Day 3 (September 22, 2024): Assiniboine Park and Aviation Museum

Fly-home day comes all too soon, when you're on a 48-hour weekend getaway. :-(  We were up fairly early, enjoyed a nice breakfast at the Delta, and then set out to see three key things before flying home mid-afternoon:  a return visit to the Legislature, Assiniboine Park, and the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada.  We had hoped to take in the Inuit art of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, but the Gallery's 11AM opening meant that will have to wait for our next visit.

The morning went like clockwork. We took in a lot of sights and boarded our flight for home sad to see our Manitoba visit come to an end.

Winnipeg is overshadowed by Canada's larger cities, in terms of popularity. But honestly, we were enthralled by the 'Peg. And the people truly live up to the Manitoba license plate slogan, "Friendly Manitoba". 

A Return to the Manitoba Legislature

The crisp morning blue sky made it impossible not to return to the Legislature!

The famous Golden Boy atop the Legislature was placed there in 1919. Originally bronze, it was gilded in gold leaf in 1951.

Monument to the suffragette movement, on the grounds of the Manitoba Legislature.

Inukshuk on the Legislature grounds.

Assiniboine Park

The Leaf at Assiniboine Park:

The Leaf is a spectacular indoor horticultural park housing a tropical garden, a Mediterranean garden, and a butterfly garden.

A multi-story waterfall is a highlight of The Leaf.

Carp

A myriad of tropical and Mediterranean plants are on display.

Plants and butterflies from the Butterfly Pavilion.

Other Sights from Assiniboine Park:

Residential Schools totem pole

A steam locomotive.

The Pavilion is an English Tudor-style building in the centre of the park.

The Duck Pond

The English Garden is 10/10 on the impressive scale!  What a variety of plants, and it is amazingly manicured.

A small cottage in the middle of the English Garden.

A collage of plants from the English Garden.

Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada

Opened in this building in 2022, the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada houses an amazing collection of over 90 aircraft, one of Canada's most significant aviation collections.

Tom Lamb's "Manitoba Bush Pilot" shows a hardy bush pilot giving his float plane propellor a strong kick-start.  What a perfect statue to greet museum visitors!  There is a replica of the same statue in Assiniboine Park, which we saw earlier today.

The Junkers Ju-52 was the first single engine aircraft to operate on floats and skis.  Known as a "flying boxcar", it was purchased by Canadian Airways Ltd. in 1931 to haul cargo to northern outposts.

Fairchild Super 71 was the first purpose-built bush plane designed in Canada. Its cockpit was in the back, to maximize cargo space.  But that severely limited the pilot's view.

The Vickers Viscount VC2 was British-built.  It was the world's first turboprop-powered airliner, offering greater speed, reliability and comfort than earlier piston-engined aircraft.  Trans-Canada Airlines (now Air Canada) purchased its first Viscount in 1954, using it on the Montreal-Winnipeg route.  The aircraft type was retired by Air Canada in 1974.

Getting to see a 1950s Vickers Viscount was a dream come true for me!

The Viscount sat 43 people with lots of space. Clockwise from top left: view of the cockpit; 'stewardess' jump seat; seating for 43 pax (note the absence of overhead lockers); and the amazingly large loo! The loo on the 737 Max 8 is now about half the size.

The impressive contents of a Trans-Canada Airlines (now Air Canada) first class amenity kit from back in the days of the Vickers Viscount.

The Lockheed 10-A Electra was one of the world's truly modern airliners, featuring all-metal construction and retracting landing gear.  This model was one of the first five purchased by Trans-Canada Airlines (now Air Canada) and served from 1937-39.  It sat 10 passengers.

Back in the '50s, military planners were afraid that nuclear war would destroy all airfields. So this aircraft was developed by Avro Canada take off and land vertically. The US military funded the research, but the aircraft could never get more than a metre off the ground and was dangerously unstable.

The Douglas Invader was developed in 1943 as a light bomber and ground attack aircraft.  It served in WWII, Korea and other conflicts.

The a bird's eye view of the museum's impressive collection.

Meet Hobbs, the mascot of the Aviation Museum.

Our 48 hours in the 'Peg seemed to be over in the snap of a finger.  After walking back to the terminal from the Aviation Museum, we enjoyed lunch at the Premium Plaza Lounge and then boarded our new Boeing 737 Max 8 flight back to Halifax.  The packed flight left 10 minutes early and landed 15 minutes early. Smooth as silk - well done, Westjet!