Celebrating Winter Solstice

On December 21st, Jacquie and I participated in an annual event that some of our friends have done for the past number of years.  That's celebrating winter solstice, the shortest day of the year.  This year the celebration took place on the shores of the Sylvia Grinnell River at Pauline's cabin.

The temperature outside was -30C without the wind chill, although the wind was light.  So it was only natural that we lit a bonfire to keep warm.

At the bonfire there was John, Alex, Scott, Kate, Bonnie,  Carmen, Jacquie and I, as well as Rusty the dog.  We got there at 2:00 in the afternoon and the sun had already gone down.  The sun came up about 9:40 and went down about 1:20 on that day.  

We had some refreshments and trail mix.  One thing I learned is that if you drink beer from cans at -30C, your lips get stuck to the can and it hurts like heck when you rip the can off your lips.  

Oh look, Larry's best side! :-)

The real celebration took place shortly after 3:00PM when Bonnie brought out the sparklers.  We all lit sparklers and waved them around at the moon.  A fitting tribute to acknowledge the shortest day of the year!  

We stayed there for about an hour and a half, until some of us started to get cold feet, then we decided it was time to head back into town.  Thanks Bonnie for the invitation and thanks to everyone else there for a wonderful time and a great experience for Jacquie and my first celebration of Winter Solstice! :-) :-) :-)

Mandi's Pottery

Mandi’s Pottery

One of the interesting things that we discovered about Mandi Paterson, Jacquie’s aunt that lives near San Francisco is that she is a pottery enthusiast.  She has a number of lovely pieces in her home and Jacquie and I had the pleasure of taking a tour of the studio where Mandi produces her works of art. 

She goes there once or twice every week to tutor other students and make pottery.

She took us through the process of making Pottery.   Firstly there is the design and development stage.  “Having an idea of what you want to make is important, so when you get your clay on the wheel, you know how to work the mold”, she explains.  

Centering the clay on the wheel is also very important.  Once the pottery piece has been hand crafted on the wheel it is allowed to dry.

Once the piece has been sponged, excess clay removed and is completely dry, it is ready to be bisque fired.  Once the initial firing takes place any bumps or imperfections are removed.  Mandi explained that she uses sand paper for this process. 

The next step is to glaze the pottery piece and then place it back in the kiln for a final firing where it can stay for up to 24 hours.   Mandi explained that the temperature of the kiln is important and can change depending on the piece that’s being fired. 

To Jacquie and I the process of glazing and firing seemed a bit complicated, however making the piece on the pottery wheel looked like a lot of fun. 

Mandi is an expert and has made many wonderful pieces.  Thanks Mandi for the tour.  J

Pebble Beach Golf Course

One of the other stops we made while visiting Aunt Mandi and Uncle Ewan was the Pebble Beach Golf Course.  We decided not to actually play golf as the rounds were $495 per person - at least that included a cart. :-) 

The Club house was opulent with a wonderful restaurant and bar.  Even the washrooms were awesome, with marble floors and counter tops. 

We did venture out onto the course to have a look around.  It is a beautiful course.  We were able to take a few pictures near the 18th green.  It was a spectacular view and having the opportunity to wander onto a course where golf's very best players have been was an enlightening experience. 

Jacquie and I enjoyed visiting the Pebble Beach Golf Course.  Who knows once the 649 comes through for us, we may even play there! 



Monterey Bay Aquarium

In October, Jacquie and I had the awesome opportunity to visit Uncle Ewan and Aunt Mandi at their home near San Francisco. One of the adventures we had the pleasure of experiencing was the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It is situated on the Pacific Ocean in Monterey California.

There are many amazing exhibits like the sea otters, octopus, jelly fish, and many other wonderful exhibits. We spent 3 hours or so at the aquarium and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The pictures of our adventure are as follows:

Thanks Aunt Mandi and Uncle Ewan

The Iqaluit Fall Fair

Saturday September 28 was the Rotary club of Iqaluit's Fall Fair. The Rotary Club has been putting this event on in Iqaluit for many years. It is an event that is very well attended with an estimated 500 - 600 showing up for the event this year.

The event his held at the Arctic Winter Games Centre. This year Jacquie and I were the hotdog cookers and we gave out over 300 hotdogs in 3 hours. That was nothing compared to the guys that were doing the french-fries. They had 2 French-fryers going from 11:45 until 3:45 and went through 60 large bags of fries. We couldn't even guess how many orders in total were given out. Also there was pop, juice, chips, and chocolate bars.

