Maritimes - Day 35

We finally got in our missed tour of the mint, since we had a free day in Winnipeg today.  We started the day slowly, though everyone was up earlier than I expected because we are still on Eastern time.  After breakfast in the hotel we drove to the mint and got there in plenty of time for our tour.

It was a nice tour - it's always interesting to see how things you use everyday are actually made, and we even learned a few things like how the original loonie had a completely different design, but the master die never arrived from Ottawa, so they had to design and all new coin to avoid the possibility of counterfeits.

After the tour, the staff gave the younger kids a scavenger hunt, as they had put large coins in the trees outside the mint and they had to find 10 of them.  With their parents help, it didn't take very long, and they got a sticker and a fact sheet as a prize.

Our next stop was the LEGO store, where the kids spent all of their saved money and received their character pack for dressing up as Anne.  I may also have spent all of my saved money (or prepurchased my next birthday and Christmas present).

After lunch and LEGO, we left Winnipeg behind and headed out to visit Jen & Craig.  For various weather related reasons, we haven't been out here yet.  We found their house, had a nice homemade supper and then went for ice cream and some pictures at the Seven Sisters dam.  Manitoba has lots of water this year, so there was a lot of water flying through the dam - very impressive.

Our trip is almost at an end.  We are spending tomorrow here and then we head home on Sunday.