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My job provides me the opportunity to spend time in various North American cities. In August of 2007 it was Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, where I escaped the grueling Florida summer heat with a week training at the RCMP headquarters. Winnipeg is the provincial capitol of Manitoba, Canada's central-most province, and the first of the Northwest Territories to become a province (in 1870 I believe). It is a northern extension of what in the United States is called the Great Plains. But the climate is varying. It is pretty flat. Vital. Diverse.
The week I was there they were having their annual Folklarama, which celebrates all the cultures or nations that they care to (I didn't see the Caucasian exibit), and is a cool neighborhood thing to do, dotted all through the city. I was generally tired after a day of training, and didn't avail myself of any of that, but I saw a lot of the dancers on the news each night. So I felt like I participated.
I DID manage to go disc golfing (yes, of course they have disc golf), drink some serious Canadian lager, visit the Legislature, tour The Forks area (downtown provincial park) dine at the 30th floor Royal Crown Revolving Restaurant (also downtown) and familiarize myself with the downtown and vicinity. Winnipeg is a big city with big city problems, but it is also a nice place to live and work, and the people I met and worked with there were very friendly and helpful, making it an enjoyable, productive trip.
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Minneapolis Airport |
Landing in Manitoba |
Cruising Portage St. downtown |
Local Brew - mmmm |
RCMP building inside |
Passing the capitol |
Assiniboine River |
Disc Golf Park |
Happyland Basket |
| They had a nice, though narrow disc golf course southeast of the downtown area at Happyland Park. It is a nine-hole multi-use park on the edge of the Seine River, which was little more than a creek, sorrounded by homes and traffic at the busy intersection of Marion and Archibald Streets. It may have been a little warm that day -- I did sweat -- but it was not the stiffling humid heat of Florida, no sir. They had it nice inasmuch as there were two tees for each basket, and two baskets for each hole, so that makes it 36 effective holes! That's a good use of space. Not many other park users on a midweek afternoon, but clearly it was a well-planned and oft-used course. I'll give it a 7.4 out of 10. |
After 27 holes |
Tee pads for 2 and 11 |
Winnipeg Skyline |
The Forks - just E of downtown |
Cool, man |
Wolf Paintings |
Hillside kids |
Map O Canada |
Pedestrian Bridge/Restaurant |
Map of the rivers |
Sit |
St Boniface Cathedral |
Feeding the loons |
The Market at The Forks |
Dinosaur |
Another Cityscape |
Hotel Upgrade |
Wild life |
Buffalo head @RCMP HQ |
Bear skin @RCMP HQ |
Legislature |
Baby apple |
Capitol embelishments |
Visitor's Badge |
Entry hall |
Art given by Mexico |
Straight up the dome |
The grand hall |
Colorful mural |
Landings had 'unique' marble patterns |
Dome detail |
Flowers out front |
More NAKED ornate finery |
Revolving Restaurant |
"The Forks" as seen from the Royal Crown |
The city at dusk |
Microbrew - the good stuff |
The tragedy on I-35 |
Minneapolis, Minnesota, US
August 1, 2007 |
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Mark Scott, All Rights Reserved.