We're worth what?!

The picture above shows you how much the 3 Peas are worth if we were made of Platinum! At the Royal Canadian Mint you can weigh yourself and then let the computer convert your weight into worth with a monetary denomination. When we were weighed in pennies we were only worth about $843.

Winnipeg has been a bit frustrating for me, but the boys have enjoyed it a lot. It seems that everywhere we were planning to go was accessible only by taxi and some of the things we were going to see are still closed for the season (you'd think they'd mention that on their websites!). We bit the bullet and paid for a cab to the Mint and went on our tour. It was interesting and we all learned a lot. The boys held a gold bar (about 28lbs) that was worth approx. $460,000.00 and used all the interactive displays around the main floor. They both found it quite intriguing that Canada makes money for many other countries. We watched the production of a 1 pesewa for Ghana. We also learned that the reason BC was so late in getting (the much coveted) Olympic Snowboarding quarters was that the truck that was carrying BC's supply of them across the country, went over an embankment and into a ravine. All the quarters had to be sent back to Winnipeg for re-washing/polishing. At the end of the tour the boys were anxious to spend some money on some money, so we spent some time in the gift shop. The littlest pea misunderstood a sign that he thought said the collector snowboarder coin he wanted was $25, but it was actually $72. That set off a very unhappy chain of events for him. We got out of there fast! The bonus of being at the mint was that there is a huge lawn infront of the mint, so most of the meltdown happened far away from people, while running across the grass. We were meeting our cab at the road and by the time we got back to the hotel, all the peas were happy again, and off to the pool we went.

We thoroughly explored "The Forks" area and two of the peas were delighted to find an old railcar that had been converted in to a candy shop!

After a promise to revisit the candy car at the end of our day, we headed off to explore. The Forks is kind of a smaller version of Granville Island, but a lot was closed up still. I can imagine it being a very virbrant area in the summer. We found an Old Spaghetti Factory for lunch and then it was off to the Manitoba Children's Museum. The two young peas thought the museum would be dumb and they would be the oldest kids in there, but much to everyone's surprise they had a great time! They spent a lot of time in a hands on News Room, taking turns filming each other doing a news cast and the weather. Then they discovered the costumes! They must have spent an hour getting dressed (and redressed)and putting on impromptu news reports. The "news room" had TV's throughout the museum that broadcast whatever was happening in there and it wasn't long before the peas had acquired a live studio audience. It was the funniest thing I've watched in a long time! Many people asked me if they work in theatre or film! (Perhaps they can start earning their keep when we get back home!)

There was a lot of down time in Winnipeg and I think we're ready for Toronto! We board the train at noon tomorrow for another day and a half and then we have some major sightseeing to do! There is a short detour to Niagara Falls to stay at The Great Wolf Lodge (it has the largest indoor waterpark in North America!) for a night.

It's time to start the young peas on a bit of school work before we get ready for bed. One pea is finding out why Winnipeg is French on one side of the river and English on the other and the other pea is looking in to why there are so many monuments and mentions of Louis Riel around the city. I am going to lie on my very comfy bed and read a book!

I have no idea if we're going to have internet access in the next few days so this might be the last update for a while. The peas all love to read your comments on the blog and your emails, so feel free to keep writing :) Thanks to all of you who are praying for us!