Goodbye Winnipeg, Hello Churchill!

August 10, 2014

After a lovely and much needed rest at Fort Garry, we packed our bags and left for another early morning flight, this time for Churchill. Reinvigorated by the interesting information we gleaned from our previous day's museum visit, we were ready to truly begin The Arctic Adventure.

We anticipated resistance from Sami during this second early start, but the little trooper was ready to go as soon as we told him that we were returning to the airport. Chris and I downed coffees and said farewell to the hotel staff before a pleasant ride to the airport. Conversation was engaging the entire way as our driver was the perfect mix of sweetness and intelligence; he shared with us his life story as he and his wife - both medical doctors - transitioned their five children from Afghanistan to Iraq (seven unpleasant days) and then finally to Winnipeg. Thanking him for the stories and thrilled that we had everything we needed for the flight PLUS were plenty early, it was life irony to discover that our flight was delayed by an hour due to inclement weather at Churchill.

Landing in Churchill

Elizabeth and Sami were doing great, Elizabeth reading all the information about Churchill and Sami still pointing out all the planes - and he began to understand that most of the planes were 'not ours' and was beyond happy when we finally boarded 'our' 22-seat plane. Elizabeth and another girl named Emily from Rankin Inlet kept Sami happy and busy and we all had a great time on the 2+ hour flight north. Our section of the plane included some superbly friendly individuals and we were served delicious meals and drinks in that short time period. Overall it was wonderful third flight in two days. Chris had a good laugh because it was his first time during a landing in which someone shouted OH GOD! because of turbulence. We were later informed that Churchill is well known for its unpredictable weather patterns.

The drive to hand-crafted Lazy Bear Lodge where we are staying for the next three nights was brief and we quickly settled into our cozy room. Two consecutive early mornings left us all groggy, so we decided to explore the town a little bit to get the blood circulating. We put on our warmest clothes and headed out to the Churchill recreation centre, the only public building open on a Sunday afternoon. Attached to the local public school, the rec centre is on the opposite end of town from where we were staying and along Hudson's Bay. Nonetheless, it was only about a 15 minute walk, which would not have felt long except that there was some weird snow-rain (snain?) falling and wicked winds that made us all question why we were in Churchill instead of on a beach in Hawaii. But Elizabeth, ever the optimist, pointed out that this was all part of the Arctic adventure and that we were getting the genuine Churchill experience. The angry swells along the shoreline were an awesome sight to take in and we marvel all the more at the ingenuity of the Inuit in surviving off of this land.

We spent the better part of the afternoon enjoying ourselves at the indoor playgrounds and exploring the centre. The walk home was less frigid and we made it back to the lodge for drying out. Chris and Sami met with some other lodge residents and we eventually settled in for some scrumptious local cuisine along with another friendly tourist. Cheryl had just finished her sonography program in Winnipeg and is celebrating the start of her career by getting up close and personal with beluga whales. The stars further aligned and Chris and Elizabeth's snorkeling trip was rebooked so that they can join Cheryl when she goes. It is always worthwhile to meet neat and inspiring individuals!

Sami sent us a clear message of tiredness and the need to pack it in when he randomly began singing Jingle Bells at the restaurant. We are impressed with how quickly his vocabulary is improving (he especially enjoys the propellers on the planes which he originally referred to as plane fans) and he is actually responding to people's questions about his name and age (which we had not previously witnessed).

Elizabeth is especially keen to begin exploring the landscape and start looking for polar bears. So far we have seen a few species of birds from our room window that I (Ania) had mistaken for Arctic hares. So glad we have our binoculars here to clarify those sorts of misconceptions :).

Looking forward to tomorrow's adventures!

ACES