Moscow

So Moscow is one of those cities that emits a certain kind of feeling.

We arrived in Moscow amidst the pouring rain, which was followed by a walking tour I had enlisted us for because I was feeling sluggish - I haven't been for a run, or done any means of physical activity in three weeks... my body is screaming at me! I digress.
We set off in the rain to ride the metro - beautiful metro system!  Many of stops are made of marble walls and columns, they have intricate chandeliers and marble engravings. One of them must have been built around the time of the Olympics - the station was full of engravings of all the Olympic sports, both modern and ancient. Another had huge mosaics of Lenin, there were huge statues of soldiers, and countless images hammer, sicles and wheat!

The walking tour was nice because we were walking, but crappy because of the rain, and honestly we only walked down one road to the Red Square. Obviously that was because of the age of the tour group... but still... not what I was anticipating. REGARDLESS! Red Square was great! It was so amazing to think of all the history that happened in the square! It was so vast and grand! At one end was the magical St. Basil's cathedral, to the right is the Kremlin and Lenin's Mausoleum, to the left the extravagant GUM Department Store.

Our second day in Moscow we went on an excursion to the Orthodox Church Holy City - Sergiev Posad (or Zagorsk during the Soviet times). That day was freezing! The place was very pretty, we observed part of a service and I lit some candles for Nana. The best part was that they have a Miracle fountain there!
I misunderstood, originally I thought it was Holy Water, the fountain was crowded with guys filling up litres of the water for their grandmothers... I pf course want Holy Water! Mum didnt trust it, so wouldnt let me drink any to see if it really created miracles....

That night we went to see a fantastic Russian Folk Orchestra. They were great! A bunch of students just having fun, playing their instruments.  They played Lara's Theme to end the night... of course... I think every Balalaika player must know that one.

Wednesday we had a tour of the Kremlin and its Amoury - we got to see Faberge eggs, coronation gowns, carriages like the ones from Cinderella and soooo much gold and silver! The Kremlin itself was meh... lots of golden churches and office buildings. There were a couple "biggest in the world" items - Bell and Cannon, which both have silly histories, the Bell never rang, it cracked when being cast and the cannon was never fired.

All in all Moscow was neat and I feel like I missed at lot being forced to stick to the pre assigned tours, or only having a few hours on our own. Mind you, my lack of understanding the Russian language was really intimidating... I'd have to study the alphabet first.

Rivers of Russia

Disclaimer - Google Services have been really hit or miss here, no searching, no maps, no email, no blog - it's been quit infuriating. 
For the past few days we have been sailing along the Neva, Svir and the Volga Rivers.

Approaching the island of Kizhi with its 17th C. churches made from pine.

We've had a grand time with fantastic scenery. Reminds me a lot of home, with all the golden birch. We've jammed a lot into the past five days on the rivers: I painted a Matrioshka doll (really a bell since they ran out of dolls), enjoyed as classical piano show, taken in Russian language and history course, visited two UNESCO sites to add to my every growing list - Kizhi Island and Yaroslavl City.
Kizhi was amazing, and definitely a highlight of the trip. I would never have had the opportunity to see this place if I had come on my own to Russia. Thank you for including this marvellous place!
We've passed through numerous lock systems, a total of 16 I think at the end of the sailing. Mum loves these locks. She gets so excited when we come to one and is out on the deck taking photos and watching the boat rise up/sink down.
Another event mum had a time at was the Vodka Enrichment. This was a night where we learnt the history of vodka (it's not made of potatoes). We learnt different manners of ordering drinks with hand signals, how to take different shots - off your shoulder or elbow (mum liked these). We tried six different kinds - regular, nettle leaves, mandarin, black current, arrow root and chilli pepper. The hangover tip provided - drink a cup of black tea before you go to bed. After the tasting there was quite the party down at the tea centre heeding the advice.
The next day we entered the Golden Ring, and there were gleaming golden churches dotting the river banks. Some had beautiful blue and gold domes, others had the plain green ones. I heard that there was a meaning behind the colours of the domes, but I have yet to have unearthed the explanation.

We stopped at Yaroslavl, in the heart of the golden ring to visit these immaculate churches - the icons in them are amazing. One we went to is still an active church and when we entered, we were hit with a wall of the smell of incense and wax. A continual singsong was chanted the entire time. I bought my treasured icon at St. Elijah the Prophet - this place contained the most icon and frescos I have ever seen. Thus far Kizhi and these Yaroslavl churches are tied for the best of the trip.

Icons in St. Elijah the Prophet

Unfortunately the weather has not been on our side and our walking tour today was done in a torrential downpour. Ugh. Awful  though today mum and I managed to get an umbrella, which we missed out on yesterday. The walking tour was through the Kremlin of Ulgich, more gilded churches, some with services going on - ladies running in and out with lovely head scarves and constantly crossing themselves. This walking tour was followed with a house visit. I was a little uneasy about going into someones house as a tour... but it turned out to be dandy. The couple, Vladimir and Rita, invited us into their home, explained what they did (silver jewellers), treated us to cake, toasts of their homemade vodka and tea. It was really a nice visit... not sure how they enjoyed it. Vladimir had everyone circle their town on his map of the USA, took our photos and told us jokes.
Tonight we had our Captain's farewell dinner, and saw a bit of the sun - tomorrow we arrive in Moscow. PLEASE let there be no rain for our special walking tour!

St. Petersburg

Mum and I have spent the last four days in St. Petersburg for the beginning portion of our seniors cruise. It is a beautiful city, and it's a shame that we are here on an organised tour and cannot just go walk through town.
It's quite different going from doing whatever one wants while travelling, to being only allowed to do what is planned and having to stay with the groups - mind you Russia is kinda intimidating, and I'm glad there are people looking out for us, and who speak Russian with us always. I'm sure we'd be fine after a couple days... though it would taking a little more time to get use to the Cyrillic, than trying to piece together only a foreign language.

