This began a drive across Canada to Newfoundland, returning via the US.
RITISH COLUMBIA SOUTH
Day 1 Mon June 2
I left home at 19:30 and got the 22:45 ferry from Duke Point to Tsawwassen.
ON Bridal Veil Falls
Day 2 Tue June 3
I drove via the Coquillha and the Connector to Kelowna.
KELOWNA
Mission Hills Winery. Situated atop Mission Hill overlooking a 145-kilometre lake, mountains and vineyards, it was established in 1966 by von Mandl, the founder of Mike’s Hard Lemonade Co.
The first Chardonnay made by John Simes, who had just joined the winery, in the 1992 vintage won the trophy for “Best Chardonnay” at the 1994 International Wine and Spirit Competition, becoming the first Okanagan winery to receive overseas recognition. It started producing its own vinyards in 1996. The winery was rebuilt in 2002.
Mission Hill estate produces wines across four tiers. Their entry level wines are the “Reserve” wines, followed by the “Terroir Collection” and the top-tier “Legacy” series. The flagship “Oculus” is a Bordeaux style red wine made from Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. The estate has a sixty-seat restaurant called “Terrace”
Kelowna Heritage Museum. Geology, stuffed animals, Indians, Father Pankosy, dioramas, Hall of Fame. homelessness, Japanese. $12, 10 reduced
I visited and went out for dinner with an old friend.
ON On highway next to lake.
Day 3 Wed June 4
I dropped off the camper at Bigfoot for a repair to the fibreglass on the roof. I spent the day at a parking area near the beach.
ON Near Bigfoot
Day 4 Thur June 5
I picked up the camper at noon ($1,200) and started the drive to Calgary.
REVELSTOKE
Railway Museum. Huge steam locomotive in centre with paraphenalia around. $14, 12 reduced.
Emerald Lake. Glacial green with the large Emerald Lake Lodge on the end. Built in 1902.
Natural Bridge. A bridge over the Kicking Horse River west of Field.
ON Hemlock Boardwalk, Revelstoke NP.
Day 5 Fri June 6
ALBERTA SOUTH
CALGARY
Canada Sports Hall of Fame
Silver Springs Botanical Garden. A .4 km long narrow garden with natural trees and 17 individual gardens each tended by a volunteer. Community run. Free
ON Glenis Benson
Day 5 Sat June 7
ON Glenis Benson
Day 6 Sun June 8
Loughheed House. Built in 1891 on the outskirts of Calgary by James Lougheed, a lawyer, senator, cabinet minister and knight. It was purchased by the city in 1934. Crafts architecture with sandstone exterior. Lovely stained glass, wood, some original furniture. Free (seniors week!)
Stephen Avenue (also known as 8th Avenue SW) is a historic commercial district in downtown Calgary. It’s a National Historic Site, recognized for its architectural and cultural significance. Known as Stephen Avenue Walk, the street is pedestrian-friendly and hosts various events, shops, restaurants, and entertainment venues.
The Bow. A 236 metre (774 ft) building, the tallest in Calgary between 2010, when it surpassed the Suncor Energy Centre, and 2016, when it was exceeded by Brookfield Place. The Bow is currently the second tallest office tower in Calgary and the third tallest in Canada outside Toronto. The Bow is also considered the start of redevelopment in Calgary’s Downtown East Village. It was completed in 2012 It was built for oil and gas company Encana, and was the headquarters of its successors Ovintiv and Cenovus.
It has a curved glass facade with triangular external girders.
Calgary Central Library. A lovely building with a silver/geometric window exterior and a lovely open plan with an oval skylight and four floors with a lot of wood.
St Mary’s Cathedral. A RC church with a brick exterior and one large central square bell tower. The narrow side naves have nice mosaics and the Ways of the Cross are lovely mosaics.
Crossroads Market. A low range market with a huge food court in SE Calgary.
Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame. Lots of planes with 2 floors from the dawn of Canadian aviation to the Cold War. A large separate hangar has a Lancaster bomber and several helicopters. $14, 12 reduced.
Baitun Nur Mosque. A modern mosque with a large silver dome, 1 minaret and a plain interior with no adornment.I drove to Medicine Hat to visit a high school friend.
ON At Bill Cocks, Medicine Hat
Drive to Moose Jaw
SASKATCHEWAN
MOOSE JAW
ON Tourist Information Moose Jaw
REGINA
RCMP Heritage Center. Good history of the RCMP and uniforms, musical ride, guns, car simulator,
Slate Fine Art Gallery. A private gallery showing the work of one artist, Marie Lanoo. Interesting idea using the title Blur/Focus. Free
Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame/Museum. Many vignettes. Yearly roll call. I recognized almost no one. Free
Hotel Saskatchewan. 1927 as the 14th hotel in the Canadian Pacific hotel chain. From 1945-84, it hosted the Liutenant Governor of the province. The bar was busy and the toilet locked (I always use the BR in Hodpitality Legends).
Royal Saskatchewan Museum. Great animal dioramas by habitat, migration, tropical rainforest, monarchs, interactive for kids. Free
MacKenzie Art Gallery. Luis Riel statue, too much contemporary art of poor quality. $12 no reduction
MANITOBA SOUTH (Winnipeg, Brandon)
Manitoba Antique Automobile Museum, Elkhorn. A huge collection of pre-1920 cars. Few are restored. Big collection of tools and parts. The guy was obviously a big collector of everything. $10. I arrived 10 minutes before closing and he let me see it for free. I had a quick cruise.
