FALL | WINTER 2012-2013 SPORTS ITINERARY HALF DAY Pick your favourite ponies at Assiniboia Downs, a race track televisions. Or try your hand with lady luck inside the casino- just west of Winnipeg near the perimeter. From May to style room, home to 140 video lottery terminals. Celebrate September, the track hosts live thoroughbred and harness your winnings with dinner inside the Terrace Dining Room, a races. The rest of the year catch simulcast races from across full-service, licensed restaurant. On Thursdays, hit the buffet North America, all projected on a bank of big-screen for a top-grade prime rib dinner with all the favourites. FULL DAY Get some fresh air at one of Winnipeg’s many stellar outdoor the winter. Get warm inside Buffalo Stone Café, a sunlight escapes. Whether walking, snowshoeing or cross-country skiing eatery overlooking the marshlands. Dig into a dense and is your pleasure, Winnipeg has an amazing array of nature parks delicious bison stew or a grilled chicken and creamy avocado to explore. sandwich, among other scratch-made dishes on this hearty, home-spun menu. Walk through the woods at Assiniboine Forest, home to North America’s largest urban deer population and a great With a full belly and no fear, head to Winnipeg’s free-standing, place to meet the city’s devoted dog owners. Or wander along 60-metre-high ice tower. From December through spring, strap riverside trails, through the serene Leo Mol Sculpture Garden on crampons, harness up and grab your ice axes for an afternoon or around the duck pond at Assiniboine Park, Winnipeg’s city of ice climbing in the heart of the prairies. The tower is located park. In the winter, the duck pond freezes over and becomes a on the banks of the Red River near Fort Gibraltar within sight recreational ice-skating rink. of downtown Winnipeg and is the work of Club d’escalade Saint-Boniface (the Saint Boniface section of the Alpine Club At FortWhyte Alive, meet Charlie and Twisty, two of 25 bison of Canada.) Ice climbing newcomers and experts are welcome. living on this southwest Winnipeg nature preserve. (The 600- Club members will teach and assist beginners. The ice tower acre preserve also hosts its annual Hypothermic Half Marathon opens in December (weather permitting) and climbing season every February for hearty cold-weather runners.) Tread the trails peaks in February during Festiglace, a festival and friendly criss-crossing the wooded, prairie and marshland park, or try competition that coincides with Festival du Voyageur. ice-fishing and snowshoeing during special events throughout 300-259 Portage Avenue P 204.943.1970 Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3B 2A9 TF 1.855.PEG.CITY Tavern United The Winnipeg Blue Bombers McPhillips Sreet Casino 4Play Sports Bar FULL DAY 2 Win big inside McPhillips Street Casino, a grand and opulent Throughout the year catch co-ed sports action—including 178,000 square-foot entertainment, dining and gaming basketball, volleyball, hockey and football—at the Universities centre for serious and novice gamblers alike. Pull the arm, of Manitoba and Winnipeg and Red River College. play your hand, spin roulette and let the chips fall where they may at one of the facility’s countless tables and VLTs. Come summertime, catch a Winnipeg Goldeyes baseball game at Shaw Park. Cheer on the 2012 championship AA Later, head downtown to Tavern United, Fox and Fiddle, team while grooving with Goldie and his pal Goldette, the or 4Play Sports Bar, where the televisions are always tuned team’s mascots. If football is your game, the Winnipeg Blue into the game. Winnipeg is home to rabid sports fans of Bombers always put up a great fight. The new stadium, all description and some of the liveliest lounges anywhere. located on the University of Manitoba campus in Fort Garry, Check out the scores or watch a live NHL, NBA, NFL game is expected to open in the 2013 season. or LPGA tournament on big-screen, high-definition screens inside these full-service restaurants and lounges. Have a pint or two and share baskets of chicken wings, nachos and cheese, and all the game-day favourites while cheering on your team. 300-259 Portage Avenue P 204.943.1970 Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3B 2A9 TF 1.855.PEG.CITY.