Company and Winnipeg

My brother and wife arrived Friday afternoon after a long detour from International Falls. If they had known, they had forgotten to take their Minnesota map, they would have crossed the border into Fort Frances and gone on the north side of the Rainy River. Being familiar with the trip to Roseau didn't cause them any frustration until they reached the detour. Bob's attitude was good, even after the long detour. I think there should have been someway to learn of the alternative drive. They took the northern route when they went home today.

Yesterday, while hubby cut CRP (Conservation Reserve Program) acres, we headed into the city of Winnipeg Manitoba about 100 miles northwest of the farm. Our first stop was to The Forks to meander through the shops, check out the different cuisine available and take a historic tour of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers on the one of The Forks smaller tour boats. It was interesting to see the flood levels on one of the bridges. The highest of which was from the 1957 flood. They claim the latest diversion "ditch" will protect the city from a 700 year flood. How do they determine things like that?

As we traveled the rivers we were presented information on the St. Boniface Church, I attended a workshop at the museum once. The museum was very interesting and included some exhibit items from Pierre La Verendrye an early French explorer who also established Fort St. Charles on the Northwest Angle of Minnesota during the 1700s. The area of the main city was clearly visible as was the first area established with the French architecture. The main docking area where early settlers landed. At one time it was believed that Winnipeg would be larger than Chicago, but the railroad eliminated the use of the Red River down to the Minnesota River and onto the Mississippi River which was thought to be the major way to transport commodities. I remember reading in an early Warroad newspaper where the largest shipment of wheat traveled on the Canadian Northern through Warroad sometime in the beginning of the twentieth century.
We all enjoy our little history lesson and then stepped off the boat, located our sea legs and headed to a little store to find some homemade ice cream. I had a scoop of lemon and one of mango, I highly recommend it!

We continued to examine the other wares in the market, the meat was surprisingly inexpensive. The produce comparable to ours. The trinkets and do-dads fun to examine and then it was time to cross over to the other building and check out the toy store, the Christmas shop and the various clothing and home decorative items.

By this time it was already 5:30 and we were hungry. Bob and Marie have eaten pizza at a place on Corydon Street and wanted to go there again. They have great pizza there, but the name escapes me. I could find it though, and it wasn't too spendy either.We ate in their outdoor restaurant, a real treat in our northern country.

After stopping at the mall in Steinbach, we ended up for coffee at Tim Hortons. It was the end of a beautiful and enjoyable day. Now if I had only remembered to take my camera.

Today it was back to work for a few hours and then home to make a blueberry pie for hubby.