Anyways, we've seen the Hermitage, gone to a ballet performance, visited Catherine the first's summer palace, travelled through St. Petersburgs city centre, ooooed and awed at the Peterhof Palace and cruised through the canals of the city.
The Hermitage was amazing, it rivals the Louvre and the Prado for art collections, though the added brillance of the Winter Palace makes it that much more visually appealing. The ballet was of Sleeping Beauty - not the disney version, but they did play "I know you..." and I had it stuck in my head all night. The ballet tutus reminded me of parasols, amazingly beautiful! I'm glad I knew the disney version, had I not, I would have had no idea what was going on... obviously no words in ballets.
Catherine's Palace and the Peterhof Palace were both so indescribable  Catherine's was much more ornate and "gold" but Peterhofs had the most amazing grounds and fountains.
It's hard to imagine that people lived like that. To have acres of land full of fountains and paths to walk, giant ball rooms and all this amazing furniture. Peterhof Palace was only a summer palace, somewhat modeled after Versailles. The other pretty impressive thing was that they were all utterly destroyed during the Second World War. Roofs and walls missing, rooms gutted, just the shell of a building. Immediately following the war the Soviets began restoring the palaces, to promote their history, and brought all the building back to their former glory, with many original pieces of furniture. Quite impressive!

We did two city tours, one by bus and one through the canals of St. Petersburg. Apparently there are over 500 bridges here and is loosely compare to Amsterdam for its waterways. I believe it.

The tour was ok. I couldnt really make out what the guide was saying over the speakers, but the scenery was nice. The buildings here are so grandious and have lovely colours.

We are setting sail tonight for the cruising portion of the trip, starting on the Neva River in the Volga-Baltic system. Should be interesting scenery when we wake up tomorrow - it's dark now so we are missing a lot. I guess thats what happens when we pick the cheap tickets: not only do we get cooler weather (not a matter for us) but we get early darkness to less our view times.

Toronto

My time in Toronto has come to an end...
It was a a jam packed week, and a great one at that. I checked out the ROM on Monday, the AGO on Tuesday, went to class with Eric on Wednesday and a ball game last night!
Monday and Tuesday I spent wandering around the city and learning at the same time. The ROM was cool as usual - they had a travelling exhibit about South American dinosaurs! AGO didn't have anything spectacular, unlike when I went last year to see the David Blackwood exhibit. Though I did find an A.Y. Jackson painting of Yellowknife! I knew he went up there a few times to paint as there are a couple sketches of his at the Museum at home... but this one is fantastic! Those two days were also spent walking around downtown, checked out the waterfront and got my nails done (highlight of the trip?) Tuesday night we met up with a friend of mine, Terry, who took us out to dine in Greek Town. It really was Greek. Haha, I just thought it was going to be an area that was called that but wasn't really Greek... boy was I wrong, all the signs were in Greek, tons of Greek restaurants and Greek stores! It was pretty cool. Terry ordered an assortment for us, which was fabulous! Various dips, lamb, calamari, grape leaf wraps and pan fried cheese. All so yummy.

On Wednesday I went to York to sit in on one of Eric's classes. It was quite the jaunt out to York from Janes, but made it successfully and really enjoyed the class! It was his historigraphy class, the topic that day was Material Culture. My forte. It was neat, they had a huge discussion on the importance of them, and whether the "story" comes from the object itself, or if stories are imprinted upon the objects. Then we learnt how to describe an object without implying what you might think it is.
It was a pretty fun class, and made me want to go back to school, but walking through those halls with the vast amount of students didnt.
That night we went out for a Korean BBQ - soooo good!  Followed by martinis.
Yesterday was a final getting ready to leave day, I had some errands to run and a lunch date with Tim and Kate. It was a nice visit, saw photos of their girls and just caught up. I haven't seen Kate in about five years I think. We ate in the underground world of Toronto, so crazy. It is seriously another city down there - Tim said there are grocery stores, clothing stores, restaurants, everything. They connect to all the office buildings, the mall, the subway and numerous condos. Some people never have to go out side!
Then Jane and I met up with some of her friends and Eric for a ball game - Jays vs. Yankees. It was a pretty uneventful game. The stands were empty! Whole sections without a single person. The Jays won 6-0, so that was good. Nothing like going to a game and the home team losing :(

So after a great week in Toronto, I set off tonight for Russia!

Choo choo

On Friday I made a slight detour to Northern Ontario - The North as it's referred to around here.
I wanted to go visit my cousin Katie and her little family, which I have never met, well other than Pete at their wedding. Anyways, I had plans of driving up with my uncle, but those sadly fell through :( Instead, my other uncle suggested I take the train up to see her! Great idea, I love riding trains instead of buses. This suggestion was even better because to get to North Bay by train, I need to take the Northlander. This is a train operated by Ontario Northland, but unfortunately, it is being CLOSED this weekend. There will no longer be train service there. Tragic. See the website for more information : http://www.developingthenorth.com/ - I am not sure why it is closing, I was told for political reasons, and so I didn't ask.

Anyways, the train left Toronto on Friday morning and we chugged northwards through the changing foliage  It was really quite pretty. As we got further north, the farm fields disappeared and lakes and rock started appearing. Actually looked somewhat like home. The train was really a great idea, much nicer than taking the dreaded bus! The chairs we really big and comfy, they reclined and also had feet rests - blew the seats that I had on the train from London out of the water!

Arrived in North Bay in late afternoon and made my way to Katie's place. Her kiddies are cuties! I spent the weekend there with her, it rained and they were all sick, so we didn't do much. But that was perfect. After all the rushing around I've been at, it was nice just to chill out.

