The day was scheduled to be really packed to begin with (cross the provincial border, drive to Winnipeg, see Winnipeg’s tourist attractions, get groceries, cook dinner at our Airbnb). We got up relatively early, got ready, and packed. Since we didn’t work out the day before, we did a 10 min HIIT workout instead and afterwards, showered and got our hot breakfast from downstairs. We didn’t have time to eat it in the room so we decided to eat it in the car.
As I was getting in the car, my foot stepped on the charging cable for the dashcam and broke the cord. This was completely unexpected and a bit frustrating since this was another thing now added to our already busy day. We knew we really needed a dashcam, so we spent the next hour trying to figure out how to fix the cord.
Hohyun wanted to glue it back together but I suggested going to Walmart and getting a new cable entirely. We bought Superglue at the convenience store of a gas station and he tried to fix it while I went to Walmart. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to fix it and I wasn’t able to find the right cord.
We had to keep moving with or without the cord given the day’s schedule. Since we were in a small town, stores weren’t open on Sundays, meaning that all the stores were closed. Small towns also don’t have big-box electronics stores (like Best Buy) and the next big city we would be in was Winnipeg. I was pretty stressed out and panicked, not knowing what to do since we really wanted to get footage of the border crossing. Hohyun calmed me down and we decided on waiting until Winnipeg to buy the cord since that was the only thing we could do.
The border crossing was pretty melodramatic. At the time, we heard that there was police at the border and wanted to record it for historical purposes. When we got there, we found out that the police were only there to deter people from coming into Ontario and that there were none stopping us from leaving. Right after that point was the Manitoba border sign, and we pulled over on the side of the highway for the picture.
The drive to Winnipeg was pretty plain. The first half of the drive was still rocks and trees, but at one point in Manitoba, the land just turned really flat. I was able to see the Winnipeg skyline from really far away. The street signs were also bilingual, which I wasn’t expecting.
Our first stop in Winnipeg was obviously to buy a dashcam cable at Best Buy. It was really weird being able to walk into a store and buy a cable since in-person shopping for non-essential items in Ontario at that point was prohibited. Afterwards, we went to Costco with intentions to buy food there for dinner, but the line to get into the store was really long so we got gas only instead.
We went to our Airbnb afterwards to unpack and figure out our next steps. We stayed at Dorothy’s Airbnb and she was such a great host. We ran into her on the way in and she left cereal, milk and made banana bread for us. The place was just enough for us to unwind for the day and had everything we needed.
Because of the whole dashcam thing earlier in the day, Hohyun didn’t really have time to plan out the order in which we were going to see Winnipeg’s attractions. We just went with the order that was most efficient in terms of driving.
#1: The Forks
On the way here, we saw a Louis Riel mural and stopped to take pictures. I loved the colours.
We decided to park at the shopping mall at The Forks and walk everywhere. Parking wasn’t that expensive and I was happy since I wanted to get out and move a bit. We walked towards a huge field and the first thing that I saw was a huge Winnipeg sign. Right behind the Winnipeg sign was a huge skate park with groups of kids skateboarding. Next to the Winnipeg sign was a huge CN amphitheatre (which is probably where a lot of outdoor concerts are held in Winnipeg) and when I turned around, there was a huge sculpture of bicycles that were really hard to focus on. It was really nice for us to enjoy ourselves because there weren’t a lot of people there. The weather was a bit cloudy though.
We then walked to the Parks Canada sign for The Forks, took some pictures, and read about the history of this place. I learned that it was called The Forks because it was the place where the Assiniboine River and the Red River intersect.
The Red River was right across from us, and I really wanted to see it since I thought was really cool to see something that I had studied about in school in real life. I also really like history, and the Red River was an important part of Canadian history. We took a few photos there, and right next to us was a French-speaking couple. There were a lot of people there who were out getting physical activity (biking, running, walking etc.) On our way out, we passed by the skate park again so we stayed to watch, but no one was doing anything cool. Right behind us was a map of The Forks engraved in stone, which I found really cool.
#2: Canadian Human Rights Museum
Because of covid, it was closed, which was unfortunate since I’m a huge museum nerd and because it is one of the most popular things to do in Winnipeg. The outside of it was majestic, and we walked as close as we could to the entrance to get pictures. There was also a statue of Gandhi on the way to the front doors.
#3: Manitoba Legislative Building
This was around a 20-minute walk from The Forks (so it was a total 40-minute walk there and back). I personally really enjoyed the walk because it gave me the chance to also see downtown Winnipeg. Everything was closed because of covid and because it was a weekend. We passed by the Winnipeg VIA Rail Train station, the Fort Garry Hotel, and a building for union rights. There was also a bank which I had never seen before.
The legislative building itself was beautiful and was a lot more distinct and open than Queen’s Park. The park area leading up to the actual building was gorgeous and really well maintained. There were statues of famous Manitobans scattered around the park too. The building was obviously closed because of covid and the weekend. We took some pictures outside in front of the building and then had to leave since our parking was about to expire and we were getting hungry.
#4: The Forks Market
Since we parked right here, we figured that it would be worth it to at least walk around inside and see what was in there. It was a large indoor market with a lot of food stands (but were all closed due to covid). I realized that I had to buy postcards, and hoped there would be someplace in this market that sold them. Unfortunately, most of the stores were closed since it was 7pm, but there was a small artisan shop upstairs that sold local things (The Forks Trading Company) that was still open. They had really cute things in the store and had the postcards we needed.
I had dry pasta with me, so we decided to eat pasta for the night. We went into a grocery store to get everything else required for pasta. Since I’m horrible at cooking (I’ve burned pasta before), we both agreed that Hohyun would do all the cooking in order for us to have something edible at the end of the night. (I did offer to do dishes though!). He ended up getting chicken broth, roasted garlic and tomato sauce, and chicken. We also got a prepackaged kale salad mix that I really like since we hadn’t really eaten vegetables on the trip thus far. We decided on bowties as the pasta shape.
As soon as we got home we had to start cooking immediately. I helped make the salad and clean up some things we had left in the kitchen while Hohyun cooked. As we were getting stuff from the car, we ran into Dorothy again, who had just gotten back from dinner. We talked about things to do in Winnipeg and exchanged life stories. She told us she was born and raised in Winnipeg but moved to Edmonton for a couple of years for university. I told her that I was born in Hong Kong and Hohyun told her that his family is Korean. As soon as she found this out, she immediately said “hi” to him in Korean.
The pasta was delicious and the salad was amazing. I really enjoyed dinner because it was healthy and home-cooked, which was a nice change from all the fried food we had eaten thus far. We watched Superstore while we were eating and I really liked the dinner setup that we had.
I did the dishes afterwards and we got ready for bed since we were pretty tired. We aimed to leave by check out time (11am) and then head out to our next destination.
