Canadian Rockies to The Great Lakes & Beyond travel blog

The Legislative Building in Winnipeg

Beautiful fountain at the side of the Capital Building

Another monument to Louis Riel

Pretty flowerbeds

These polar bears were a project for CancerCure

Totem in the Park

That's a heavy load for two polar bears

The Golden Boy atop the Capital Dome

Monument celebrating Women

Another side view of the capital and monuments

The Forks

Where the Red & Assiniboine Rivers Meet

A shot of the Red River

This is the Esplanade Riel Pedestrial Bridge

Mahatma Gandhi Monument

Joe with his street namesake.


The rain held off so, after lunch, we drove into Winnipeg to The Forks. This trip put us on the other bank of the Red River looking across at the French Quarter. The Forks is described as a green oasis in the heart of Winnipeg at the confluence of the Red & Assiniboine Rivers; but the spring floods did a tremendous amount of damage and the tractors and dirt movers were busily working to restore the area to its natural beauty. We walked along the riverbank as far as we felt we could and then headed over the Esplanade Riel Pedestrian Bridge. The bridge connects Downtown Winnipeg with St. Boniface. This bridge is really neat, 5 meters wide and 250 meters long with cables running from a pylon which towers 57 meters above the river. Of course, the structure gets its name from Louis Riel.

Since Winnipeg is Manitoba’s capital, we had to make a stop at the Legislative Building. It dates to 1920 and its dome provides a nice perch for Manitoba’s number one citizen, the beloved “Golden Boy”. The sun was in the absolutely worst spot so my pictures aren’t the best; however, I’ll post a few anyway. The Golden Boy holds a torch in one hand and a sheaf of wheat in the other; symbols to represent economic prosperity and agriculture. I read that the statue weighs over 3,600 lbs. and is coated in 24 karat gold leaf.

By now, the heat and humidity had gotten the best of us and we decided to head back. We needed to fuel up the Jeep so we stopped at the first Shell station….wouldn’t accept our credit card because we have no front license plate (not required in Oklahoma). We were a bit hungry and stopped at Tim Horton’s for coffee and a muffin.

We just had leftovers for dinner; we need to start thinking about getting rid of the food we can’t take back into the U.S.

Tomorrow looks like rain so we have a down day planned. Then, Wednesday, we move to Dryden, ON.

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