I came back down to Toronto on Sunday. Standing at the train station is how I imagine it must have been like across Newfoundland when they took out the train there. I've seen the pictures of everyone lined up to get their photos taken with it when it stopped for the last time. Similar to that, the train station was full of people taking photos when it pulled up. The train up was empty, but getting on Sunday it was packed. Turns out it was a lot of people just riding one stop over, for one last ride. Taking tons of photos. All along the tracks throughout the trip, there were people standing, waving, taking photos.

As I stated before, I am glad I decided to take the train - I would not have gone if I was going to take the bus. Plus it was beautiful! Well up until Gravenhurst - which sounds like it should be from Harry Potter. Then the trees turned into farms and the trees stopped being red :(

Done with the east coast

Well, I am moving westward now - left Newfoundland on Saturday via Nova Scotia, making my way to Ontario this evening.

The last week at Granddads was pretty relaxing. I stuck it out indoors as Tropical Storm Leslie blew over. It was pretty uneventful in Central, just a lot of rain. St. John's got blown around so I am glad I missed out on that! Thursday Granddad and I drove out to Glover's Harbour to check out the life size replica of a giant squid which washed up on shore there in the 1800s. Hard to imagine that they swim in the ocean with us! Its tentacles measured up to 35ft long, with a body at 20ft long. I seriously reconsidered that swim I had in the morning! haha, nah, they're too big to make it in to the Exploits - or so I hope!

Saturday I flew into Halifax to visit Sean, Jacquline and baby Jacob for the weekend. It was a great time! They live in Wolfville, so I got to see the Annapolis Valley for the first time, very pretty. Sean was telling me that the area was a big shipping area during Loyalist times. Hard to imagine because the water was so low, thats because of causeways being built which caused more silt build up... or something like that.

Sunday we drove around and admired the area, and hit up a sunflower field maze. The same as a corn field maze, but with sunflowers. Pretty self-explainitory. Anyways, I was excited for this, and so was Jacq, sadly when we arrived and could barely see any flowers :( they were all going to seed, drooped over and wilting. It was still cool, but would have been sooooo much cooler had all the flowers not been dying. Another cool thing that Sean told me was that sunflowers are all tiny little flowers which make up the center, and those are what go to seed. The big yellow petals are actually leafs, not petals. Did not know this. That night we went out for a nice diner next to the bay, the tide was out and it was all mud. Super cool. It was like a liquid coulee. The diner was not only great, but it was eyeopening to what having a 11month old is like! Nearly impossible to dine with! Haha, I'm not knocking it, it was great.... but definitely a hand full and I am shocked they even suggested going out for supper.

Today my friend from Uni drove out and picked me up! We spent the afternoon driving around and walked out on one of the Acadian Dykes. Another engineering marvel!

St. John's!

On Friday I drove out to St. John's with Janine to visit university friends. Poured rain the drive out! (of course it did)
Arrived in St. John's that afternoon only to turn around again with Sam and Mark to go out to his parents cabin in New Perlican. It was a great time! Super nice cabin too. We played cards all night  with another couple they're friends with. The next morning we went into Heart's Content for breakfast - I love the names out here :) Then spent the afternoon shooting clay pigeons, and I hit one on my third try! The trigger was really hard, didnt bruise my shoulder, but rattled my teeth.

Drove back into the city that night and went to see Lawless. It was a really good film, well, Sam and I thought so anyways. Didn't go downtown though! I think it's the first time I've been to St. John's and not gone downtown.

Sunday, Sam and I met up with two other girls from our class and got all caught up, Maryanne I haven't seen since I left! It was nice to see everyone again:) Mind you, it was really weird to be with the girls and Ange and Jenny not be there :(
Had supper over at Linda's like old times, checked out Signal Hill at night (always nice) while I waited for another friend of mine to drive in from Paradise. We met up at Shamrock City for a drink. I guess that kinda counts as downtown? Anyways, it used to be a bar that Jess, Ashley and I went to a lot in uni, but now it's a live music pub. I much prefer it as the pub! The music was great! I am so glad I got to see some. I know I would have really regretted going into the city and not seeing any live music.

Sadly drove back to granddads this afternoon through blustery winds. Hurricane Leslie is supposed to hit the island tomorrow morning, though by the time I made it back to granddads, it has been down graded to a tropical storm.

Anyways! Another great weekend in St. John's. Next time I need to go in for longer....

Sandy Point week 1

Arrived at Sandy Point and surprised Granddad - and by surprised, I mean, confused him.

Spent the weekend waterskiing and visiting, all in anticipation for the big Labour Day festivities. 

Labour Day is a big deal around here, the day starts off with a parade lead by uncle David. He gets all dressed up in his Air Force uniform, and this year he awarded himself and ordered a bunch of medals to adorn his uniform with. Aunt Audrey wore his daily uniform, and Robert had an extra coat and cap. We all parade behind them with flags and instruments to each of the cousins houses along Sandy Point. 

After the parade comes the family picnic dinner. This year there were more than 80 people! Some new addendees, some who haven't been in a while (myself) and all the regulars. The day concluded with a horseshoe tournament, which saw a show down of all Peyton players, so guarantee no in-laws were winning (haha). That night I spent with Janine, we set off fireworks in celebration. 

After Labour Day, everyone headed home and the point went quiet :( That wasn't the end of my eek though: on Tuesday Janine and I drove up to Twillingate for the day and stopped at the Prime Berth - what a spot! We stopped to see the whale skeleton and were blown away by all the random stuff this couple has collected and set up on replica (or old) fishing stages. I've been scanning granddads old photos and Janine and I had a time one night making an Ugly Stick! We dug out all her old cassettes that we used to listen to (cept Ace of Base, the case was empty!) Anyways we had a great time! 

My fantastic first week ended on Friday when Janine and I drove into St. John's. - See next entry for that. 

Peyton Cousins - photo by Paul Daly - http://www.pauldaly.net/?page=contact

Travelling again!

