Through the years, my job as a sports reporter has taken me to a lot of interesting places -- New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl, Quebec and Montreal for hockey games, San Francisco for a Super Bowl, even to London for Wimbledon.
Most of the time, my friends willingly suggest they slip into my suitcase or come along as a photographer. But when the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League opened their season in Winnipeg, Manitoba, last fall, no one offered to join me.
"Good luck," said one. "Stay warm."
"Winnipeg?" said another. "Isn't that in the middle of nowhere?"
A call to the NHL's Winnipeg Jets public relations office made me wonder.
"Winnipeg is like nowhere you've ever been before," promised information director Mike O'Hearn.
Mike Ridley, a native of Winnipeg who plays center for the Capitals, said, "I've given up trying to explain where it is. When people ask where I'm from, I just say North Minneapolis."
Winnipeg sits just about in the middle of Canada, just about in the middle of North America. To outsiders, if Winnipeg is known at all, it is known primarily for frigid weather.
The city claims the intersection of Portage and Main streets as the coldest street corner in North America. Temperatures dip to minus-30 degrees Fahrenheit regularly, as the wind rips in unabated from the central Canadian plains.
"Block heaters [to keep engines from freezing] are regular equipment sold on cars in Winnipeg," said Mr. Ridley. "I spent the first 22 years of my life in Winnipeg," he added. "I thought cars everywhere came with block heaters; when I went to buy my first car in New York, I wanted to make sure it came standard and was told it was extra. The guy finally told me I didn't really need one."
Wondering why you would ever want to go to Winnipeg? Obviously, you think, there are reasons Winnipeg is not included in the same sentence with Quebec, Montreal and Vancouver.
But that's in the winter.
In the spring and summer, this city of 650,000 blossoms. From June through early October, Winnipeg can be a delight.
"Winnipeg is a wonderful place in the summer," said Mr. Ridley, who still takes his family home for vacation during hockey's off season. "There is always something to do, places to go. Everything from fishing and golf to museums, dinning out and gambling in the casinos."
While Baltimoreans are sweltering through 90- and 100-degree days with high humidity, Winnipeggers and their visitors will be enjoying temperatures in the mid-70s to mid-80s -- with zero humidity.
In Baltimore, we're probably going to become more and more aware of Winnipeg. The Baltimore Colts of the Canadian Football League will be playing the Winnipeg Blue Bombers this summer. And what those who venture to Winnipeg for the July 28 road trip will likely discover is that the two cities have distinct similarities 11 as well as differences.
It is true that unless you come from the North Pole or the Outback, you are probably not going to confuse Winnipeg with Paris -- or Montreal.
But there are wide streets, warm sunny benches and some very good cappuccino to be enjoyed down at the Forks, where the Red and Assiniboine rivers meet.
Winnipeggers are friendly. One day, while trying to make my way to the Forks, an area much like Baltimore's Inner Harbor, I stopped in a small card shop in the restored Union Station Market at Main and Broadway to ask directions. The shopkeeper smiled, came out from behind his counter and personally led me to the site, leaving his store unattended.
"It is not very far, but from this side it can be a little tricky," he said of the short walk. "I'll take you there."
And once you get to the Forks, you will have reached a historic crossroads that dates back 6,000 years, to a time when historians say aboriginal groups met to trade and socialize.
In fact, Winnipeg is an Indian name for "Where muddy waters meet." And people are still meeting there, for lunch and shopping and an afternoon of sunshine in the 57-acre enclave, which includes a six-story, glass-enclosed tower for exhibits, a skating rink, an amphitheater and other outdoor amusements.
Through the centuries, Cree and Assiniboine Indians, fur traders and European settlers came and went as the spot grew, first as a place for fur trading in the 1730s, when people came in canoes, York boats and steamboats; then as a settlement for Scottish farmers in 1812 and a hub for train cargo and passengers in the 1880s; until today, when two antique horse barns have been converted into an airy marketplace.
Beyond the shopping and dining areas, there is a rock wall carved with scenes depicting Winnipeg's history that winds down to a beautiful and peaceful paved walkway along the riverbank.
From there, it is an easy walk along the Assiniboine River to the stunning Manitoba Legislative Building, built in neoclassical style 1919 and topped with a 13 1/2 -foot, 5-ton statue called the Golden Boy, holding a torch meant to "light the way" to progress.
The Tourist Information Center is also located next door.
The city's streets are wide and clean, and, like a European city, it is made for walking, whether along the river banks or elsewhere.
Traffic jams don't exist.
"Rush hour," said Mr. O'Hearn, the Jets' public relations man, "is three cars at a stop light."
Crime (no surprise after the shop keeper's actions) is also rare.
And when you get tired of being above ground, or if you're there on a rainy day -- or snowy one in winter -- there is a whole different city of shops and walkways underground.
Like Baltimore, Winnipeg is made up of culturally diverse neighborhoods, good restaurants, fine museums and a lively regional theater.
The Winnipeg Art Gallery has one of the best collections of Inuit art in the world; the Exchange District, once the center of Winnipeg's wholesale and manufacturing district, has had its wonderful old buildings restored and converted to fine stores and restaurants.
Academy Road, one of the city's oldest areas, is the place to go for designer clothes, cozy restaurants and specialty shops. Osborne Village is a five-block area filled with shops that feature local artisans, imported chocolate and books.
"Little Italy," between Pembina Highway and Stafford Avenue on Corydon Avenue, offers sidewalk cafes; and Saint Boniface is home to the largest French-speaking community in western Canada.
At night, the Grey Nuns' Walkway (Promenade Tache) becomes a lamp-lighted path between Tache Avenue and the Red River and provides a pretty view of Winnipeg and the Forks.
Among the most diverting places to visit is the Museum of Man and Nature, an interpretive museum with life-like reconstructions Indians hunting buffalo and a planetarium for the star-gazers among us.
One of the more interesting replicas is of the Nonsuch, a two-masted sailing vessel called a ketch. The ship arrived in 1668 and was the first European ship to sail into Hudson Bay.
It sailed out again to England with a cargo of furs, and it was that incident that eventually led to the founding of the Hudson's Bay Co., the trading company that still exists and is most familiar in the form of its department stores.
Last March, that same company donated its entire historic archives collection to the museum, which will house it in a new $2.2 million wing to be completed next year. The collection, which is said to be among the most extensive and detailed private historical resources ever maintained, portrays more than three centuries of the company's history, including the quest for the North West Passage -- the water route from the Atlantic to the Pacific that took explorers 400 years to get right.
Winnipeg may not offer the night life of New York or the glamour of Paris. But for a low-key, relaxing and safe place to visit, it is -- as Baltimore has been in the past -- a very pleasant discovery.
IF YOU GO . . .
Plane: Both Northwest Airlines and Air Canada offer service from BWI.
Round trip fares: With a Saturday night stay, purchased 14-days in advance, a non-refundable ticket on either airline will cost approximately $485. Without the Saturday night stay, the cost increases to $872. Prices fluctuate depending on rates of exchange.
By Train:
Getting to Winnipeg by train requires a ticket on Amtrak from Baltimore to Montreal and a connection on Via-Rail from Montreal to Winnipeg. Round-trip coach fare from Baltimore to Montreal is about $130. The trip takes about 18 hours. Roomettes are available, for an additional $113. For information, call Amtrak: (800) 872-7245.
The connection from Montreal to Winnipeg costs $532 (Canadian dollars) plus tax. The trip takes 34 hours.
A round-trip ticket from Montreal that includes sleeping accommodations is $1,240 (Canadian). For information, call Via-Rail, (514) 871-1331.