LAST DAY IN WINNIPEG

Time goes by so fast when you're having fun! Eunice and I went to Assiniboine Park, home to the Assiniboine Park Zoo and Assiniboine Park Conservatory. We only had time to visit the zoo. It was a pretty big zoo, too and almost got lost. There were lots of different animals.

When we got back to the Fairmont Hotel, we had lunch with this guy Michael Blahuta who is the Food & Beverage Manager. He told us about this great place called Nucci's Gelati where they had the best cold processed gelato. Mmmmmm...

Even though there was more left to the day, we decided to chill out and enjoy meeting a whole bunch of friendly people hanging out in the Gold Lounge and saying our goodbyes to the staff.

ANOTHER DAY IN WINNIPEG

When we got back to our hotel, there was a jar of some special honey waiting for us. Esther and I just love being at the Fairmont Hotel on the Gold floor. While Merle was having breakfast we made friends with Marie Paz Natividad, Rhosan Estoy, David Koetke and Colleen Bothor in the Gold Lounge. Gee are they all so cool! At one point Merle, Eunice and I manned...I mean womaned the desk.

We went to the Winnipeg Art Gallery at 300 Memorial Blvd. It was a pretty big art museum but not as huge as the Met or MOMM in New York. There were certainly enough galleries to view with both the painted art and sculptures...as you can see.

Then we went to an area called The Forks with lots of stores, food places and stuff like that. Merle was getting a spa treatment while we walked around. Manitoba tourism has an office there with some cool exhibits.

In the evening we went to St. Boniface Cathedral's cemetery for Theatre in the Cemetery. Stories down in costume about French, Metis and Mantoban history. The mosquitoes were so bad that we got chicken skin from it!

A DAY IN WINNIPEG

Eunice and I made our way to the Exchange District BIZ at Old Market Square for something called a Death & Debauchery tour. This company seems to have other walking tours, but we thought this would be a bit naughty and more interesting to hear. All about explosions, angry mobs, prostitutes and eating bears! We also loved just simply checking out this area as well.

Afterward we went to the Manitoba Museum at 190 Rupert Avenue and managed to hit all eight interpretive galleries including the Hudson's Bay Company gallery and the full-size replica ship Nonsuch, whose voyage in 1668 led to the founding of the Hudson's Bay Company. At least that's what they told us. We just liked checking it out.

During the evening Eunice and I went to Kildonan Park to see the show RENT, since we never got to see it on Broadway. Thank goodness we have rubber skins 'cause the mosquitoes were really biting. I think we'll let Merle tell you about the taxi ride, though.

TRAVELING TO WINNIPEG

We had a great time in Winnipeg, the capitol of Manitoba, one of the provinces in Canada. At first the pilots allowed us to go into the cockpit and make believe that Eunice and I were steering the plane. Needless to say we eventually had to go back to our seat and put on our seat belt. We were so excited about this trip that we shared one seat the whole way chatting about what we thought we might expect to see.

We checked into the Fairmont Hotel in downtown Winnipeg and got placed up on the 19th floor, the area that they call the Fairmont Gold. I tested out the bed taking a short nap while Eunice watched some Canadian tv. I didn't notice that we had gotten this great goody plate of desserts, compliments of the hotel. Eunice made sure that she saved some for me.

Off on a tour called the Hermetic Code Tour at the Legislative Building. It's like cracking the DiVinci Code! There was hidden meaning in everything we saw, both outside and inside and thank goodness we had Don Finkbeiner from Heartland International Travel and Tours to tell us all.

Afterward we went back to the hotel and had dinner in their restaurant called Velvet Glove. That evening there was a special Philippine menu. We were startled to see that they served a chicken dish to us! We thanked the chef, Kyle, for getting something else for us.

NORFOLK VIRGINIA DAY2

Esther and I got up early and went off to Rowena's Wonderful Jam and Jelly Factory. Rowena is such a cool woman. She loved us the minute she met us. She has tales about her pets as well. They are about as adventurous as we are. We got to taste the carrot jam...wow was that good! Check out www.rowenas.com

After that we went to the Virginia Zoological Park. We had a lot of fun there seeing all of those cute animals. I tried to eat some of them...ha ha. We really liked the African area.

We still had time to go to the Chrysler Museum of Art. It's a really good art museum that's has a whole lot of art, photography, sculpture, glass exhibit and more. The place is not huge enough to get lost in. Perfect size. We even tried our beaks in drawing and took a nasty photo just for the fun of it. Couldn't resist.

There is still so much more to see in Norfolk and we hope to come back. You should check out the website of www.visitnorfolktoday.com

NORFOLK VIRGINIA DAY 1

They have a free hot breakfast here at the Residence Inn but were only hungry for a bagel and cream cheese. This was not like the bagels that they sell at a place called Yorgo's. Since we were too short to go on our own segway, we parked our carcass in Merle Exit's bag. One of the places we saw was the headquarters of PETA...ha ha. We don't care since we're made of rubber!

We then had lunch at a place called 219: An American Bistro.

From there we went to this place called Doumar's where they created the first waffle ice cream cone. Here is Mr. Doumar himself.

We went back to the hotel and after watching some health channel decided that we needed to practice CPR and beak to beak resuscitation.

It was then off to dinner at Press 626 Cafe and Wine Bar where we chomped on some clam fritters before going back to the hotel.

With germs everywhere, we wanted to make sure that we were sanitized and found one near the entrance of the hotel.

NORFOLK VIRGINIA ARRIVAL

Now that Eunice and I have declared ourselves to be known as Free Range Chickens, we are off to another adventure, going from New York to Norfolk, Virginia this time. We were met by a Delta employee who wanted to make sure that we had our boarding passes. Although the flight had many delays going, we did make it and checked into the Residence Inn Downtown. There was a gift basket waiting for us with tons of goodies.

It was off to a restaurant called No Frills Grill where we indulged in a bowl of gazpacho and perogies.

Eunice was tuckered out from both eating and the airline so I watched television while she conked out for the night.