Well, I'm off on another grand adventure!
Mum and I just got our pre-trip package in the mail, which reminded me that I should write on here...

I'm jet setting tomorrow to Newfoundland to surprise my grandfather for a couple weeks. Should be great, and he'll be thrilled - I hope he dosent get a heart attack from it. I'm gonna stick around there, drive into the city to visit Sam and the other girls from school, then hopefully head to up L'anse aux Meadows with granddad to check that out!
After a couple weeks there I'm making my way back to Ontario, with a stop over in NS to see Sean and Jacqueline for a weekend. Amped for that, I've never really been to NS other than Halifax. They live in Wolfeville so that'll be a nice little drive. Then on to London to see some family and possibly a friend from school. Then on to North Bay (I know, waaay out of the way) to see Katie and her little family. This will all conclude with a week in Toronto with Eric and Jane and a baseball game!!
This is where it gets exciting...
Mum and I are going to Russia! Eep! We're going on a river cruise (I know it's for seniors) from St. Petersburg to Moscow. Holy hannah I cannot wait! I dont want to take away from my month off work right now so I'll leave it at that... and update a little closer to leaving.

Last day of field work

Well, today was my last day of field work :( We might go out one day next week, but highly unlikely...
To sum up what I have been at in town is quite simple: paddling the Yellowknife River. Glen and I started heading out pretty much everyday week day after we got back from Jean Marie River in June. The weather was unbelievable, some days reaching 30c! The goal for this project was to ideally find coney fish bones, and pre-contact sites. Both big hopes - coneys havent been in the river since the 60s and the river is so constantly used that any possible sites would be highly disturbed.
We checked out around the mouth of the river, denadda. Some old prospecting shacks and a pile of old cores. We paddled up river from the bridge, denadda. A huge permafrost slump where you can see the ice melting out! The ground was crumbling from beneath us... and Glen stepped in the soft wet till which had morphed into quick sand! Crazy!
We finally had success at Tartan Rapids, we would paddle over from Cassidy point and just wander around. Everything there were surface finds, whereas we had spent the first few weeks digging deep, deep test pits.
At one place Glen found five flakes on the ground and managed to put them back together again and recreated a hide softener! Pretty much the highlight of the work out there.
Today, our last day, was spent hiking. We followed a trail overland to the river from the highway. Super awesome trail that I will be bringing Corona to. Nice and high above the lake. There was a wonderful breeze which meant ZERO bugs. Just an all around great finish to the field season. I even found a lithic scatter there!
Too bad I cannot continue on with Glen in September :(

Another week at work

Spent another week out at Ekahli Lake. Glen and I went back to finish up what we couldn't accomplish in June when we were rained out. I was absolutely exhausted after a rocking weekend at Folk on the Rocks, so slept most of the drive and crashed hard after setting up my tent.

The weather was fantastic. Couldn't have asked for anything better: nothing below 25c during the days and about 16 over nights. It was so hot that there were scaresly any bugs! Yes, bulldogs, but they are manageable compared to clouds of mosquitos.
We climbed over beaver dams every morning, Ernest and Billy pulled them apart so we could float through them on our way home every night. The beaver rebuilt them every morning. It was an entertaining process that I got a kick out of - Ernest and Billy got ticked off with the beaver even more every morning.
Our first thwo days consisted of surveying Sanguez Lake for new archaeology sites. That was hard. We only found two! The lake was a little more difficult to survey - no major points with defined terraces like on Ekahli and Gargan Lakes. We stopped at many places, with no luck. The days were so nice though, it's impossible to complain.
Combined out there we saw three moose, one swiming super close, wolf tracks, collected fresh water mussels (which we later cooked up and ate for supper), picked berries and set rabbit snares (I learnt how to set them, I didn't leave them up to catch anything).

On Thursday we set up a large 1m x 1m excavation site where Todd had found a microblade and a ton of flakes in June. Our hope was to find some hearths and charcoal so we could date the luck. The site was chalked full of flakes and microblades. No hearth though. But we did take some charcoal for cabon dating. Mind you it's probably only a burnt root or something.

Thursday was fun because Billy taught me how to make birch bark bowls! And.... Glen found a halfted blade on the surface! Super cool. They are supposedly older than are arrow technology, I'm guessing ballpark age of 1200ya... which is super cool!

Friday we decided to let the beavers alone and stayed on Ekahli. We went back to a site we didnt finish in June, which ended up being a jackpot site. Lots of retouched flakes, and of course, more microblade.

We came home yesterday, and I must say it was a great week - both weather wise (which sucked last time) and for sites found. Over the three lakes, we found 17 new sites!

Rained out!

Well, my wish for no rain was spit back in my face.
We arrived in JMR after a SLOW morning and a little mishap of the fire extinguisher back of the truck going off and us having to unpack and clean everything. Eventually we arrived and set up our tents on the bank of the Mackenzie.
We had our Protected Area Strategy meeting, got deadly hats that I informed Glen we needed to wear all the time! He was not pleased... but he did it anyways :)
Friday we set off into the bush with Mike, and our two community pals, Billy and Ernest!
We hiked  into to Gargan Lake from the highway, took about an hour and a half the first time in. There had been a major storm there over May Long and knocked over tons of trees! We spent that first trek clearing windfall, re-routing the trail and blazing trees. Eventually we made it to a little cabin on the lake and had lunch. We then proceeded to walk right back out again and portage in a canoe! 
We returned the next two days and got the hike in down to about 45min. Not too shabby. We paddled around there, saw two beavers and found a bunch of flakes. All in all a good couple days, and it only rained at night! Until.... Monday. Monday was a downpour, and freezing! We went and had hot showers at Sambaa Deh, where I literally just stood under the hot water - forget the washing of the hair. The rest of the day/night we sat in the car and played cribbage. That night Tom, Albert (a visiting archaeologist from Switzerland), and Todd (a PhD student from U of A) all showed up. 
The rest of the week we paddled around Ekahli Lake looking for new sites, and trying to stay dry from all the freakin' rain! It wasn't so bad with the rain - that's a lie, it was pretty shitty,  all my clothes were damp and it got really cold - but it was worse working in the wet dirt. That was what sucked. 
We did find new sites though! Though we joked that Albert must have gotten a real sense of appreciation for Swiss archaeology - we would sift through endless shovel tests only to come up with three or four flakes a day! Mean while in Switzerland he excavates entire pile dwellings and ice patches in the Alps from neolithic times to now! How boring hahah.
The rain was persistent and when Tom and Albert left on Friday, Glen made the ultimate decision that if it was raining on Saturday, we'd leave. Very counter-productive working in the wet dirt... and so it goes that Friday was our best day!

