Day 11: Winnie-the-Pals

Good morning to the Admiral!

Good morning to Wee Bird!

Today is a day for friends, and it started out with my 2 favourite feathered buddies greeting me in the morning. It was a lovely morning at the Lazar household, and there were more friends to come! It's another no-drive day. Instead, I'll be spending the day around Winnipeg, seeing the sights and meeting up with my favourite people in the area.

First up, I'm off to Starbucks to meet up with friends Sorel and Susie. Sorel is a very close childhood friend of our family from when we lived In Winnipeg.

Friends of Fate

It's 9:15 AM at a Starbucks in Winnipeg where I am thrilled to see Sorel and Susie after a long time apart. However, neither Sorel nor Susie are from Winnipeg, and I didn't know until yesterday that they'd be in the area at the same time as me. What a coincidence! So how did we work this out?

The story goes like this. Sorel and Suzie are cousins. Sorel lives in Montreal while Suzie lives in Waterloo Ontario, and they both arrived in Winnipeg last night! Suzie is also cousins with... wait for it... my childhood friend Marlene from the island cabin in Kenora! After I had left Marlene's yesterday, she had called her cousin Suzie and asked her, "Wait, when will you be in Winnipeg again?!?" When Suzie told her she and Sorel had just arrived in Winnipeg, Marlene made the connection, telling her "My friend Shlomo just visited me and he is also in Winnipeg tonight!"

Sorel, overhearing the conversation, chimed in at this point asking, "Shlomo Friman?". Marlene was shocked and confirmed it was the same very same Shlomo."Wait, how do you know Shlomo??" Sorel asked. Little did she know that Marlene an I have been friends for over 52 years. What a small world, and what lucky timing that we were all in Winnipeg at the same time. Or was it fate? 😉

My Sister's Dog's Sister

I had a wonderful time at Starbucks catching up with Sorel and Suzie. They told me stories about my mother Shoshana, who was their teacher in school. It was so nice hearing them reminisce about how much they enjoyed her classes. They spoke about how much Shoshana really loved to teach, unlike many other teachers who just seemed to be wanting to get the day over with and clock out. My mother. gave her entire heart and soul into the children's education and the students loved her for it.

We talked and talked, and at one point, Suzie is telling a story and says "My sister's dog is my dog's sister". I laughed, "Wait wait, say that again...". It sounded like a tongue twister and was a bit of a brain teaser as well to understand. So she broke it down for me.

Susie has a sister.

Susie has a dog.

Her sister also has a dog.

Susie's dog and Susie's sister's dog are siblings.

And so the sentence My sister's dog is my dog's sister” was born 😉

FortWhyte Alive

After my reunion with Sorel and Suzie, I met back up with Matthew and Nola for a visit to FortWhyte, which used to be the cement quarry. Now all the wholes of the quarry have been filled with water, and the fort has become a nature reserve.

Bison Fields

On the drive over to FortWhyte, we saw some very nice homes in the area. One of the homes had a very interesting copper rooftop and was lucky enough to border reserve, overlooking the bison fields.

Once we entered the reserve we got a close-up glimpse at the fields ourselves, and some very happy-looking bison grazing lazily in the heat.

The reserve has set aside this whole area for bison, deer, and prairie dogs to roam free and undisturbed. Sadly, we heard very sad news while we were visiting. Unfortunately, we did not get a chance to see the prairie dogs because a mysterious disease had killed off the entire population. The reserve is currently running investigations to determine exactly what happened before attempting to bring new prairie dog residents in to rebuild to population.

Nearby, we also saw a very tall structure with what looked like birdhouse apartment buildings! I learned that these homes were built for the nearby population of Purple Martins, which are hugely beneficial to the ecosystem as their diet mainly consists of eating mosquitos. No wonder these birds are so popular in the area. Given the huge amounts of mosquitos I've encountered, I'd gladly have one of these birds be my travel companion.

I also learned that dragonflies and mayflies primarily eat mosquitos. This explains Dragonfly Heaven from yesterday. They were probably having a feast, and that's probably why there were so many dragonflies but I didn't see a single mosquito there!

Canadian Geese

As we continued to explore the reserve, we came upon the quarries turned lakes, where a large population of Canadian Geese were flourishing. We saw new parents everywhere with their ducklings.

We even saw several nests, where proud geese mamas were guarding their eggs.

We were very careful not to get too close since geese can get very territorial and aggressive in order to protect their nests.

Catch & Release

Next, we met a young man named Noah while walking on the floating boardwalks.

Noah was spending the day fishing carp. However, since it's a reserve, you are not allowed to actually take the fish out of the lake. Instead, if you want to fish in the area you have to catch and release. So Noah is just fishing for the sport of it, and when he catches himself a nice fish, he looks it straight in the eye and tells him "This is your lucky day, bud. Back in the lake you go!"

As its springtime, turning into summer, there were some beautiful flowers blooming in the area. I especially loved a pinkish flower called the wild rose.

Sod House

Next, we visited the sod house, which was made out of grass mixed with earth and roots, and all held together with mud. The sod house represents a bit of Monitoba's history when settlers built homes in the prairie and lived off the land.

Back then, they would cut grass and mix it with the earth to create cubes that they would then use to build these sod houses. The primary benefit of this material was its incredible insolation. These settlers would first build the barn for the animals, and live alongside them while they were building their own homes. Since their animals were their primary means of survival, they got first dibs on a new shelter.

