Terrible at this.

Man, I really slacked off on this blog lately.
My trip to Guatemala was wonderful. Tikal was breathtaking, the beach in Panama hot, and the randomness of the last weekend indescribable. I had a fantastic time with Cailan, and cannot wait until we reunite at her next teaching gig in.... Egypt!!
Returned to Canada and dove into spring with a lot of outdoors outings, skiing, hiking, more recently paddling and camping. Quick trips to Edmonton, Twin Falls and Hay River. Summing it up in this past weekend's trip back to Pensive Lake.

This year four of us returned to do the Pensive Lake Wilderness Tour that we did over Canada Day last year. Jocelyne and Julian came last year, Graham was new and the plan was to meet Daniel and Blair who were there last year too on Cameron and all descend the river together the last day. Turns out portaging in one go is a thousand times more productive than not. Jocelyne and I carried all the gear, and the boys carried the canoes.
We did the first leg, and camped at the same location as last year... about six hours faster. Ditto with the second day. The weather was fabulous, like last year, minus the headwinds.
We leisurely paddled all afternoon Saturday, passing last years camping and heading down to Lower Pensive Lake to meet Daniel, Blair, Graham and Andrew.

Sunday morning we headed back down Cameron, which I was nervous for, but I felt a lot better knowing that I'd have the choice of paddling with Joce or Julian, who have some idea what they're doing. We were totally successful this run down. There were a couple little delays in the rapids, but the water was so much lower, that they were not as intimidating.
All in all, great weekend in the sun! Cannot wait till next camping trip! Where I hopefully will be much more diligent at reporting.

Guatemala

Well, this morning I woke up in Guatemala City!
I've come down to visit my best friend Cailan, who's been living and teaching here for the past three years... and this will be her last. I needed to come down while I had a personal guide and a place to stay. 
Had a long day of flying yesterday, I wasn't actually sure we'd make it out of Edmonton... weather and mechanical delays :( But I made it to Houston and didnt miss my connection, like the majority of people sitting around me. Continued on to Guatemala City, where I went through customs and the guy didn't even look at me, got two new stamps in my passport and didn't get my bag x-rayed because I'm a foreigner. 
Outside was a mass throng of people waiting, and I heard my name haha. It was great. Cailan picked me up and we went out to this little bar to meet her boyfriend Jorges and their friends. The driving is chaotic and erratic, the bar was wooden outdoor benches and large bottles just continuously brought over. Got some salsa dancing lessons and some practical information about the country, how great it is and learnt some random words in Spanish. 

Tonight Cailan and I are going out to celebrate her being finished her Masters in International Education that she's been working on here... then were jumping in a van and driving overnight to Semuc Champey, a national park that every person at home that I told I was coming here insisted I go to.  After I'm not really sure. I want to go to Tikal, Pacaya Volcano, Antigua and who else knows. 

Apparently Holy Week is a BIG deal here. So I'm going to head to Antigua on Easter Sunday for mass and check out all the processions and other hoopla that's on the go. 

Other than that.... I'm just taking everyday in stride. 

Little Over Night

Well I decided to write about my nice little over night trip this weekend, since I missed writing about my last two trips - whoops.

Yesterday four of us headed out overland to Berry Hill to spend the night at the Ski Club's wall tent. 

We really lucked out, on saturday night it was a balmy -22c but when we finally headed out on Sunday morning it had warmed to -10c! and only got warmer. I don't think it got below -7c today actually. 

The walk was really nice, I wasn't sure what to expect as I have never gone overland from Vee Lake before... but there was a road from Vee Lake to the abandoned Ryan Mine, followed by a well used (to my surprise!) quad trail the rest of the way to Berry Hill. We contemplated walking over the lakes, I had been skating on Frame Lake on Wednesday.... good thing Daniel talked us out of it as the ice at Banting was only two to three inches max, creaked and cracked when we stood on it.

The tent frame was just great and we got it super warm! Took us about three hours to get there, we managed to cut wood, get water and heat the tent up within an hour then spent the rest of our day light target shooting. Great fun.
The night consisted of eating, playing various card games, including an Ontario vs. NWT cribbage tournament - NWT lost to Ontario like in most match-ups - and setting off our Chinese lanterns. 

The lanterns made for a fun time, it was super windy last night so lighting them was an adventure. Trying to find a non windy location was impossible, lighting them inside seemed logical. 

