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!