Happy 145th Birthday Canada: a photoblog from the Forks Market

In case any of you were wondering how I was spending my incredibly gorgeous long weekend, wonder no longer.  Today Dar and I decided to take a short hop down to the Forks Market and take in a few of the festivities marking the 145th birthday of Canada.  Locally known as Canada Day, it’s a great excuse to have a bbq or crack a couple of cold ones and enjoy the 30 degree heat.

You’ll hardly ever hear a Winnipeger complain about the heat though, after a good solid 6 months of darkness and winter cold it takes a good few weeks of 30 Celsius weather to thaw out our Canadian bones and get us primed for summer.

As you would expect on a hot and sunny Sunday afternoon, the Forks Market was packed, the food vendors were out in full force and the beverages were indeed flowing.

Esplanade Louis Riel

The Esplanade Louis Riel (Louis Riel Bridge) is one of the newer architectural centerpieces of Downtown/St Boniface area.  It’s dramatic cable stay pedestrian bridge complete with restaurant and spire draw many tourist and photographers alike to the core of the city.

Located at the East end of Esplanade Louis Riel, La Crêperie Du Pont is a great choice for a deliciously thin crepe for breakfast or a pick me up snack.

Esplanade Louis Riel from St Boniface.

Enjoying a lovely crêpe for breakfast.

City skyline and Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

Meet and Greet Canadian Style: Bryan Adams

In case any of you have caught a few of my comments in the blog this week you may have guessed that Dar and I have scored again on the concert ticket scene.

Tonight we are off courtesy of 92.1 CITI FM in Winnipeg on another great rock and roll adventure.  Darlene having the proverbial horseshoe up her ass came through on tickets for tonight’s extravaganza.

Bryan Adams Live in Concert

We are off for dinner at the MTS Centre, then backstage to meet with Bryan Adams and the band.  Given exclusive tickets at the front of the house and a swag package to boot.  WOW!

The only thing I have to get straight in my head is what I am going to ask Bryan when we get face to face.  I had considered asking him about Princess Diana, being that they were close friends before she taken from us.  But Dar vetoed that saying it was just tacky.  So being that we have just experienced Roger Waters and The Wall here in Winnipeg I suppose I could ask him about his experiences performing Young Lust  with Roger in Berlin after the fall of communism.

In any event we are sure to have a stellar night, stay tuned for yet another great concert review in the coming days.

Rock On!

Bob

Countdown to Festival du Voyageur 2012

Festival time is almost upon us again my friends and I know how much all of you like my photos of all the festivities that run and all the snow sculptures that are carved lovingly during it’s annual February run.

So once again here’s a sneak peek at some of the work going on around town to get St. Boniface in a Hé Ho frame of mind.  Some of these pictures are continuations of works that had begun last week in my  “A day in the life” photo journal and from “60 years on a hard throne“.

Enjoy.

The Royal Canadian Mint

Here at the mint work has been completed on the Winnipeg Jets Logo Coin.

Here’s the flip side of the coin. A bison standing in relief.  Sadly facing due south so a great deal of the definition has been removed by our unseasonable temperatures.

Some goofball standing in my shot.

Winnipeg’s Winter Wonderland: The Assiniboine Valley Railway.

Last night Dar and I took our nephew Eric out for a night of Winnipeg Christmas tradition, we took a spin on the Assiniboine Valley Railway.

Assiniboine Valley Railway Logo

In the early 1980′s Bill Taylor, a model train enthusiast with a large property in Charleswood was doing an expansion to his house and had a vision.  He dreamed of taking the 1000 foot HO gauge railway that he had in his basement and moving it outside to create a train mecca in Winnipeg.

Entering the Assiniboine Valley Railway

A train full of happy people zips by in the night

The Winnipeg Jets are finally starting to find their wings.

Last night Dar and I were lucky enough to take in our second Winnipeg Jets game of the year.  It is easily one of the hottest tickets in town now and any chance we can get to take in a game we obviously jump at.

Tickets to the Jets vs Devils game.

We joined 15,000 other rabid Jets fanatics for the chance to cheer for our team and jeer the antics of the struggling New Jersey Devils.  Looking at the stats for both squads before the game I noticed that both the Devils and Jets were sitting right around .500 on the year so it could be anyone’s game.

Being no strangers to the Winnipeg sports scene we knew to arrive early to beat the crowds and grab a bite to eat outside the arena where prices are needlessly inflated. Winnipeggers may be sports fans but we are also ruthless in our search of a bargain.

After a quick bite in a nearby mall food court we headed in to grab our seats, everywhere you looked the shiny new logo of the Jets was worn with pride.  Hats, sweaters (jerseys), and even scarves were on display.  A mix of the old logo and the new logo helped to give the crowded thorough fare some definition.

Winnipeg Jet's logos on the ice pregame.