And it was, until we needed to get them outside... they either blew into the trees, back toward the tent or just engulfed themselves in flames. Right before all of us settling in for the night Daniel and Blair went to get water and came back with a massive Giant Water Bug that Daniel accidentally scooped out of the water hole. It was massive! We spotted swim by the next day too. 

Woke up to the sound of the ice freezing. Most interesting sound, a warping noise like when a saw is wiggled. It sounded like things were flying over the tent, mixed with deep growling noises.
We took our time leaving, playing frisbee down the trail, but with a goal of making it back to the truck before 4:30 when we loose the light. 

Great trip, but I wish I had dragged corona off with us. 

Iqaluit long weekend

For August long weekend I treated myself with an aeroplan adventure to Iqaluit.
What better way than to use up my aeroplan point which were expiring (recent changes to the programme no longer allow for the expiration of points... ). It's really quite a deal. While nearly impossible to get decent trips out of YK south, the north is your oyster as both Canadian North and First Air qualify for redemptions! I cashed in my 25,000 points and flew over to Iqaluit.

The reason you might ask, as everyone else and their dog has been, was to visit cousins and my newly minted cousins, harass my anaana for sewing tips and just wander the tundra is all its summer splendour. Something I haven't experienced since I was... five!

Went over on Friday and visited cousins. Wandered around Saturday in the terrible weather then had supper with my cousins Thomas and James and got to meet their new babies!

Sooo adorable. I told Thomas spending the weekend with is panik  was really making me want one. Eep! Baby fever. Oddly enough that ended on Sunday night when I spent the evening with James's older panik Jane and Allison's panik Veda. So many questions! Fun none the less :)

Sunday was actually a fantastic day. Went out to Sylvia Grinnell park for the day to wander around. Beautiful. Not to mention the weather was gorgeous as well. Hiked as far as my converse shoes would allow (I couldn't find my hikers, need to find them before next week!) Made my way back along the river out to the coast where I met up with Thomas at their tent. James, Jane and Aunt Jukeepa came out and went fishing for Char.

The tide was on its way in, James explained that was a bad time for fish - hence why none were caught by any one out there! So we dined on s'mores and hot dogs.

Went back into town and meet up with my anaana Meeka and John from YK. It was great to catch up! He's my newest hook up for passes east ;) 

Today I spent all day with Meeka sewing. 

I loved it. If only she came here more, or better yet, I went there more! She helped me figure out why my kammik weren't working, gave me a little scolding for them being Western style instead of Baffin style, before acknowledging that in fact I do live in the West. She also drew me out some patterns for mittens. Ah new projects for the winter! 

The day ended with Nathaniel and Braeden taking me to the aeroport to return home - where it's been over 20c! Ahhhhh! I could have got a tan! But... visiting was much more worth it :)

Pensive Lake Wilderness Tour

This past long weekend I headed out on the Pensive Lake Wilderness Tour with Daniel, a bunch of his friends and Kelly and her friend Jill - total of eight paddlers split between three canoes and two kayaks.

This had been a week in the planning, and all started to fall apart on Thursday night when people began to bail, leading to the invitation of other, and then even more so on Friday night when two key people were forced to bail at the utter last minute. Still, we forged on and met out at Tibbett Lake early Saturday morning! 

The first day of the trip was a scorcher, probably close to 26c out. Definitely was in the 20s when we left that morning at 8! We set off from Tibbett Lake and crossed Goop Lake (waist high goop at the shore) on to Upper Terry Lake where we stopped for a snack break and a swim - best idea ever. It was sooo nice and this is really where we actually all interacted and met each other in the group - Blair, Daniel, Garish, Jill, Jocelyn, Julian and Kelly - and swam in the unbelievably warm water! It was also after this stop that I realised my paddling partner had never steered a canoe before, and wouldn't let me.
We continued along with a bunch of tiny portages on to Saunders Lake where we stopped for lunch. Almost as bad as Garish portaging bottles of wine in!
This was a really long and narrow lake, and I dont know if Julian was genuinely offering to let me kayak, or if he was trying to commandeer the canoe to get some straight paddling on the go. Either way, he offered to let me try his kayak after. Super exciting. I had only kayaked once before - sea kayaking at field school in Fleur de Lys. Jocelyne said I looked like a natural, it was so fast, and I really enjoyed it. Sort of confirmed my desire to rent a kayak in the future! The only trade off was that I had to then portage the kayak, which he had full of beer.