Famous microblade

We got a tow over to Sanguez Lake from Ernest and Billy,  they had a kicker on their canoe, so we held on to their gunnels and were pulled over! We spent the morning at one site, digging holes and finding nothing, so after lunch we went to another place where BAM Todd found a surface flake! We did a couple holes which yielded like 6 flakes- major break through. Then Todd hit the motherload, a shovel test with like 20 flakes and a microblade (my favourite tool :)). But then it started to rain, and rained most of the night.
So we packed up and came home Saturday, and plan to head back out around then end of July when the water table willbe a little lower.

Please no rain.

Well, it's that time of year again! Field season!
Last week Glen and I drove out to Yellowknife River to do some brief reconnaissance for our up coming work with the Yellowknives. It was kinda of disheartening. The area which had been used for generations, continued to be used into modern times and the area was bulldozed and covered in gravel - potentially ruining any accurate stratifications.
Anyways, we walked around, did a couple shovel tests which revealed hardly any organic soils and a crap ton of glacial lake sediments. Bad news. But we were only there to scope it out, we go full throttle in July!
Tomorrow is another big day. Glen and I hit the road again for Jean Marie River!
We are working with the community on the cultural inventory for the PAS again this summer, which I am pumped for. What I am not pumped for is the bugs. Dear lord. I took Corona swimming tonight, and as soon as we passed the old rec hall at Con, we walked into a wall of bugs. Puke. I cannot even begin to imagine what will be in store for us in the Dehcho.
We're walking into Gargan Lake on Friday, setting up camp there for the weekend, walking back out on Monday to meet Tom, a visiting archaeologist (Albert) from Switzerland and a PhD student (Todd) from U of A. We'll all then camp at Ekhali Lake, where Glen and I were surveying last summer and fall.

Hopefully, we'll have some deadly finds, gorgeous weather and good time, with minimal bugs :)

To Pang and back

Pang was fantastic.
We made it up Duval, dined atop amongst all the inuksuit. Dad never joined us, but it was nice. The snow wasnt facing the sun, so we could walk on it with no problem, unlike when we were coming back from the river and dropping though every couple steps.

The view was great.
Obviously would have been nicer if it was clear, but the weather was not on our side. It never got above 1c, but realistically, if it had been any warmer, it might have been too warm to walk, and pretty sloppy. The only thing I would have liked to change would have been the wind. Honestly though, it was only unbearable on Monday. The other days it was pretty manageable.

We walked out towards the sound, and the landscape that away looks like a giant had been playing marbles with the boulders and didnt clean up - boulders scattered the slope. So cool, massive ones  too!

We also went down to a little "island" that mum used to play on forever when she was a kid, as she put it, many adventures were enacted on it. Then we made our way out on the tidal flats. The tide was out so we walked out to the real ice. The rocks and mud were speckled with clams and barnacles, and it smelt like the ocean, even though it was only ice.

Dad left on Monday because he was worried about not getting out in time today to make his connections south tomorrow. Good thing. Mum`s flights got cancelled on Tuesday, Canadian North didnt make it in on Monday either, or today for that matter. Turns out they never make it in, First Air makes it in everyday day, Canadian North is super hit or miss. I changed my flight and came out with mum yesterday on First Air (they made it in when CN said the weather was bad in Pang?)

Anyways I'm glad I did! Thomas and Patricia came by the hotel to say goodbye, then I went out with Pat to see James - not my little James any more! Met his little panik,oh my she's adorable! She spent the afternoon with Patricia and I, all I wanted to do was squeeze her!
Long story short - awesome trip! Planning to return in September!

The old goat

Well my first two days  here have been splendid! Yesterday mum, dad and I just wandered around the hill behind my uncles for the afternoon - a little cloudy, but still nice. Not cold, probably 1c, and hardly any wind. Still snow, but no big deal. Pretended I was a caribou crossing all the various snow patches across the hill, trying not to sink up to my waist in it. Mum and I did pretty well.

Wont budge.

I'm loving all the boulders here. They're so spectacular! The force that was needed to move all those boulders, and they are massive! And there are so many, it's not like one random boulder across a vast espanse, its like hundreds littering the land.
Anyways, after our little walk we made our way over to mums friend Hannah's. I showed her the liners I had made from copying the ones she made for us all way back when. She was pleased, but said they looked too small... of course they do, I have mini feet.
Inspired by her praise, I came back to start sewing my duffle liners for the seal skin mitts I'm going to make when ITI gets their act together back home and has more seal skins in stock... I digress - I worked on the liners and hope to have them finished so I can show them off to Meeka when I pass back through Frob on Wednesday.
Today we set off down the Duval River - so many boulders! It was a nice little hike up the river, we started off at 71m above sea level (asl) and made our way over rocks and hummocks, which was crawling with spiders! I'm so glad there are no other creepy bugs here, blah.

Water!

