Vacation Round 3.2: Winnipeg

You'd think with going to bed 2 hours late, we get to sleep in. Both kids were up early in the neighborhood of 6:30am. Ouch.

We ate breakfast in our room before going down to the pool. Today was all about learning lessons.

Lesson One: Swim Diapers do not always contain "messes" (use your imagination)
Lesson Two: It is nice when the pool area is empty and no one else has to witness the walk of shame after a diaper failure. However, it still isn't fun.


We all got cleaned up before heading to the first stop of the day : Western Canada Aviation Museum

They had airplanes, of course. We got in right behind a school group having a last day of school field trip. I'm not sure we were supposed to tag along, but even I found the museum pretty interesting with the entertaining tour guide.They had a few biggish airplanes (aren't you impressed by my technical explanation?) but more of the smaller aircraft.
Back end parts of an airplane (I'm quite sure John will read this and feel compelled to change this)Royal Mail airplane

They had a never used spy hovercar

They also had a GREAT children's area that the kids loved. William liked being in the flight tower

and flying the plane with his copilot, Amelia. Or is he the copilot?

It is hard to tell, but there is air rushing out of the cone. Both kids liked trying to balance a ball on the airflow

Amelia liked the shopping...

We left the airplane museum (not without significant complaint from William) and went to the Assinboine Park Zoo. We ate our picnic lunch in the car and set out to see some animals. The zoo was...underwhelming. We were tired, there weren't many open exhibits or animals we haven't seen a hundred times before. While the zoo wasn't terrible, I wouldn't be recommending it to anyone as a must see in Winnipeg.

The tiger was just lazing around. William attempt to inspire him with his ferocious tiger impression. While we could hardly contain ourselves, the tiger was less inspired.
Amelia's fierce tiger face
One of the more exciting exhibits was a white buffalo...oddly enough, we didn't capture a picture of the beast, just a quick snapshot of the sign. ???Amelia crashed hard. There was not any traditional napping that occurred in Canada.

William was pretty peeved that Amelia had the audacity to fall asleep in the stroller. Over and over he demanded she give it up so he could take his nap turn. Unfortuantley for him, neither John or I was about to wake up an overtired 2 year old. Not happening.
He was forced to make alternate arrangements. Poor kid.

Shortly after this, we left the zoo and John requested a visit to Lower Fort Garry. It was about a 45 minute ride in which William and I slept HARD. Amelia was well rested from her stroller nap and kept John company.

Here is a sign about it if you want to know more. In short, it is a fort that operated as a trading post during the late 1800's and early 1900's.

Amelia admiring the commemorative stone
A sample of the boats used to bring supplies to the fort area over the river from Hudson's Bay. Someday, I'll find the time to come back to this picture and crop Amelia picking flowers out.
Isn't she sweet?
The fort had many historic building and was living history museum. This means there are real live people working there, reenacting historical...stuff. In this case, the reenactors were focused on how life would have been from day to day during the 1880 time period in this region of the country.
We LOVED that it was living history! Paid people to answer William's questions? Worth every penny. If we lived closer, I'm sure we'd be season pass holders or something. Here are the kids watching a blacksmith demonstration. You'd be suprised how long it takes to make one nail.The fort wallsWilliam and John checking out the fort walls
Amelia's turn
Inside the replica general store
Unable to resist the different green colored bottles in the sun

We closed down the place. We were enjoying ourselves so much, we didn't realize everyone was closing up and leaving until we were the only people around. I'm not sure why someone didn't tell us at any point along the way (there were LOTS of people around) that the park would be closing soon. No hours were posted on any of the doors, signs or maps that were given to us nor the receipt from purchasing admission with less than an hour left in their day. The kids were not happy about leaving (they aren't happy about much when they are this sleep deprived) without any notice. We made it up to them by eating at The Original Pancake House. These kids love pancakes! We followed pancakes with another trip to the pool to a) get our money's worth and b) ensure tired kids at bedtime. Here is when our second set of life lessons occurred:

Life Lesson Number 4: Don't get on an elevator without your grown ups.

William raced to be the first one on the empty elevator car and the doors shut before the rest of us could get there. About three seconds after the doors shut, the screaming started. Luckily, a quick thinking teenage girl (I suspect she was not sleep deprived) hit the elevator down button. The door magically opened again. You would not believe the amount of care William gave from then on to making sure he was not getting on the elevator alone. He was not about to let that happen again.

Life Lesson Number 5: Don't press the "EMERGENCY" button in the elevator.

After our swim time, Amelia raced to be the first one to press the button up to the fifth floor and instead pressed "EMERGENCY" so that a loud alarm sounded. John and I simultaneously went to yell at her and stopped after one look at her expression. She got it. Don't press the EMERGENCY button. Check with the grownups to make sure you are pushing the right thing. We went over it with her calmly a few times, but she got it. Loud and clear.*

*Funny enough, William was about this age when he pressed the emergency button himself at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. He, of course, had no recollection of this event and had a grand old time reminded Amelia not to push any buttons without his express permission.