The rest of the portages from here onto the Ross River were small, or we skipped completely with lining up the little portions. It was like wading in bath water while we went up river. 

We made it to Ross Lake after 28km of paddling/portaging and found ourselves a little island where we set camp. We spent the night swimming, dining and enjoying wine. Daniel and I smartly brought it in platypus/wine bags, though Kelly didn't agree, she thought bringing wine to begin with was a ridiculously useless thing to portage. Meh. Watched the sun set and headed for bed. 

The next morning started off with a swim and it was another glorious day! Jocelyne paddled with me and we decided all we wanted to do was float with our feet in the water! That didn't fly, and we held the group up quite a bit (but not really, we had all day!)

We portaged over to Pensive Lake - one unbelievably hard, the other super easy because it was the winter road.

Once on Pensive I kayaked for a bit, we stopped for a break in the sun. Daniel and Garish caught some fish and we all relaxed. Here the winds picked up and we ended up paddling into the wind for the remainder of the lake. HARD WORK!

We camped at the head of the Cameron River on Sunday night and became engulfed in smoke! It looked pretty cool. We camped at a place where I am certain is a potential archaeological site. Mind you we didn't see anything on the surface like tent rings... but it's location and the fact that it was cleared just jumped at me. That night we enjoyed gin and tea courtesy of Jocelyne, which made for a late night. A litte too late for Jill and Kelly, I got up at 9:30 to see them setting off down the river. We were down to six. 

Our group didn't set off until around noon, and with them gone, meant I had to paddle with Garish still, who wasn't letting me steer yet. This is where I got worried. The rest of the day was white water. Him never steering before, let alone doing white water in a canoe, and me never doing white water before. We made for the worst couple ever and got stuck in the first major rapids. This scared me for the remaining ones after we had to be rescued by Daniel and Julian, lost our paddle and almost the canoe. Unfortunately the experience didn't deter Garish even though I was only using half of an extra kayak paddle, I had to plead with him to portage other rapids, which I only won out on one set. I was so scared he would not line up and we'd get stuck/flip again. 

But we made it out alive, our casualty list was my paddle, knee pad/chair, camera and Garish's phone and packsack which had its straps cut so Daniel could lighten the canoe to get it out. 

It was a fantastic weekend, so much sun, amazing weather, and just to be out in the city was magnificent! We paddled/portaged of 60km and I can't wait until Daniel plans the next trip :D

Reunions

Well I have been on two weekend get aways in the past month. Both were a sort of reunion.

I spent May Long in Calgary, reunited with my two housemates from when I lived in St. John's. They both are now living in Alberta (surprise?) and so we finally got our acts together for a meet up!

It was pretty much what you would expect as an "East Coast Reunion", copious amounts of fun!
I flew in from here, Jess and her BF drove down from Ft. Mac, Ashley is living in Calgary, plus their friends Trisha in Calgary and Meghan who flew in from Halifax.

We initially had grand plans of hitting up the mountains, but sadly that fell through, and we were stuck in Calgary :( We made due. And really, the whole trip was to hang out with each other, which we could obviously do anywhere. Plus the weather wasn't the greatest (that is my excuse to get over missing the mountains). And the one thing I could take away from the weekend - nothings changed! Hahah those girls are a riot.

Reluctantly I returned North, only to have fantastic weather. It's always a let down to go South and then it be nicer here. One of the biggest issues I have with travelling in the summer - it makes up for our ghastly winters.

This past weekend I went on a whirl wind trip to Vancouver. My friend Peter (and old neighbour) got married this weekend! I headed down on Friday for a day of shopping, and the big city experience of getting my nails done. My past three trips South have included getting my nails done. 
When I got downtown it was this awful mist, but not quite rain. Thankfully after lunch and my nails it cleared off to a sunny evening. Walked along the seawall and tried the delicacies only found in cities: fine dining combined with foods not available at home.

Met up with my parents for drinks and snacks of Oysters and stuffed yorkshire puddings. The former was great, the latter, meh.

Saturday morning was spent on Granville Island in the shops, took an aqua bus back across then out for a Korean BBQ. It was good, but I have had better, and am a little disappointed it wasn't what I was expecting as my parents had never experience on before. It could have also been whenever I've had them before, it was with others who ordered for us... it was still satisfying.

The wedding was over on the UBC Campus, in a beautiful park area. The sun was hot, really it couldn't have been any nicer. Cheryl was ecstatic throughout the ceremony, and really the whole night!
Met some really cool people - they are both doctors, so there were some interesting specialist there, and Peter's undergrad was in engineering, so they added some flare to the group. Hahah, every engineer I have met since finishing school fits the stereotype.

