What a difference a day makes! Yesterday Lake Winnipeg looked like a wave-tossed, muddy Mississippi River; today with the lake reflecting blue skies and a slight breeze, portions look like antique wavy glass.

To finish our visit to Gimli we make a short stop to the New Iceland Heritage Museum. They are changing out temporary exhibits so it is all in a bit of disarray but we get to see most of the permanent displays and Bob has fun assuming he has some Viking blood in his ancestry.

We drive down the west side of Lake Winnipeg stopping to spend time in the lovely lakeside park in Winnipeg Beach.

At Selkirk the Lower Fort Garry National Historic Site beckons. The intact stone fort served as a busy Hudson Bay Company supply site in the mid-1800s. In summer the restored buildings are open and costumed interpretive guides perform tasks and re-enact events from the fort’s heydays. In mid-September we find the grounds open for wandering about but no services in the visitor center and all buildings closed. The few staff we see are preparing for the upcoming winter.

We would love to revisit when it is fully staffed to learn more about the fort’s history . However, we did enjoy the walk to the fort, reading the few interpretive signs, taking photographs and soaking up some sunshine.

After an unremarkable dinner we drive to downtown Winnipeg for a bit of orientation. We catch the last of the sunlight on the recently opened Canadian Museum of Human Rights.

Truly a day of transition from Viking history to 21st-century issues and architecture.