gardens, statues, green lawns and bears. Yes, I said bears. They are all over. Not real bears but those painted theme- type bears. I got cuddly with one of them (main photo).

To complete my day I walked the downtown core of Winnipeg. It is always easier to research a cities downtown on a Sunday as there is less traffic and better parking. I went up one street and down the other leading me zig zagging through town eventually ending up at the corner of Portage and Main (famous by the rock group BTO).   And just my luck that my so called laundry day turned into a research day on a Sunday. I took pictures of old buildings, new buildings, murals, museums, sky scrappers and anything that moved.

And as luck had it,  on my way back to base camp I spotted a laundromat. OK I lied. I spotted a Tim Hortons and beside the Timmys was a laundromat… ha ha ha. Two birds with one stone I’d say!