Partied until the wedding was over and we had to leave. I had wanted to go to the Museum of Anthropology on Sunday morning, but that didn't happen. I didn't get out of bed until 10... and was really not feeling it anymore. Serves me right. I think it was worth it though.

That ended my whirl wind trip as I flew home that late afternoon.... almost solstice time! Landing at home at 11 and the sun was still high in the sky!

My next trip will be out to Jean Marie for 10 or so days for work. The bugs better be under control this summer! That or not one day of rain. I think I would actually take the bugs over rain... then off to Iqaluit for a weekend, followed by another 10 or so days of field work.

Hooray for summer!

Worlds recap

Well... skating withdraw has begun. I am so saddened that this week is over :(
This was an amazing week, I am so happy I decided to do this... all in all it was well worth the cost.

Definitely lucked out that I had a place to stay so I didn't need to pay for that or for most of my meals. I would love to go to another event like this - be it the Skate Canada, Skate America or worlds again. Nationals next year could be cool considering it's a big anniversary year in Ottawa. But staying in Ottawa would mean I have to actually pay for a place to stay, mind you the tickets would be considerably cheaper.

Yesterday, Lisa and Nicole brought back our tickets, all full of skaters autographs! Now I feel bad not getting Kurt Browning's, Mao Asada's or Liz Manley's to fill out the book. Shoot. That afternoon we headed back to the arena for the Champion's Gala. Super cool. All the winners came and stood in the audience, the bronze medalists were all next to us in the aisle. Hah I dont know if I have ever been so "star struck" before.

Kirsten and Dylan

The gala ( I think you can stream it on CBC)was so much fun, there were serious skates and fun skates like Javier Fernandez's and Moore-Towers and Moscovitch. Patrick Chan's was appropriately done with a hat.
One thing that stood out to me was that all the Canadian's except Andrei Rogozine didn't skate even though he placed higher overal than Gilles and Poirier. Don't get me wrong, Gilles and Poirier are delightful to watch! I just was curious how all the Canadians except him.
No matter, just an observation.
At the end Scott and Tessa thanked everyone for coming, and all the volunteers for their hard work. I thought that was really nice. After they all skated around and high fived and autographed the audience. If I was younger, I would have been right up there! But, meh. I might regret it later... but right now I'm not concerned.

All the champions!

Heading home today, sat next to a really nice lady on the flight from London, she was a coach for 33 years and had been asked to come coach in Yellowknife with a bonus isolation pay. She said she came up for a week during caribou carnival to check it out... but decided there was no way she could live there. hahaha. Now my flight to Edmonton is delayed, so I am sorting through the thousands of photos I took :)

Until my next trip - Wexford St. reunion in Calgary!

Last day of worlds :(

Hometown hero Kaetlyn Osmond

After the high of yesterday, I slept in this morning! Granted, the skating also started at a later time today.
I wanted to watch the women skate their practice sessions this morning because I gifted the tickets for the finals tonight to my cousin and her young daughter who is just starting to skate herself.
So, I really wanted to go this morning to see Yuna Kim, Kaetlyn Osmond, the three Japanese girls and the wildcards. The practice was everything I was hoping it to be, plus no one was in the front row!

We showed up when the ice dancers were still practicing so I went and snagged the first row seat in our section to watch Weaver and Poje finish the programme. Then came Virtue and Moir, Davis and White, and Pechalat and Bourzat! Watching in the front row was even more amazing  though I admit, ice dancing needs to be watched from afar to get the full affect. Sure it was grand to be right next to these amazing skaters - I could have high fived each other them when they passed by. The dances were fantastic, considering it was just practice.

The ladies practice was good, and the Italians skates were a thrill to see... if I was landing triples and made of money, hers are the skates I would have.
Watching Yuna, Mao Kanako and Carolina was great... and I am not a huge fan of the ladies skating... but the practice sure brought me over to their side. I will definitely following them leading up to the Olympics.

We had a little break between the practices and the beginning of the ice dance competition. The comments from the crowd around was was a litte more subdued, though still entirely on the negative side. Gilles and Poirier were doing supurb until there was a stumble in their twizzles :( They are so much fun to watch!

