Fun in Winnipeg

Being on the road with a touring group is a lot of hard work. Late nights, a different motel room almost every night, early mornings as we travel to the next destination to load in for a 3:00pm rehearsal and an 8:00pm show. However, there is an upside to all this. The opportunity to see some great places. With the few days available to relax and rejuvenate, I’ve had the opportunity to see some wonderful places from the Grand Canyon to the Empire State Building. On our recent trip to Winnipeg, Canada my wife Midge joined us and the two of us had the opportunity to do some sight seeing. We stayed in the Fairmont Hotel located downtown and close to Centennial
Hall where we performed with the Symphony. From the Fairmont we were able to walk to some great places of interest. A five minute walk from the hotel past the baseball stadium brought us to “The Forks” (The Fourche). The Forks are two buildings which used to be the train station. One of them has some great shops and an antique store (we always have our eye out for vintage clothing). The other building has food stands from many nationalities, including Greek, Japanese, German, Indian and a fresh produce stand. From there we took a walk down the Assiniboine River Walk which led us to the legislative building of Manitoba. Here we discovered a place which instantly became Midge’s favorite. In the grass around the legislative building were polar bear sculptures each painted in a different style. One was painted to look like it was on the beach (polka dot swim suit and beach umbrella), another had the markings of a duck, another had the northern lights painted on it plus many more. Needless to say we took a lot of pictures. There was also a wonderful suspended bridge called the Esplanade, like you might see in Holland. We had a great view eating in the restaurant which was located in the center of the bridge. Of particular note, near Centennial Hall was a bookstore that sold used books for only $5 each. This was a great find for me being a lover of old books, particularly biographies. My library includes books on movie stars, history, presidents and lots of leadership books. We had a lot of fun walking around Winnipeg for 2 days and enjoyed every minute of it!

Michael Swedberg