Day 9: June 23, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan to Winnipeg, Manitoba

A fairly early start today because we had a lot of driving to do over some very flat, flat, flat land on our way to Winnipeg. We started with blue skies and rapidly the clouds gathered, and by the time we finished our drive it was gray and very cloudy. In someways, this was one of the most boring drives of the trip because it was so very flat. But we hung in there got through six hours of driving.

We arrived in Winnipeg surprised that the major freeway, The Trans Canada 1 turns into a city street as it goes through Winnipeg. It took us forever to go through the city, being stopped at nearly every stoplight. At last we reached the Airbnb condo. We will be spending the next couple of nights there. It’s a very stylish comfortable place and we were glad to be able to follow all the directions of where to park at the Parkade (Canadian for parking structure or parking garage or parking ramp). There was also complex instructions on how to get buzzed in and get the fob to let us into places in the apartment building. Checking in on the Airbnb always has some extra stress to it, but we persevered.

We are staying really right in downtown Winnipeg. After taking just a short rest, we decided we couldn’t fight with traffic anymore and so we walked, about 20 minutes away, to our destination for the evening. We were going to the Canadian Museum of Human Rights. We spent several hours entranced with the very powerful displays on human rights in all of its varieties. It felt really good to both of us to have our values affirmed so dramatically. This was a place that was really dedicated to having all stories told and honored. There were things out of history, such as the Holocaust and Indian boarding schools and the Armenian Genocide. There was a lot of focus on LBGTQ issues, and discrimination against women. Disability issues were prominent, as were racial and cultural discrimination. The place was full of multimedia photos and art, as well as some very, very well done video. If you ever get to Winnipeg, we would highly recommend this as a world-class museum. We so enjoyed our time there.

Then we walked back to our condo, cooked up a little dinner and enjoyed watching the sun goes down over the city. Neither of us have spent time in Winnipeg before and so this is a whole new place to explore.