Weaver and Poje :)

Followed by Weaver and Poje, who also just had a great performance, mind you I heart their short dance, sooo much more than this long.
Virtue and Moir skated, phenomenal. Davis and White, phenomenal.
Sadly, the falter on Thursday prevented Virtue and Moir from being able to move into first, totally understandable though, the only real way would have been if Davis and White messed up.
I would like to add through how I HATE that the media is trying to make a big rivalry between the two teams. They train together all the time and are friends. Get over it.

Welcome to the ice!!

After we handed off the tickets to Lisa and Nicole at the Skate Canada tent, Kevin Reynolds, Duhamel and Radford and Moore-Towers and Moscovitch showed up for an autograph session, so not only did they get tickets to skating, but they also got all the autographs :) Mum and I stayed for a couple drinks there, but it wasn't what we expected. We thought we could watch it live there with commentary (which we were so dearly missing) and instead were treated to traditional Chinese dancing with the screens muted in the background. We decided then to go back to my Aunt and Uncles to watch in the comfort in a house, with wine, cookies and commentaries :)
Super impressed Yuna Kim pulled off the win, but not entirely surprised... more so surprised by how amazing Canada did in earning herself a top 10 finish at her first worlds and Canada achieving 2 spots at the Olympics!  If only nationals was in Western Canada next year... I'd definitely hit it up!

Two medals

Well yesterday was just insane.
In the morning we went to the rink early enough to catch the last flight of men practicing - super cool. Everyone warming up their quads and routine run throughs. It was sure getting us eager to see them skate that night.

The first event was the pairs finals. Such energy! The Canadians blew me away. They were grand. Sadly it's all sort of a blur. I cannot really remember what happened - other than I was thoroughly in awe of Moore-Towers and Moscovitch and Duhamel and Radford when they skated.
Then came the defending Germans who fell and poped their jumps.

World Champions triple twist

Wow. The crowd around us (myself included) was convinced that Radford and Duhamel had it. Not so, apparently the technical levels were higher for Savchenko and Szolkowy... the judges got booed quite loudly.

Interestingly enough, everything the judges score is immediately online after they are announced so the lady next to us would pull it up on her phone and tell everyone in our area what the downgrades were and why they were scored the way they were.

The last pair was fabulous, minus the trip after the throw schow. And they rightly won! It was fantastic.   And their reactions were just as great to watch! Duhamel and Radford came third! Some would ask why they came third... and would question the judging. I however, am over it.

We finally left the arena for the break between events. Before we hadn't had enough time to leave, and mum found a restaurant review in the county museum that peaked in her interest. Seems that place was super swanky as all the big wigs from US Skate were there for lunch, as well as Toller Cranston. We met up with Uncle Ron and Aunt Maureen at the Skate Canada tent. Seeing it convinced us that's where we should watch the ladies tonight - I donated our tickets to my cousin and her daughter for the Ladies finals tomorrow. I don't follow the ladies enough and both of them are involved in skating... perfect match. The daughter is who we gave our practice tickets to on Tuesday.

We went back into the rink for the men's finals. What a night. We were surrounded by former competitive skaters,  data specialists and other experts who provided their "expertise" comments - what was done, what level they were at, whether they were nice people, blah blah blah. Actually I wanted to ask the girl behind us to zip it because she was being so negative. No matter how well someone skated, she had something to say. Javier, Denis, Yuzuru, Misha, don't even get me started on their criticisms of  Aaron, Chan and Joubert. They all had personal vendettas against Joubert.

Kevin Reynolds entering the ice

The skating was great to watch, and Max Aaron, despite his lack of footwork (when he gets that I think he'll be a great skater) was thrilling! I loved his "clean hit"call in the kiss and cry after he hit the boards. Then Patrick took to the ice. The arena roared! Then he fell, and fell again, and the arena went silent and the energy was sucked out of the place. Honestly, I thought he was done. His astronomical score in the short saved him. And had Denis Ten not doubled his triple flip he would have passed Chan. Not taking anything away from either of them... but Ten's performance was just so entertaining! But, being the great Canadian that I am, I am thrilled Chan won his third championship.

Worlds Comp Day 1

Holy. 

I cannot even begin to explain the overwhelming impressiveness of watching today. Watching live is such a different experience... than any skating I've ever seen. Practices the last couple days were unreal... but competition days! Oh my'lanta.

The energy in the rink when the Canadians skated was amazing.