Mum and I stopped for a little water break, dad objected, he had a smart tea break - the water wasnt that great.
Soon after dad returned back along the river, so mother and I ventured up, reaching eventually 389m asl.  The farther up we went the more snow there was. Down in the river valley there was no snow, or only in the deep crevasces, up there it was vast snow and still heavily skidooed across.
Dad left us radios, so we tried to check in with him, only worked when I was up on one of the massive bouders... from there we decided to to turn around and head back to town. We were promised BLTs when we got back to the house.
We stopped for a little tea break with a lone inuksuk and then followed the skidoo highway back down.

I also just dropped down as I was taking a photo of mum falling through

BAD idea, the snow was so rotten, we keep walking then suddenly drop down to mid thigh through the snow. Hah, pretty funny at the time, every couple steps we'd sink and just giggle away.That small stretch probably took us an hour alone to cross because we kept having to stop and empty our boots after pulling each other out.
After four or so hours we made our way back down the hill to uncle Jeffs, where we were served BLTs on our arrival :)
Tomorrow I'm hoping to go up Mt. Duval, but the forcast is changing rapidly and now it's nothing but clouds forcasted for the rest of the week. This means terrible photos - clouds blocking the views :( and that there will be tons of snow to make our way over again. Not that I'm too concerned about that. Just the lack of sun which would help with the melting and the pretty photos...
All the more reason to come back! As we were hiking we covered so many berry fields that went unpicked last year. No one picks berries better that me! (I like to think, obviously there are much better seasoned pickers than myself). So I'll have to come back in the fall! Or realistically next summer.
Fingers crossed for clear skies tomorrow.

Amisuualoo

In Iqaluit now! Spent the night with two of my favorite cousins - plying darts and dancing. I <3 them.
Took off this morning from YK, had a layover in Rankin and then arrived in YFB. Turns out Thomas was going to pick me up, but 3G phones dont work here. Sad thing is that I knew that! I just assumed that I could make my iPhone non-3G. Big mistake! After some miss-communication I ended up at Meeka's for supper. My annana, inuktitut for mother, showed me all her fabulous sewing. How I would kill for a week learning how to sew with her. Instead I am resolved to sewing on my own, then calling her on Wednesday when I pass back through to gain her approval. I know I will, but it's different sewing with some one against having them approve it...  Her daughter Becky made us supper and showed us these awesome films she's made - check them out! They've gone viral in the Inuk world, and the real world too!
After supper I went back to the bar, Patricia join us and we danced/darted the night away. Sadly she informed me that her grad is at 2pm tomorrow and my flight to Pang is at 3pm! Curses! I called but because my flight is "already in progress" I cannot change it - fingers crossed for the weather going down in Pang for the day tomorrow! I would LOVE to go to her grad tomorrow. Instead I'll be preparing myself for hiking Friday. Bring on Mt. Duval!
Sadly my photos from today wont load... 

YXP bound

Next big trip coming up! I'm heading to Pangnirtung!
Initially it was to go hiking with my mum and visit my uncle there, but he had to go South for an operation. We're still going, but I wont be getting any shooting lessons from uncle Jeff, nor will we have any other company while there :(
We have to over night in IQ which will be nice, Thomas wont be around, but I'll get to see Patricia and have supper with Meeka. Nathaniel will be south with Barb and Bradaen - Barb's having a baby next Wednesday. Hopefully I can get some sewing ideas from the stores there! I'll definitely be hitting up the weave shop in Pang.
I'm  pumped for the hiking, there will still be a lot of snow on the ground, but that's ok! We're going to make it up Mt. Duval one day, follow the river another, hopefully head over to Kingnait, and possible out to the sound. I will not be heading into the Park, everyone seems so shocked when I say that. Seriously, there is so mych more to the place than the Park. Been there/done that.
I really hope the weather agrees - last time I tried to make it into Pang I got weathered out in Iqaluit the whole time. Not that it was bad, I had a blast and a half with Patricia and Thomas! But I really am just hoping for nice spring hiking :) It's been pretty steady around 0c for the past week - fingers crossed!!

San Francisco

Arrived in San Fran on Thursday night, walked around and had sushi for supper. It was goood. I've only ever had sushi at home, so this was a treat! It came covered in roe which I wasn't expecting, but thoroughly enjoyed. We also accidently ordered random veggies tempuraed, which was also really good, minus the catelope, man I do not like cantelope. But that's besides the point.

Full House

We did one of those standard big city bus tours, and it was so sunny out that dad and I both burnt our faces! We took the bus all over - I'm amazed at hoe visually appealling San Fran is, and it's all clean! The houses are so colourful, they actually remind me of parts of St. John's, and therefore I could see myself living here. Ha. I really think that this city is nice though - similar to my admiration of Budapest. Not for for historic reasons, but visual.
The bus tour took us to the Japanese gardens (did you know that San Fran invented the fortune cookie for a fair!? - I know its nothing related to the Japanese gardens) the fisherman's warf where we saw sea lions, to the Full House houses, across the golden gate bridge and just all around the downtown core.Once I again I want to say how pretty this city is!
Last night we went to an Oakland Atheltics game, their homeopener against Seattle. They lost bad.

The game however reaffirmed my descision that if I ever moved somewhere that had a home team in a pro sport I would try and get season tickets. I think baseball is boring, but watching in person is always a good time. Dad even got me a hat to wear for the night :) Plus I got to rack up two new teams to my MLB viewing record. Pus I like how everyone is so into their team and all decked out in their team clothing/colours.
Today we road the cable cars - pretty much like the bus. Maybe if I had road in the open part, or stood on the edge, I would have enjoyed it a little more? It just felt like an old crowded bus. Walked around the warf area again. Checked China Town, which I enjoyed! They had paper lantern things strung across the streets, the buildings were brightly coloured and everything was cheap! I got a beautiful scarf, and I probably could have bought more... but I restrained myself.