We got a chance to go instead the sod house, which was laid out as it would be during this time in history. It was an extremely hot day (about 95) but we were shocked to find that the temperature inside the Sos house was around 20 to 25° cooler than outside. Like old school air conditioning!

FortWhyte Tidbits

I learned some other great tidbits during our time at FortWhyte.

TIDBIT1 - Pioneer Quest is a reality TV show filmed in the prairies of the province of Manitoba. In the show, they have 2 couples living for a full year with nothing in the wilderness. The idea is to see what the settlers must have gone through when first inhabiting the area and to see how modern-day couples would survive. Basically, everything that could go wrong, went wrong.

TIDBIT2 - The mattresses used for bedding during the time of the settlers were held together with ropes. If your mattress started to sag you would need to tighten the ropes to give you a more firm base to sleep on. This is the origin of the saying sleep tight.

TIDBIT3 - Winnie the Pooh got his name from Winnipeg! Apparently, the lovable bear character was based on a real-life bear that lived at the London Zoo. A Canadian soldier named Harry Colehourn had been in White River, Ontario where he saw a little bear cub for sale for $20 (equivalent to about $429 today). He named the cub "Winnipeg Bear" or "Winnie" for short, after his home town.

Can you guess who Winnie's biggest fans were? None other than Christopher Robin and his father A.A. Milne. The two would often frequent the London Zoo just to visit the bear, and Winnie later became the inspiration for the book character.

Best Buy & Gelato

After our time at the fort, we were quite hot and ready to cool down. We first stopped at Best Buy to pick up a present for Jack whose Bar Mitzvah was coming up. I purchased a VR headset for him, and now I will always have my Canadian Wingman to play VR with!

Huge congrats to Jack for his Bar Mitzvah, an exciting milestone!

We then went to get a scrumptious Gelato from Evas Gelato and Coffee Bar.

What did I get? Too much, that's what. 😆 I ended up ordering a cappuccino, banana split and dulce de leche! But don't worry, I only managed to eat half! The portions were gigantic, though extremely tasty. What a great treat after a hot day outside.

We got home, and I wrapped up the Quest VR Headset gift for Jack. When we presented him with the gift he was ecstatic!

Tick Time!

On a not-so-happy note, I had quite a surprise as I was getting ready to take a shower. I suddenly saw something crawling on my ankle and I got the heeby jeebies when I realized it was a tick!! Those who know me know my biggest phobia is ticks and lice. So I was thoroughly freaked out. I quickly checked my socks, shoes, pants, and everything to see if there were any more ticks. Once done with that I looked through the carpet as well for any rogue creepy crawlies. I didn't find anything.

I told Nola and Matthew about the tick and the possibility that there were more hiding. Matthew, teasing me says "Oh yea, there is never just 1 tick. They always come in packs". 🤪

I knew he was joking, but I went back to search for more ticks anyways. Luckily there were none to be found. I did take a precautionary extra hot shower to destroy any other possible ticks lurking around.

At this point, we had planned to go for a boat ride for a couple of hours, but I was so tired after a long day in the sun and after our late-night chatting into the wee hours of the morning. So instead, I had a nice rest. Lucky too, because not 10 minutes later it suddenly started to pour cats and dogs for hours!

The Bestie Reunion

Then it was time to get ready for dinner. All our besties were coming over for a BBQ and reunion. Nola and Matthew organized an incredible cookout full of delicious food.

We had burgers, salmon burgers, hot dogs, boneless chicken thighs, boneless chicken legs, with all the fixings and several salads. It was a TON of food! Nola was the grill expert and BBQ'd everything to perfection. I contributed my own BBQ expertise and grilled the chicken using Shilpa Mom's special homemade ground spice.

At 7 PM, all the friends came over and the house was filled with chatter and laughter as we all began catching up. In addition to my marvellous hosts Matthew and Nola, it was great having a friends reunion with Jeff and Leslie, Beth and Bobby, Kim and Jerry, Nadine, Rena, and Joe.

We gathered around the table to enjoy our feast. And after we were filled to the brim, most of our guests joined me for an after-dinner treat. You guessed it, a Nespresso Coffee. 😉

During the meal, Kim introduced me to the best song ever. My new anthem! We all laughed hysterically at the lyrics, and just how well it described me and my trip. Here's a peek at the lyrics, but you can listen to the song here. The song is called, aptly, "Jews Don't Camp". 🤣

Well I was packin’ my gear after a festival appearance

The show had gone real good.

When a bunch of people with a kind of earthy smell

Said “We’re stayin’ out in these woods,”

They said, “We’d like for you to join us, got plenty of room

We got a nice big tent and there’s a big full moon,”

I stood upwind and said the only thing that I could…

I had to tell ’em…

Jews Don’t Camp,

If it hasn’t got a lobby I don’t want it for a hobby

It’s cold and damp,

Let me give you the news, Jews Don’t Camp.

Well now it’s really quite simple, a part of my tradition

Taught to me in my youth

After forty years in the desert the eleventh commandment says

Go to bed under a roof.

I’m pretty certain I could live without real bear hugs,

Ain’t keen to be cuisine for half a million bugs

Ten times out of ten I pick bagels over berries and roots.

That’s why I gotta say…

Jews Don’t Camp,

If it hasn’t got a kitchen and it isn’t air-conditioned, where’s the

Exit ramp, get my walkin’ shoes, cause

Jews Don’t camp.

On that note, it's time for me to go to sleep in my nice cosy bed. The friends and I stayed up quite late again talking. What a great day!

See you all tomorrow.

-Shlomo

For more incredible pictures of today's adventures, check out the photo gallery!