The warm up session of the last two flights of men were just a billon quads, which are so flippin cool in person, especially right in front of you. Then Patrick Chan had to go and skate a near perfect short program and get 98 points! What!
The crowd was insane. What will tomorrow hold with Tessa and Scott skating?
It was just so intense that I am just going to post photos.

Oh and the opening ceremonies were neat, they had precession teams preform. It made me really miss syncro...

World Figure Skating Championships

So, big trip of 2013 - World Figure Skating Championship in London.
I bought tickets to this a year ago and forked over big money. There was no way I was letting going to Worlds pass me by this year with such great talent! Top ranking Canadians in every category... eons since thats been the case. I have a place to stay and company to go with... so why wouldnt I go, right?
To make it even more enjoyable, I spent the past weekend with Jane and Eric before coming here. Very relaxing, a nice change from -30... and as always, great foods :)
Arrived in London yesterday and went straight into the arena - walking in to hear Kevin Reynolds short programme (love the music!) over the speakers. No way. Made out way to the ice to see Kevin, Patrick Chan and Max Aaron (also like his music).
I was sooo excited to make it to see them, totally unplanned as well. Mum and I then decided to scope out our seats for the rest of the week, I knew they were in a corner section of the lower bowl, but that was it because I didn't get to pick them, they were assigned. We started walking up the stairs and realised the alphabet was going the other direction... turns out we are in the 3rd freakin row!!!! Seriously. I cannot even being to explain how elated I am.

Duhamel/Radford twist lift

We spent the next few hours there ooohing and aaahing over the men's and ice dancing competetors, though exhaustion won over and we left early... also because word around the rink was none of the Canadians or Davis/White would be be practicing that night - I was really excited to see Gilles/Poirier. But we did see Tomas Verner, Brian Joubert and Plutawska/Gerber who I thoroughly enjoy.

Savchenko/Szolkowy death spiral

This morning I gave our tickets to my young cousin and her best friend to spend the day there while mum and I were off scoping out this house that they are eyeing up for a potential relocation down south. Beautiful house, in Woodstock? I find it an odd location, but great house! Once that was over with, we headed back to the rink to swap tickets with my cousin.
Perfect timing again! We showed up just as Canadian super stars Duhamel/Radford and Moore-Towers/Moscovitch took to the ice.
Wow.
Watching skating in person dosent compare to tv (mind you the commentary is great and seeing different angles is grand). Being right next to skaters landing triples is amazing. Let alone watching them do throwing jumps and twist!

Mao Asada entering triple axel

The Germans came up next and.... ahhh just amazing.
Our night ended after watching Kaetlyn Osmond, the American and Japanese women.
So far, after two half days of practices.... the tickets have paid for themselves in experience alone. I cannot wait until competition commences tomorrow - Pair's and Men's short programmes. Eep!

NWT Road Trip

Well, it's been forever since I wrote... I haven't really travelled since coming back from Finland (which I never wrote about - whoops).
And I have  travelled, I was in St. Thomas for a week right before Christmas followed by a weekend in Calgary to see Blue Rodeo.

Anyways, Patrick's home for a week and mum has been on for a while about driving up to Whatì... so we decided to go! I took off yesterday, we packed up the truck with lunch and snacks, gassed up and off we went! We made it to Edzo and turn off to the winter road. When we scoped out the DOT website, the road was open only as far as Whatì, that's where we planned to go but the sign at the turn off indicated that the road to Gamètì was now open... the first part of the road was in great condition so once we reached the junction, the decision was easy to continue the 120km north to Gamètì and add another NWT community to my list!

Just after the junction we stopped for our picnic lunch and were so intrigued by the lack of wildlife on the way. Really. We saw a grouse just after Marian Lake and that was it. Luckily us bringing that up must have convinced the animals to come out cause then we saw a bushy little red fox!

The way to north was much different than around here - really hilly! Not mountains by any means, but not flat either like the drive to Providence. I'll have to ask Tom about the storys around there. Ton of massive boulders too! I'm sure there are some great Giant Beaver explanations for them.

We reached Gamètì around mid afternoon. (We had stopped a lot for photos and to change drivers), drove around the community, then headed back to make it to Whatì so Patrick and mum could add that to their list.

Sadly by the time we made it there it was dark :( so they couldn't see how pretty it is - I think Whatì is a wonderful little place after my week there.

All in all it wasn't an exciting trip to go on and on about, but it was a nice way to spend the day, and show Patrick some NWT he's so greatly missed out on. Plus I am now at 19 NWT communities. Whoo!

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