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For this blog:

This blog is about our trip to Winnipeg Canada and then on to Churchill Canada to see the Polar Bears (and a few other arctic animals). 

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Arctic Fox
Polar Bears
Snowshoe Hare
Tundra

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October 12, 2017 - Flight to Winnipeg

We arrived in Winnipeg with minimal travel fuss.  We are traveling with our travel buddies Jim and Phyllis Bratt.  Once at the hotel one of our items of business was to get outfitted with parkas and warm, cozy snow boots.  It will be quite cold once we head off to Churchill and the polar bears.  We are traveling with Natural Habitat and so far they seem very well organized.

October 13, 2017 - Winnipeg Canda

Today is our first day in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.  Natural Habitat has organized a tour of the city and it turns out there is a lot to see and do here.  The city tour first took us along the river and then to a pretty city park.

Next stop was the capital building. 

And then to the Manitoba Natural History Museum.  It was a small museum but we all felt that it was one of the better ones that we had visited.  It included fossil exhibits,

the usual stuffed animals,

the Nonsuch ship (a 17th century ketch [small ship] that was involved in the fur trade),

and First Nations cultural items.  We all particularly liked the Inukshu.  These are rock piles built by the First Nations people to help them navigate across their very flat, relatively featureless environment.

Then it was on to St. Boniface Church.  The original church burned and left only parts of the front façade.  They did not rebuilt in the original style but retained the remains as the walls of a courtyard leading to the new church.

We also visited the English Garden at Assiniboine Park.

The park also had a Leo Mol Sculpture Garden.  Leo Mol, full name is Leonid Molodoshanin, was a 20th Century Ukrainian/Canadian stained glass artist and sculptor. 

We had lunch at the Lake Audy Park followed by a bus trip into the Bison Enclosure.  The bison here are part of managed herds across Canada.

 

While there we also saw a lot of Canada Geese foraging in the enclosure.

We followed this up with a walk around parts of Lake Audy Park where we saw a lot of birds.

 We also toured the small enclosure where they had an owl and a prairie dog town.

October 14, 2018 - Churchill Canada and Northern Lights

Today we flew to Churchill on a chartered flight.  The only other way to get to Churchill used to be by train but a while back the rail lines washed out.  Now the citizens of Churchill get all of their supplies by either plane or, during the summer, by boat and barge.

We were picked up in a small bus and the first part of the tour was a drive along the Hudson Bay coastline...

 where we saw a very large Inukshuk.

From there we drove out to Prince of Wales Fort (no longer in use).  

While we walked along the walks we had a guard following us, with a rifle, keeping an eye out for polar bears.  They take the bears very seriously.  While they bring in lots of tourists they are also quite dangerous.

Then it was off to the tundra where we transferred to a Tundra Rover.  

We had a great meal while on the tundra.  

We saw polar bears, but only as white dots in the distance.

But we did get to see a snowshoe hare that hung out right beside the rover.  We were all excited.

We had a great sunset.

But the greatest treat of the day was when we were back on the bus headed for Churchill.  We had Northern Lights.  They were truly awesome.  They drove us back to the Inukshuk, which was away from the bulk of the towns lights, so that we could have really good views.  It was probably the biggest highlight of the trip.

We were all ready for bed when we got to the hotel.  It was simple but comfortable.