Woke up on the lovely Clifton Street to the sound of squirrels chirping and nattering. Jonathan and I got up and went to join Nick and Lisa inside for coffee. Kids came in shortly after they ate their Frosted Flakes (a camping treat we purchased at our last grocery store shop in Portage). Amelia tucked into the corner in the front room and got to work on her lego creations. Ollie hung about wondering if Hayden might get up soon, which he did! We were super impressed to see a teenager up before 11am! 😉
Had a photo op out front with the whole gang (Ollie is our official timer photographer and does it well), and we said our goodbyes to Lisa and Hayden as they would be taking off to the lake before got back to our rig again. We were talking about finding a MB sticker for the rig since we didn't locate on in Portage, and Lisa announced that she actually had some PORTAGE stickers that were given to her from a friend! She ran in and got them for us, so now we have real deal Portage sticker for the side panel! yay!
Nick kindly drove us the 10 minutes into the Forks as a starting point for exploring around the city of Winnipeg. We walked around some of the shops and tucked into a souvenir store to pick up some postcards and a Manitoba sticker. Ollie had his eyes on a long glittery bumper sticker, but Meems and I voted for a smaller more uniform sized sticker with the Manitoba animals on it. We carried on walking around the beautiful stone market building and immediately spotted a bakery making fresh batches of cinnamon buns. The smell drew us in and we ordered and enjoyed them in the airy central hall where the tables were situated. Cool little shops in this one building only had small businesses, no chains. Beautiful gift shops and first nations art.
Nick had told us about an awesome toy store which was in the building next door, so we headed over there next. It was very cool! We spent quite some time exploring it and managed to find a Canadian Trivia Game for kids, a soft flying pizza disc, and a back massage roller to buy. Ollie and Meems and I went into a Tarot Card store where they did fortune telling and the like. Interesting store covered floor to ceiling with strange displays, flowing fabrics and crystal balls and crystals. The older gentlemen shopkeeper/fortune teller there in a black suit was quite interesting. After being satisfied with our market wanderings, we decided to walk outside to where the fork of the Red River and the Assiniboine River meet. You could see where the waters had risen recently and all the sand and debris had come up over the walkways and banks. We walked along the river in the direction of the Manitoba Museum. It was hot, and not a lot of shade to be found. Kids were wilty, but managed. When we got closer to the streets again, we ducked up through a shady path and then over to a coffee shop. Jonathan ordered an iced coffee which proved to be quite strong and made him jittery the rest of the afternoon, and the kids and I had cold cranberry juices to liven our spirits. We liked the washroom door sign here that read, "Whatever! Just wash your hands" and had pictures of the typical bathroom sign people, but also a mermaid, Darth Vader and a speeding wheelchair.
After what seemed like a donkey's age, we managed to reach the Manitoba Museum. This held quite a bit of nostalgia for me, as we used to come here as kids around Amelia's age. We had school field trips here back in the day. Then lobby was the same 40+ years later, and the same exact bison display as the first exhibit. Despite the kids being wilty from the hot sun earlier, the cool air conditioned museum with interesting vignettes and interactive displays seemed to give them energy again. We got to go on the Nonsuch (a replica ship from the 1700's) which was super neat and again was something I remember going on as a kid.
Once we finished seeing all the displays at the Museum, Jonathan called an Uber for pick up which was ready for us in mere minutes and drove us to Nick and Lisa's place back on Clifton. When we arrived at the house, we could hear Nick prepping for a DJ gig he has tomorrow. While Jonathan made Annie's pasta inside, Ollie got to check out Nick's awesome set up. Hayden took Ollie to the school park across the road to shoot nerf guns and Amelia wrote postcards. Then it was time to pack up and hit the road again! Nick gave us instructions on how to drive past the Canada Life Centre where the Jets play, and we were off!
With 106028km on the odometer, we set off from Winnipeg at 6pm, waved at the Area as we drove by, got a bit confused with our two garmins (Tony had given us one of his old garmins!) and made some odd turns, but managed to get back onto the highway out of town headed for Ontario. Drove into Falcon Lake campground area for a peek at one of the places the Holmes family used to camp... it was busy and full on! Not as I remember!
By 8pm we were into Ontario and driving through what became beautiful lake country. When they say Lake of the Woods, they really mean it! Lakes and dense woods. Saw lots of beaver lodges in the ponds beside the highway. Gorgeous lake after lake after lake.
9pm we were entering Kenora. We had thought we would find some camping sites to pull over at before this, but nothing came up. Kenora is a bustling little lake town with attractive little main street and clearly a hot spot for campings and holiday'ers. We took our chances and drove up the hillside to the elementary school and parked to make dinner, play at the playground and hopefully not have anyone come and tell us to move! There were two young deer munching clover in the field beside the playground. We had a blast on the playground. Ollie tested his parkour skills (!) and Amelia invented a pizza disc/playground obstacle game that was also very fun. After tuna salads for a very late dinner, it seemed that no one was going to evict us, and we set the rig up on blocks to level it somewhat. Played more on the playground in the semi-dark, and then tucked into the RV for the night with stories. We heard a truck pull up and it turned out to be a family towing a big trailer and they had the same idea. So we had neighbours for the night!
Ended the day's drive at 106245km. drove 217km today.
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