The USA and Canada are almost magical; like Hong Kong, it was built by immigrants and refugees who arrived with nothing and faced with an uncertain future. With determination and grit, they resolved to make this a meritocracy where anyone can make it in life – or so they believed. Read more…
Washington, D.C.’s main monoliths of power, culture, and history all lie in an inverse T-shaped park stretching two miles from end to end. From the Lincoln Memorial in the west to the Capitol in the east to the White House in the north, this half-kilometre wide grassy avenue was the Read more…
History. Nature. Science. These three words are the calling card for Winnipeg‘s Manitoba Museum. It is the province’s most comprehensive museum with multiple galleries on everything from dinosaurs to how Manitobans lived during the roaring 20s. I particularly liked the Arctic and subarctic gallery, as I did in Ottawa‘s Museum Read more…
If I had a tail I’d wag, and it’s a shame their shop isn’t called swag. The museum in Winnipeg has over 24,000 works of indigenous art and the largest collection of Inuit art in the world. It has space for educational activities and docents that explain the works to Read more…
The capital of Manitoba is not very well known. If it is known to outsiders, it’s usually recognized for being the start of the prairies with the bison symbol even though the provincial animal is the great grey owl. Many mistake the bison for being a buffalo, but buffalo are Read more…
The Forks was an ancient meeting place for indigenous peoples for over 6,000 years where different groups made alliances and traded. It was here that Louis Riel defended the rights of Métis people. His house and grave are historic sites in Winnipeg. It was also the site of the first Read more…
Navigate to parking lot N and you’ll find yourself at the memorial avenue of elms planted by home economics students in 1922 for Winnipeg‘s students from the Manitoba Agricultural College who died in WWI. The site of the university was originally constructed for the Manitoba Agricultural College in 1906, which Read more…
While technically a part of Quebec City, Charlesbourg has a larger role to play than just being a suburb to the provincial capital. Jacques Cartier, the first European to arrive spent the winter of 1535 here, but it wasn’t until over a century later before the town was founded in Read more…
The fish ladder at the dam in Grand Rapids lets fish lie trout and salmon move upstream and bypass the dam. There are additional fish ladders in upstream dams so fish can spawn as they did thousands of years ago. The fish ladder was designed to allow fish through while Read more…
Grand Rapids was my bonus level in Michigan. I had only planned to visit Flint, Ann Arbor, Detroit, and Lansing on the trip, but efficiency won the day. Former president Gerald Ford was born and grew up in Grand Rapids, his presidential library and grave site has price space on Read more…
University of King’s College is the oldest university in the British Empire outside of the British Isles. It was originally established in 1789 in Windsor before being moved to Halifax in 1923, occupying the northwestern corner of Dalhousie University’s main campus. Dalhousie College, now a university, was built with customs Read more…