Floating sushi

Lunch consisted of more sushi! Thought dad would want Chinese food, since we were in China town (and I feel like it would be great here - I equal San Fran to the American Van City). Anyways, it was a sushi bar that had floating boats from which you could pick which ever ones you wanted as they floated by, I loved it! They selection wasnt as varied as at home, but... it was more fun to eat! There was also random jello and hotdogs in  dough floating around too. I spent the rest of the day shopping - terrible thing to say, but there were great deals! Thank you Easter.
Speaking of Easter, it's not a holiday in the states. Both Good Friday or Easter Monday. I find this super strange considering how religious America is and because just today I heard people preaching on the side walk about how Jesus is my friend and He will save me and that the American public is going to hell in a hand basket. Blah blah blah.
All in all this was a fantastic trip. I would love to come back here, and I must say that as of right now I think it is better than NOLA. Maybe it's just the weather, or I felt like I did more, or that it is just prettier. I dont know. But I'm sure glad I came :)

California

Arrived in California on Monday, got our swank convertible and hit the highway! We drove down to Montery to spend the night. Pretty nice, big waves, but a little on the cool side. Saw fields full of artichokes which was cool. Tried grilled artichoke at supper, surprising good, much better than the ones in the jars, thats for sure.

 The next morning we hit up the Monterey Aquarium, so amazing! I really wanted to go, the Jellyfish on the website looked cool, and boy they did impress! It was like floating in space. Even dad agreed that it was one of the best aquariums he's been too. The were touching pools, we I got to touch starfish, sea cucumbers, purple urchins and rays. The rays were soft, the starfish were really grainy. Definitely not how I imagined them to feel. All spiny and bleh. There were otters, and they were super cute, I wanted to cuddle with them! The seahorses were weird. I'm still unsure what I think of seahorses. There were tons of different types too - tiny ones, thin ones, ones that looked like kelp, and big fat ones.
I'm so pleased that dad agreed to go there in the morning. The cannery area of Monterey was nice too, I would have enjoyed walking around there, but we were on a sched.

Highway 1 that follows the coast was closed because of a landslide so we had to drive in the interior. Not what I was expecting at all. It was all mountany. Varied between lush, and sparse trees.
We spent the rest of the day in the Paso Robles area. Very pretty, and over 250 local wineries - heaven or disaster? We went on a vineyard tour of Tablas Creek, up in the hills in the area. Learnt a lot about grapes and the geology of the area - limestone soils is great for Rhone grapes. We then tried seven of their wines, which were great. I hated to leave, it was so beautiful up there - sunny and hot too!
We went back down into the town to the various tasting rooms. We encountered a few people familiar with Yellowknife and Ice Road Truckers.
Honestly, who isnt in the States? I walk in, they ask where am I from, Canada, where in Canada? Northern Canada, by Alaska, have you seen the show Ice Road Truckers? YES!? That's my town. NO WAY! Amazing.
So anyways, we drank galons of wine down in the show rooms. It was you get a sampling of 6/7 glasses of wine for 5-10$, a fee which is waived if you buy a bottle.

Elephant seals sun bathing

This morning I stuggled at getting up, but we needed to get on the go... today we hoped to drive back up highway 1 to get to Carmel. Along the way we went to the Hearst Castle. This random mansion in perched on a hilltop overlooking the ocean. Spectacular view. This guy, Mr. Hearst built this castle by importing parts of castles/monestaries/churches from throughout Europe. A ceiling from here, a fireplace from there. Quite the grand, the pools were the neatest. I wish we could have gone swimming in them :(

We left the castle and drove a ways up, but the road was sill closed from the rockslide. But we did get to see a beach full of seals. We made our way back north to Carmel - Clint Eastwood used to be the mayor, random. We're here tonight, checking out Pebble Beach tomorrow and then heading into San Fran till Sunday.

Spring snowboarding

I used up lieu time from work to come down to Calgary and go snowboarding with Marcena! Super exciting!  Came down on thursday and went to see my old roommate Ashley from university. I wish we coulda hung out more but she had school obligations and I had little time :( 
Friday morning Marcena, her friend Chelsea and I drove out to Sunshine for a day of snowboarding. The drive was nice but by the time we got there, the weather was atrocious! It was non stop snowing, at one point hailing. The wind at the top of Standish was unreal! I was super nervous at first. I took a snowboarding lesson in grade 8, but that was just one, and I've never been snowboarding since. It was pretty adventurous of me to go again without a lesson in 10+ years. But... I did it anyways.
Getting off the chair lift was terrifying, but I never fell getting off!! First good sign. Made it down without hurting myself - second good sign. The rest of the day went smoothly, minus the awful weather.
After a day of big falls and somersaults down the various runs, my wrists really hurt, but it was a very successful day and I was so pleased with myself! Turning on to my toe was probably the hardest part, and I questioned the direction I chose to ride, both felt pretty comfortable. I've realized I get unsure over my handedness in lots of things. The snowboarding I was certain I was goofy cause of skating, when I got up there I wasnt sure... and even after a couple runs I was unsure... but i stuck with it, I rotate to the right in skating, sooo turning to the right only makes sense.
That was a lot of rambling.
We stayed the night in Canmore, then headed out to Lake Louise the next day. We got stuck behind a car accident for a good hour which cut into our time on the hill. When we got there, it was beautiful and sunny! The runs were a lot longer there, I liked that. Cause all three of us are beginningers, and Marcena and Chelsea had been there before, we only stayed on a couple runs they were familiar with. I say that was the one drawback from skiing. I could go all over skiing!
My shoulders, forearms and neck were really sore, so I only did a couple runs - probably for the best, it was packed there and the snow picked up so it was hard for me to read the snow and i was getting more and more nervous over falling because I was so sore. All in all it was a great couple days! It was really nice to go with others who are also beginners. I'm sure if I was skiing it wouldnt have been as fun cause I would have been doing runs alone. I cannot wait to come back next year!!

