Destination Grand Beach

Grand Beach Provincial Park, Canada

Today was a travel day heading north from Winnipeg to Grand Beach, a beautiful white sand beach on the shores of Lake Winnipeg. Lake Winnipeg is the 6th largest fresh water lake in Canada and the 3rd largest contained entirely within Canada. And it’s the 11th largest freshwater lake in the world. Really drives home the point about how fortunate we are to have so much fresh water.

As I was travelling along Highway 59, I noted a sign for Lockport, one of our old haunts and home of another Winnipeg institution, Half Moon. They serve the best hot dogs in the world according to many, myself included. And by coincidence, they buy their wieners from the company that my brother, Rae, has worked with for almost as long as it’s been around…..no just kidding about that part – they’ve been around for 100 years. It’s called Winnipeg Old Country Sausage, and they sell to everyone who serves great hotdogs around Winnipeg. You can read an interesting article about them at this link:

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/busine ss/selling-good-food-for-generations-16 3983836.html

After a short stop for a foot long hot dog, I was off again and since I was in the neighbourhood I decided to stop and have a look at a Parks Canada National Historic Site, Lower Fort Garry. I hadn’t been there since I was in grade 5 or there about. In BC, where our daughter was educated, they learned about the gold rush in Canadian History Class but in Manitoba we learned all about the Red River Settlers (who settled at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers – yup, you got it, The Forks). There was a fort there, Upper Fort Garry, of which only the gate is still standing, across the street from Union Train Station. But there was also a fort further north on the Red River called Lower Fort Garry built by the Hudson’s Bay Company attempting to establish it as the major trading centre after Lower Fort Garry was flooded. But the population had already coalesced around The Forks and it never became a really vibrant centre of commerce.

After wandering around the fort, I headed further northeast to the east shore beaches of Lake Winnipeg and the grand lady of them all, Grand Beach. It is a fine, white sand beach with beautiful sand dunes that seriously rivals many of the beaches around the world, it’s just that it’s covered in snow for a good chunk of the year. And because it’s so shallow it’s nice and warm and the bottom is sand formed into ripples by the waves with no rocks. Only downside is you have to walk out quite far to get wet.

I plan to park myself in the water tomorrow as the forecast is for it to hit 30 degrees.

P.S. Thanks to those of you who pointed out that BDI is located in Elm Park, not the neighbourhood of Elmwood as I had originally posted.

P.P.S. Also, thanks to cousin Donna for the huge zucchinis, jam and dish clothes she brought with her when she came to see my trailer last night.