It’s Good to be Home

August 30th, 2011 by Emma Durand-Wood

We just got back from a three week road trip to Alberta. We had a wonderful time visiting with friends and family, but man, when we pulled up in front of our house, what a sigh of relief. It’s good to be home again.

This was my first time (since I moved here, of course) being away from Winnipeg for such a long time. Over the course of our travels I made some mental notes about the other prairie places we found ourselves in.

  • In Regina, we witnessed the most polite Tim Horton’s drive through line on earth (“that would never happen in Winnipeg!”), and admired the city’s lovely downtown, which is full of interesting buildings and seemed particularly lush with big green trees
  • In Edmonton, we bought some Alley Kat and Wild Rose beer and are curious to see how it stacks up to Half Pints. We also looked longingly at the city’s LRT system and wondered why, with an only slightly smaller population, we couldn’t have the same transit system at home. Also: Edmonton is getting a Crate & Barrel. Nice.
  • In Red Deer, we listened intently to a temporarily displaced Winnipegger friend of ours as he described how much he liked his new city – he feels there is considerably less crime there (and thought the city’s plan to build a new police headquarters right across the street from the town’s rowdiest nightclub was brilliant!). He’s also totally impressed by the sense of community and loves the amount of recreational opportunities available to him.
  • In Saskatoon, I was interested to hear from an old college friend about her city’s crazy rental market – seems low vacancy rates are a problem throughout the prairies.
  • In Lethbridge, I bought local blackberry wine at the farmer’s market. Can we do that here? It would be pretty sweet if we could. (Excuse my nerdy fruit wine pun.)
  • In Calgary, I felt jealous of all the farmer’s markets that are open for more than one day a week. Some even have indoor locations! Also, I couldn’t resist a quick trip to Ikea and felt even more excited that we’ll have our own store before too long.

There were things about other cities that made me a bit jealous. But I also experienced something that made me appreciate my Winnipeg surroundings even more. Many friends and family members we visited live in newer neighbourhoods with young trees that are just starting out. I love that in my neighbourhood, the elms are decades old, and create spectacular, shady canopies above the streets. And I love going away and coming back to subtle changes – like the progress on the Disraeli Bridge, and the new sign at Sonya’s Restaurant!

I hope you’ve all managed to pack lots of fun into your Winnipeg summers. Aside from our road trip, the highlight of my summer was going to Grand Beach for the first time in my adult life…it was amazing. The water was perfect, the waves were huge and so much fun, and I loved that it only took us an hour to get there. We really are lucky in this neck of the woods.

What do you miss about Winnipeg when you’re away? What aspects of other cities make you jealous?

7 Responses to “It’s Good to be Home”

  1. Courtney says:

    I didn’t even think of taking you to Wild Rose Brewery. They serve food as well and it’s supposed to be quite good.

    It was so great to spend time with you guys and catch up! Next time we will have to come to the ‘Peg.

  2. Pat J says:

    I just spent four days in Regina, prowling around the downtown while my wife attended meetings. It struck me that Regina’s got some good things going on downtown — a pedestrian mall, for one thing, along with little cafés and shops that piqued my interest. I had a chat with a gent working in one of the men’s clothiers, and he said that it’s only in the last few years that they’ve started to really figure out how to make downtown work.

    Also: drivers stopped for me at crosswalks. Even ones without lights. Even on Victoria Avenue, which is Regina’s equivalent of Portage Avenue. It was surreal.

  3. Sebastian says:

    What, you came to Edmonton and didn’t tell me?! I’m hurt.

    We look at the LRT we have and wonder why we stopped building it for 14 years. Seriously. 14 years to build from University to Health Sciences. Why can’t Winnipeg have mass transit? The answer is usually political will. You have to want it bad enough to spend the money. In a car-bound culture like so many Canadian cities, that can be a hard ask…

  4. Emma says:

    @Court I didn’t even know it existed until I saw the beer on the shelf! Thanks for a fantastic visit. Can’t wait to “hot stone” again!

    @Pat Sounds wonderful! I’d like to check it out sometime.

    @Seb We were only there for 24 hours to visit my grandpa 🙂 I did think of you but thought with a newborn, you probably wouldn’t want out of town visitors hounding you. But it sounds like you’re faring much better than we did… I should have gotten in touch!

  5. I can’t say that there’s much that I miss while I’m away on holiday, but traveling is always a good way to get a better sense of the pros and cons of one’s own hometown.

    If I tried looking at Winnipeg through a tourist’s eyes instead of a local’s, I might be appreciative of the fact that Winnipeg seems to be:

    – Laid back; fairly nice

    – Affordable to live in

    – Not too crowded

    – Not workaholic; people have lives outside of working and commuting

    Things I wish Winnipeg had, though:

    – Less of a “hush”. If you come back from Toronto, the first thing that strikes you about Winnipeg is the quietness.

    – More opportunities for unplanned fun. In Winnipeg, you have to go looking for it or plan for it.

    – Better public transport.

    – A less frumpy, run-down appearance. (It can be a bit of culture shock to arrive in Montreal and see how much pride people take in civic and personal appearances.)

  6. What do you miss about Winnipeg when you’re away?

    I don’t live in Winnipeg, but in rural Manitoba on the western side of the province, but things that I really like about Winnipeg are The Forks. It is so wonderful to have an outdoor space in the middle of the city where there is always something going on in terms of recreation and displays, restaurants, etc. It is the perfect place to spend an afternoon, you don’t really need any set plans, just show up to The Forks and go with the flow. I also really like the shopping opportunities in Winnipeg. I’m from Nova Scotia and am used to Halifax shopping, which is pretty good, but Winnipeg’s is better – way more variety and more specific stores than Halifax which is a much smaller city. Winnipeg also gets a lot more concerts than what I was used to in Halifax. Tons more big name acts, and that is something a lot of locals may not realize. This summer I had the opportunity to visit Fort Whyte Alive and similar to The Forks, it is a wonderful outdoor space close to the city, more locals should take advantage of it, it is beautiful.

    What aspects of other cities make you jealous?

    I prefer smaller cities, like Halifax or Regina, because they are easier to get around and tend to have a more pedestrian based downtown. I think it is because I’ve spent my life living in smaller towns or smaller cities where you could just simply walk downtown and see everything easily, I find Winnipeg isn’t as welcoming in the downtown core in the same manner some smaller cities are. I find Winnipeg feels very “new” to me because I am used to the east coast with narrower streets and more trees and more historic buildings and homes. This may already exist in Winnipeg, but I’m not aware of it, but Halifax recently built a big indoor farmers market that is open 7 days a week and is filled with local products – arts and crafts, food, etc. It is located downtown and is a wonderful edition to the city. I wish Winnipeg had something similar.

  7. YEG thinking of moving says:

    My wife and I, plus our 7-month-old son are contemplating going hard at moving from Edmonton to Winnipeg to be closer to family.

    I know very little about the city so this blog will help. I hear lots of bad things, but I take a lot of that with grain of salt after living many places, including some places in the States and of course Edmonton, which some people classify as crappy – but I love.

    Keep writing, and maybe with some luck we could be contributors someday, too – if you wanted.

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