Bison, Coins, Friends and Richard Scarry

Today was a real bonus!  We expected thunderstorms, so we headed out in the truck to Fort Whyte Alive to see the bison, then planned to hit the Royal Canadian Mint while it rained, ending with a little happy hour at home.  Not too ambitious.

But it became much more than that!

At Fort Whyte Alive, we found an attractive, interesting visitor center.  Kathy even ran into an old friend from Yellowstone:

We walked out the path to search for the bison herd.  On the way, we chanced to meet our friend Desa and her 3-year-old son Novak.  They had coincidentally decided to visit here this morning.  We chatted a bit, then went on our separate ways.

Soon, we found the bison herd.  Calves were cavorting amid the mature bison, many of whom were basking in the pond water to keep cool on this muggy day.  In the foreground of this photo is one of those ubiquitous bison rubbing stones:

David decided to see if he is as tall as a bull bison.  Not quite.  But, David, you do size up well against a female bison:

The Fort Whyte Alive center is much more than bison.  It has a lake, a boardwalk trail, other wildlife and flora exhibits, and a replica pioneer sod house:

The sod was cut from the prairie soil.  Due to the deep roots of the native prairie grasses, the sod could be cut quite thick, and pieces of sod were piled up to create walls, as well as roofing - pieces that could be up to 4 inches thick!  Even so, the sod roofs would leak after big rainstorms, and had to be continually maintained.'

Inside, however, the sod cabin was quite comfortable.  This was a hot, humid day, and the interior of this sod house was almost 20F cooler!  The cabin was decorated with handmade furnishings much like those that would have been used during the 1800's:

We walked down to the interpretive center, which focuses on the wildlife typical on the Manitoba prairie.  One of the exhibits was a live prairie dog colony.  We were separated from the cute little critters by soundproof, glass walls in order to minimize the disturbance for the little fellows:

We were forced to commit to a 2pm tour at the Royal Canadian Mint, so we hot-footed it from the Fort Whyte Alive compound to the Mint, where we arrived just in time for our tour.

The tour offered displays and information on the wide variety of circulating and numismatic coins produced in Canada.  They also showed the minting process, which is actually done on site at the Winnipeg Mint for Canada, as well as more than 30 other countries.

On display were old-timey minting presses:

Our guide showed us the machinery and processes that are used today to mint coins of all types.  Due to security reasons, we were prevented from taking photos of the actual minting operation.  However, at the end of our tour, we had a chance to try to lift a (VERY HEAVY) gold bar (with the cooperation of a friendly guard) --

-- and David even got his likeness imprinted on a Canadian penny.  That's putting his two cents' worth in, I'd say.

The Mint flies flags of the countries for which it either mints coins outright, or provides blanks, dies or other processes.  Surprisingly, the U.S. flag is flying in the photo below:

This is because the Winnipeg mint supplies the U.S. Mint with dies and blanks for U.S. coins.  Never knew that.  Hmmm....maybe those Canadians know a thing or two...?

When we got back to the truck, we found a note we had missed from our friend Desa, who had apparently left it for us on the truck when we were at the Fort Whyte Alive complex.  She invited us over for coffee and conversation!  How could we resist?

When we arrived, it had just rained, and Sasha was cleaning up after working on the roof of an addition for their home.  He has built a beautiful sun porch in the back and is now finishing up the roof and walls of a front, living room addition.  The workmanship is superb and solid, and it looks like they will enjoy their larger home for years to come.

We got to see their very large garden, filled with lush herbs, flowers, vegetables and fruits of all sorts.  They clearly spend a lot of time with the garden.  After an hour or so of chat, they offered us all sorts of goodies:  a HUGE Asian radish, strawberries, zucchini, tomato and onion!

We had a chance to compare experiences, and to find out about their son Yanko's new basketball team plans.  Little Novak informed us about all sorts of things - in particular his speedy sneakers, his stuffed animals, his truck that will fold out into a miniature town and cars, and his Richard Scarry "Busytown" books:

Unfortunately, time passed and we had to get home to have a phone call with Kathy's sister.  But we really appreciated the Kalem Family's hospitality and warmth.  We wish we could return such favors to them.  They really made us feel at home in Winnipeg.