"that's it. back to winnipeg"

Well, with much excitement, we got to go to our home city for a week or so. The city is strikingly beautiful in the summer. It's so lush and green and there's so much to take in. Quite the change of pace from sleepy St. Stephen. Yes, this is a long post, but I sure did see a lot in a few days. This is just a glimpse of the places and people that captured my attention.

Congrats Barb and Isaac! The wedding on June 16th took place in the lovely Leo Mol Sculpture Garden. (my dear Barbaloo is a former roommate, as well as long-time friend of Matt as well). Isaac is a pretty awesome mate from New Zealand -- he's heaps of fun and I look forward to getting to know him better when we're back in the 'Peg next year. (Kiwis are crazy! ...in a good way).



We got to hang out at Barb and Isaac's new apartment and get to know the kiwis a bit. Many old apartments have this feature of external porches to access the suites. It becomes a great hang out spot in the summer (and place to have your bbq), and it's no surprise that Barb and Isaac already know everyone in their building. Matt is enjoying his first slurpee of the year and waiting for the gang to get back with groceries for grilling.

Hanging out at Tony and Shayla's place: We decided to take a picture of just the girls. From left: Jeanette, Kristine, Shayla (sister-in-law), Maria, Jac, Karin. This is our gang from housegroup. Seriously amazing people who share the same beliefs, values, and desire to see justice restored in our city and world.

Matt took this shot and it ended up looking like an ad for macintosh. Maybe I should put a big X or blackspot on the apple logo that shines front and centre, and then it could be published in adbusters.

This is what they do in life, the brothers. (Tony on guitar). They drink coffee or beer (depending on moods and weather), and they jam.

The fabulous four reunited again. These four gals were roommates at 521 Gertrude, the best house ever. From left: Crystal, Jac, Barb (the bride!), and Ren. We go back.
Best thing was, we took a pic like this at my wedding 2 years ago, in that exact standing order. It will be cool when we get all four pics in a series.

On a lovely evening -- the nights are so hot in Winnipeg, it's great -- we wandered around the forks and saw the new million-dollar downtown skate park. This is just one small part of the massive skate plaza, where the hardcore advanced skaters go. These guys are good.

Sunday morning at Winnipeg Centre Vineyard.

We popped into Don's Photo on Portage Ave. and bought a much-needed camera case.

I love how there are so many buildings in the city with bizzare angles. Here, the Lindsay Building looks like its just as thin as a sheet of paper against the sky. The radial form of the city layout causes the streets to meet at odd angles, and I think it creates very interesting streetscapes, and really neat buildings. There are lots of triangular buildings like this all over town.

. . .The old wine bar in the exchange, Decanters, was bought out and renovated by new owners.

After much trekking around downtown, we stopped to rest for a while in a shady little chess plaza nestled between buildings.

I was very excited to finally be able to have a street dog. It had been much too long.

This is a shot of the ceiling of the Toad on Osborne, one of my much frequented pubs.
Just the perfect amount of sketchy.



More pics to come. . . hopefully soon.