Traveling to Winnipeg 10/26/2024

We spent the night at the Philadelphia Airport Marriott last night because we had an early flight this morning. We got up at 3 AM to get ready, then made our way to the airport. We dropped out bags at terminal D where Air Canada flies from and headed to the gate with a short wait for our flight. The flight left mostly on time after waiting for some Air Canada maintenance workers who were delayed in security who needed a ride back to Toronto. We were in first class and there were several deah heading pilots and flight attendants also heading home after spending the night in Philadelphia due to a maintenance issue on one of their planes. We flew into Toronto and cleared customs there although our bags were forwarded through to Winnipeg. Customs was a breeze, we had filled out the Arrivcan online survey and there was no one in line at customs so it took only a minute to make our way through. We then had a 6 hour layover, but had access to the Maple Leaf Lounge in Toronto so we went there. They had complimentary full hot breakfast and lunch, snacks, beverages and coffee. Even the alcoholic beverages were complimentary and self serve but we didn't partake of those. Conrad found a nice quiet spot in the back of the lounge for us to sit in lounge chairs with ottomans and we rested and waited it out there, with Shawn even getting a few hours of sleep after having really struggled to sleep the night before. We then made our way to the gate at Toronto and the flight was uneventful, on time and comfortable. We arrived in Winnipeg, collected our luggage and were greeted by the NatHab team who took us and one other woman from Ireland to the Fort Garry hotel. We had made reservations for dinner there at their main restaurant. We arrived early and the dining room manager Pauline moved our reservation up so that we could go early. We got showers and did a bit of unpacking and then headed down for dinner. Pauline was seating guests so we assumed she was the hostess but it turned out that she was managing the dining room and she was fantastic, never stopping all night. She greeted and seated guests, cleared tables, reset tables, joined tables for large parties, helped the wait staff, and never lost her smile. Dinner was very good, interesting, unique and we had a nice bottle of Pouily Saint-Veran from Burgundy. We headed back up to the room and had a better night sleeping. The hotel is lovely and the littlle area of town where we are is safe and has some intersting areas that we will go check out tomorrow.