ON Burger King in Brandon
Day 9 Wed June 11
BRANDON
Brandon Armoury. Home of the 26th field regiment of the Royal Canadian Army. 1908. Museum was closed but I entered the huge drill hall (now used for all cadets in Brandon) with some howitzers.
Art Gallery Of Southwestern Manitoba. Only one hallway of art (got very redundant) with two main galleries empty. No permanent exhibition. Free
Daly House Museum. Thomas Mayne Daley. Lawyer, first mayor Brandon, Minister Indian Affairs, first federal cabinet minister from Manitoba, retired 1896. Georgian brick house decked out like a museum -, Mutter Brosgrocery store with many bulk drawers, Birtles Butcher, dentist office, Flemings Drugs, Polish immigrants. Photos 1919. Spectacular doll house with intricate design all made to scale. $6
Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum. 1941-45 131,000 airmen, 44,000 ground crew, and the greatest contribution of Canada to the war effort. Cost 2.2 billion. All air training for entire commonwealth. Many planes. $10.25
WINNIPEG
Living Prairie Museum. Self guided walk through one of the few examples of long grass prairie grassland. Never under a plough. 11 trailside vignettes. Free
Assiniboine Park
Leo Mol Sculpture Garden. Bronze sculptures of a wide variety – famous persons, bears, a wild sow with suckling young, deer, and a strange mythical bull set in a lovely garden with ponds and flowers. Leo Mol (Leonid Molodozhanyn) was from Ukraine and immigrated to Canada in 1948.
Pavilion Gallery Museum. 1908. 3 galleries. Ivan Eyie. Free
The Leaf. Nice gardens with benches, tables and BBQs.
ON Street near Assiniboine Park
Day 10 Thur Mar 12
Manitoba Hydro Place is an office tower serving as the headquarters building of Manitoba Hydro, the electric power and natural gas utility in the province. It is one of the most energy-efficient office towers in North America.
Opened as Winnipeg’s 4th tallest building in September 2009, the 21-story office tower brought together 1,650 employees[3] from 15 suburban locations[9] into one 695,000 sq ft (64,568 m2) high-rise on a full, downtown block. With the design’s plan view resembling a capital letter “A”, the project comprises two 18-storey twin wings framing three 6-storey, south-facing atria (winter gardens). The design’s stepped, three-storey, street-scaled podium contains retail space as well as an interior pedestrian street and a single level of parking, partially below grade — over which sit the atria, office wings and their 3-storey mechanical penthouse.
The building’s bioclimatic, energy-efficient design features a 377 ft (115 m) tall solar chimney, a geo-thermal HVAC system using 280 five-inch tubes bored 380 feet into an underground aquifer, 100% fresh air (24 hours a day, year-round, regardless of outside temperature) and a one-meter-wide double exterior wall with computer-controlled motorized vents that adjust the building’s exterior skin throughout the day and evening. Together, the various elements of the design enable a 70% energy savings over a typical large office tower.
MHP integrates passive elements (e.g., the south-facing winter gardens, natural daylighting, and the solar chimney) as well as active systems (e.g., dimmable, programmable fluorescent lighting and a computer-operated building management system). Key specifics of the design include siting of the building to take advantage of prevailing winds and solar gain, minimizing north-facing surface area, using the building’s south-facing atria to provide and precondition the building’s constant fresh-air supply and using several 24-meter-tall waterfalls to humidify and dehumidify the fresh air intake. Green roofs at the base of the building use plants to reduce stormwater runoff and minimize the building’s heat-island effect, including such native prairie plants as sweet grass.
Windows at the east and west include operable sashes of both motorized, centrally controlled panels in the outer glazing and manually operated panels at the inner glazing as — well as shading located in the interstitial space.
Other systems integral to the design include high ceilings to maximize natural lighting, exterior walls of low-iron glass for maximum solar gain, automated solar shading, raised floors with a displacement ventilation system, high-output lighting with occupancy and light sensors on each fixture, a computer-based building management system to coordinate operation of energy management and building systems as well as a group of green roofs at the building’s podium.
MHP targets electric usage less than 100 kWh/m2/a compared to 400 kWh/m2/a for a typical large scale North American office tower, located in a more temperate climate.[10]
Holy Trinity Anglican Church. A lovely stone church. Austere Anglican interior.
Police Museum. Uniforms, guns, some criminals, photos, pipe bank, horses, women, radios. Free
St. Volodymyr Museum. Closed permanently (2 years).
Railway Museum. Closed for 2 years (since Covid). In Union Station.
Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Spectacular design exterior but crazy long ramps are extravagant, one of endless alabaster from Italy. Great timeline for all time. Many good vignettes. Good Holocaust section with some new facts. Only 1% of Germany’s population was Jewish. Take the elevator to the 8th floor Tower of Hope. $22, $17 reduced
The Forks Market. A large market with high ceilings, brick walls, a second ‘balcony’ floor, some stores but mostly eateries.
Le Musée de Saint-Boniface Museum. Temporarily closed for renovations.
Royal Canadian Mint. Where all the coins are made for Canada or for 80 other countries (80% of the business is foreign). See the sheet steel come in bails, the stamping, the coin presses, electoplating with a nickle coating, how the toonie is made, the scanning (about 1% are defects and sent for recycling) and the shipping. Seen on a guided tour half hourly. $12
ON Highway rest stop on way to Kenora
Day 11 Fri June 13
Continue to western Ontario