Came back to Calgary Saturday night and didnt meet up with anyone I had planned to, haha, Marcena and I just vegged out because of exhaustion. On Sunday I met up with Ben for lunch, then Marcena and I biked to the zoo to see penguins! We saw everything except penguins as we missed the last line by 5 min - we stopped to get hot chocolates and a penguin cookie. Drat. But it was still fun! They had glass walls of flutterby  pupas and cacoons, some were emerging while we were there - bugs are cool!
We spent the rest of the night watching Mad Men and Game of Thrones - nerds.
Off to California in the morning!

More AWGs

Day 6!! What a busy week... the past couple days I have been drowning in volleyball, arctic sports and snowboarding.
I have been having a fantastic time here in Whitehorse with all the sports. My girls volleyball has been doing well, they played their long time rivals (long time as in from Westerns this summer, ha) in the semi finals. Sadly they lost and will be playing Nunavut in the Bronze ulu match tomorrow. The boys have semis tonight against Yukon too - fingers crossed for them! The volleyball has been good - the boys very close!


Kids practicing the head pull at Arctic Sports



Yesterday I spent the day watching halfpipe snowboarding. Two of Team NWT snowboarders medaled, which is terrific! Especially considering there is no half pipe in the territories! It was a chilly day up there, but tons of new snow!

After that I came down the mountain to catch some of the arctic sports - Alaskan High Kick. Man, if I had the chance to do sports over again I would have totally wanted to do arctic sports. It's like one big party. Everyone hanging out in the gym. Everytime you attempt something, you fellow competator and other coaches come up to give you advice on how to make it next time. So cool!



Veronica's one foot high kick at 6 feet 8 inches



So, I watched the Alaskan High Kick yesterday and then the one foot high kick today. Holy it is amazing! Our girl Veronica sadly missed a medal today for the High Kick :(  missing the 6 feet 10 inches mark, but the open category for women broke a new record! So that was cool.

Tomorrow is the second last day :( it feels like everything's flown by, whereas on Tuesday if felt like I had been here for ever! I'm sad that it's ending, I've had a blast and cannot wait to submit my application to come in 2014!

Arctic Winter Games 2012

So it's now day 2 of competition at the Arctic Winter Games here in Whitehorse. I must say it is a beautiful city!!  I'm volunteering here with Sport North as mission staff for volleyball and snowboarding. What a time! Sure is fun! I love these huge events and it's neat to be on the other side... No longer an athlete.  We had opening ceremonies on Sunday night... Same as always, lots of standing :( 
And crazy uniforms, which I love... Wish our orange pants fit! 

Spent yesterday up at Mount Sima cheering on the NWT snowboarders while they did the runs in slopestyle boarding. Pretty sweet, I don't know anything about snowboarding but had a blast... One of our boys narrowly missed 3rd place :(

Today I'm spending the afternoon at the Canada Games Centre. I heard the Russian figure skaters are busting out triples! At AWGs!!?! Then it's the rest of the night in the gym section with my volleyball teams! Go NWT!

Travelling in 2012

Well, I feel like writing, even though I am not going any where for another month. Come one month though, I'll be a travelling machine! I'm actually really excited for March. It's going to be jam packed!
The first week of March I'll be in Whitehorse working for the Arctic Winter Games. I get to watch my volleyball girls play, without all the time consuming coaching which drained the life out of me this summer. Hopefully get to work the Arctic Sports venue as well - that's my favourite!

After Whitehorse, I come home for one day and then fly out to Fort Simpson and drive over to Jean Marie River for work. I'm excited for that. I've got real responsibility at work! I'll be running a workshop to help the community submit their traditional place names for recognition as Official Geographic Names to appear on federal maps. Fingers crossed on some moose meat too. I've been working on scheduling this trip since October, so I'm glad it's going to happen - means more work for me in the future!

On St. Patrick's Day I'll be doing the Frostbite 45 again. This time on my own; Jane and I did it together two years ago. Sadly I couldn't find anyone crazy enough to split it with me, so I'm going to attempt the whole 45km myself this year. I've been snooping around for more tips and going to get a couple more lessons prior to the event this year. Plus better clothes so I'm not soaked at the causeway.

The last weekend of March I'm going to go down to Calgary to get some skiing - possibly snowboarding? - in with Marcena! My old housemate, Ashley, lives there too and I've been trying to get her to join us. As of right now I have very low expectations of that happening, let alone her finding time to see me. I will keep hustling her! I only have a one way ticket booked for now. I have to take a break in service from work so that I can keep working through the summer (and not have to volunteer to do field work) and that requires a break. I've got the week leading up to Easter off and no clue what to do with it! I have had a few ideas - go visit Jane and Eric in Toronto with a side trip to St. Thomas to see my nana; go to Vancouver, never really been there; go to Newfoundland but the weather in April blows; or go somewhere with my dad like Chicago. Who knows.

That is just one month! I'll continue my brief summary of trips...

I obtained a free trip for two anywhere Canadian North flies to use by June, so I am taking my mother to Pang to see uncle Jeff et al. and so I can do some  hiking. I don't plan on going into the park. I know, how can I say that! Easily. The ice won't be out of the fiord yet and there is equally nice hiking over to Kingnait or up the Kuulik. The benefits of having a mother from there who I'm dragging along with me is that she knows where to go. I'm super excited for it though. I wish I could go in August, when all the colours will be on the land... but I got it for free so I cannot complain.

Come June I'll hopefully be back at Ekahli Lake (see Jean Marie River take 2 and I love my job) for work. I'm hoping that I will be in and out of town with field work, but we'll see. I seem to have pretty bad luck at work of trips falling through.

Then in September, mum and I are going on another trip! To Russia! We just go our passports in the mail and now the planning begins.

Anyways, that's my rough plan for 2012 travelling. March is going to be hectic, but it'll all calm down come mid April. Regardless I'm excited now!