There were a number of games and events to keep everyone occupied. Nunavut is in the middle of an election campaign with the Territorial elections taking place on October 28th. Jacquie pointed out 4 of the candidates that are running in Iqaluit. Altogether there are 4 seats up for grabs in Iqaluit and Apex. Anyway, one of the events was a bean bag throw. The way it works is a child gets to throw a bean bag at a target and when they hit it, a balloon full of water lands on someone's head. Some of the candidates,the Mayor and other celebrities took turns being targets. Oh the fun of election campaigns!! :-)

There were clowns and games and events. Everyone had a wonderful time!! Jacquie and I had a wonderful time at the event and it was gratifying to see so many children having so much fun!! :-)

Cormack Bay - Ward Inlet

The weekend of August 22 Larry and I embarked on a new adventure with good friends Scott and Suzy to Cormack Bay in Ward Inlet. We were to leave at high tide on Saturday and picked up again on Monday, again at high tide.

Cormack Bay is known for its good fishing and historically was one of the first outpost stations for the Hudson’s Bay Company. The picture below shows the foundations that show the evidence that buildings indeed existed.

A common site when travelling out on the land are cabins; pictured below is a cabin that is used by the many different travellers that arrive at Cormack Bay. Usage is based upon first come first serve, however in times of poor weather and extreme circumstances no one would be turned away from shelter.

Our trip down the Frobisher Bay went without incident. On the way out from Iqaluit we were able to get “close up” views of the fuel tanker that is unloading diesel and oil for the year (millions of litres will be transferred to the tank farm) as well as two sealift ships. The pictures inserted show one of the sealift ships unloading their cargo onto a couple of barges. The folks that have as of yet to receive their ‘sealift’ are no doubt happy to see the two newest arrivals.

Whenever you travel by boat in the Arctic you must always wear a floater suit. If there is one thing that does happen up here, is people pay attention to safety. These suits were quite large, however they kept us warm on the trip down the bay. A couple of landmarks on the trip are the Frobisher narrows (self explanatory) and Frobisher Furthest an island. Both are good geographical markers to remind you where you are.

We arrived at Cormack Bay around 5:30 and set up camp. There was another group at the more traditional landing spot. Once we had our camp set up it was to the water to do some fishing. It wasn’t long before we had our catch of day. The Char were huge (10-15 pounds).

We had a real treat while out fishing. The other group were also fishing, however they were using nets and needless to say they had a plentiful catch of Char. In true Larry fashion not an opportunity went by. We were given a treat into Inuit traditional ways and allowed to hear their stories and take the pictures you see below to share. Of particular interest is the way the Char is hung to “dry” and watching the female elder do all the prep using her ulu was a real lesson, of which we won’t ever forget.

Our two days at Cormack Bay were wonderful. The weather cooperated and the bugs probably only got a litre from each of us – including Holly. Holly was a real trooper. She went on all the hikes and enjoyed every minute. Of course, she also slept from the time we put her on the boat for the return trip home til about Tuesday. She was one tired out dog.

The landscape around the area was breathtaking. Not a moment would go by that you weren’t mesmerized or appreciating what was surrounding us. On the second day we hiked to two waterfalls. We enjoyed the nearest and took lots of pictures of the one in the distance. We all agreed that none of us wanted to hike up that last hill. We had already done a fair bit and looking from a distance was okay. We constantly thought of safety and were always on the lookout. We also made sure that we had the rifle with us when venturing away from the campsite.

On the last day, the adventure was extended. Our boat appeared for us to watch it anchor out away from shore and then a voice yelling “we just have to change an alternator belt.” We looked at each other and all thought uh oh!. Two hours went by, our kit was sitting at the shore and now we had to start moving stuff as the tide was still coming in. The boat finally came alongside and the owner informed us it was going to be a long trip home because we only had one motor working. On we piled, and all we thought was – how long is long. Lucky for us it wasn’t too cold a night (we started loading at about 6 pm) and the waters were calm, there was hardly any wind.

The “three hour tour” (remembering a certain TV show) turned into a 7.5 hour ride back. We came ashore just before 2 am. Holly and I spent most of the trip below deck. When we were getting closer to Iqaluit, the jelly fish were plentiful and you could see them glowing in the water after the motor of the boat stirred them up. It was quite a sight to see and few probably have the opportunity. We saw some wildlife while away and of particular not were seals, sea birds and fox.

It was a trip for the memory books and one we would highly recommend to everyone.