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.