July 24- Winnipeg, Gimli and starting to go West

What a fun and very busy day we had today. It all started with us getting up, packed and to the pancake house by 930. Once we were done eating, we headed to the Manitoba Museum. 

Driving through Winnipeg, there are many neat buildings and objects de art. Today we noticed there were giant balls that were sitting on the meridian. They looked like giant marbles. Some had been made into flower boxes and had some pretty petunias. The parliament building has a beautiful golden statue on the top called the "Golden Boy". It was created after the war and is really amazing to see. 

At the Museum, we got to see much of Manitoba's animals, mammals, First Nations heritage and the history of Winnipeg. Our favourite display was the Nonsuch. It was a replica of the ship Nonsuch and a small harbour town. Really neat. We also liked seeing the replica of the Hudson Bay House office. All the wooden carvings were gorgeous! 

We got to the Planetarium (in the museum) in time for the 12 o'clock show. It was really neat to look up in the darkened theatre and see some of constellations and then we watched a short movie called Ice World. 

Next stop: Gimli! We drove up to Gimli to check out the New Icelandic Heritage Museum. Gimli is a neat town, right on Lake Winnipeg. We ate at Amma's Tea House. The food was ok. Hannah and Cassel each tried the Icelandic sampler. It had 4 Icelandic dishes - don't ask me what as we couldn't write them if we remembered them. Ha! We were proud that they both tried salmon. They didn't like it, but they tried it. Paul and Kerri tried the Gimli mix tea. 

We drove around Gimli to find the Viking statue. We found it! A nice family photo was taken. 

From Gimli we started our drive West. We saw many small towns, and homesteads. What a lovely drive. And we also got hung up in a huge rain storm. On the way to Gimli it rained like crazy with lightening. When we left we hit a few pockets of rain. And we don't mean a light sprinkle, we mean a great big rain. So much, Paul almost pulled over to wait it out!

We decided to stop for dinner in Carberry, MB. We ate at Fat Tony's and enjoyed a great meal there. While there, we spent some time looking through the cemetery looking for the grave of Kerri's great, great grandfather Dalgleish. We didn't find it but she'll write the community when we get home.

We drove as far as Virden tonight. Stopped at the Virden hotel. Got a room with 2 queens and a hide-a-bed for $96. Not bad as it includes breakfast! Funny thing though, we pulled out the bed and there is no bedding so Kerri called the front desk for some. The front desk is confused and said, "no, I rented you 2 queens." Kerri said, "there is a couch here, and we pulled out the bed so want to get sheets." The gentleman's wife came down to see what we meant and was completely surprised there was a bed in the couch. (They were not English first language so may not have understood what a hide-a-bed was). Anyways, we got sheets and are good to go!