It is still raining. And it’s still cold.
Today we headed down to The Forks, a major tourist attraction in Winnipeg. There are lots of things to see and do, and we make it down for a visit every couple of months of so.
We started our afternoon with lupper – that weird meal between lunch and supper. We went to The Old Spaghetti Factory, for nostalgia, cost and quality. Kirby and I both remember going as kids with our families when the restaurant was in the Exchange District and you could wait on the barber chair and dine in the old train car. My kids sat in the same barber chair, but instead of the train car, we dined in the Grotto.
All the meals include sourdough bread, minestrone soup (which you must not miss) or salad, your entrée, spumoni ice cream and tea and coffee. And best of all the food is fresh and mostly made from scratch, which is important to a health-nut like me (I really can tell the difference – the spinach in the vegetarian lasagna was fresh only a few hours before it was served to me).
Afterward we spent time in the Johnston Terminal.
The Punch Studio Gallery was exhibiting a fine selection of local artists – photography, oils, watercolour, weavings, collages. I loved that the children loved looking through the selections and really spending some time to admire and understand the pieces they were drawn to.
Then we had a quick walk through the Christmas Traditions Store and went on up to Kite and Kaboodle to peruse the wonderful assortment of toys, puzzles, games, and other leisure type fun. Then it was down to the basement for a lovely amble through the Antique Mall.
After our traditional walk over the suspension bridge in the Explore Manitoba display, we headed over to the The Forks Market. We rode the elevator to the top of the tower for a wet view of the misty skyline, and then walked through the crafts and knickknack area. By then everyone was starting to walk very slowly and it seemed time to head for home.
We had a smörgåsbord for supper – I pulled all the leftovers out of the fridge and let everyone eat whatever they wanted however they wanted without comment. I believe some of the creations included cold cream of wheat with syrup, yogurt and applesauce with bread, reheated chili on naan bread and cold spaghetti salad.
The we headed downstairs for yet more TV. At this point I was beginning to get a little tired of the traditional family fair and I was poking around in our movie collection when I spied a copy of The Taming of the Shrew from 1967 starring Elizabeth Taylor.
We read the play last year and I had meant to watch the film with the kids as a windup but somehow it never happened. I put it on, just to see what it was like, not really meaning to watch it, when all the children excitedly came running and plopped themselves down to watch. And so we did. And they really seemed to get it. And they loved it. And now they are asking if there is a movie version of the Comedy of Errors, which is the play we read this year.
And so this vacation day became My Day – because I didn’t have to cook but still got a fantastic fresh vegetarian meal, I got to spend time with art, old books and antiques, I didn’t have to listen to anyone whine about what part of supper they didn’t like, and my children wanted to watch Shakespeare with me! What more could a health-nut, history loving, homeschooling mama desire for her vacation!
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