Return to Winnipeg

Photos

Friday, November 16, 2012 - High  14°F Low  -2°F  - I was up with Clay early this morning as he tried to get the 66 photos our fellow passenger was sharing with the group uploaded before we lost Internet. He did not get it done before we went to Gypsy's, but he was able to finish it during breakfast in Gypsy’s with their Internet. Clay took a lot of photos in Churchill this morning, mainly because it was a beautiful morning. It was very cold again, but no wind and with gently falling snow that had gone on all last night. Pat told us that amount of snow on the ground looked like mid-December in Churchill.

We had to be in the lobby at 7:50am this morning. Pat had originally said he wanted bags out in the hall by then. But, he came around our doors a little before that time and told everyone to leave the bags just inside the rooms for pick up after breakfast as we depart the Aurora Inn for the last time. At Gypsy’s for our last meal, I had oatmeal again with raisins this time and some bacon and a peach yogurt and coffee. Clay had his usual 2 egg breakfast with meat and toast. Around 9am, Pat took us back to the hotel. He told everyone except me to get off and bring everything to the lobby and he would take me to get a requested photograph of the Port of Churchill sign and be back in 5 minutes. That was a surprise and a nice thing to do. I had asked about it days ago when he had driven us around town and told us if we saw anything we wanted photos of to let him know and we’d go back on Friday morning. I guess I was the only one. Interestingly, the sign has a no hunting warning. You don't see that on many port signs in my experience! There were a couple of other people though who had requested to return to Mike Macri’s studio to purchase photo prints and that is what we did after we got back and loaded everyone and the bags.

We got to the airport about 10am for an 11am departure on Calm Air. In Winnipeg, we flew them too but had a regular-TSA style experience. Here we didn’t have to even show ID or go through security. We just lined up at the ticket counter and told the woman our names. She printed our open seating boarding passes and weighed and tagged and took our large suitcases. (50 pound limit) and then weighed our small carry-on bags (20 pound limit). My suitcase had now been expanded and was 25 pounds and my backpack was 14. I gained 5 pounds in the suitcase by carrying all of Clay’s dirty laundry and most of our souvenirs. I am not sure how his bag was still always full, when he only added 2 t-shirts.



We drew the prop plane and not the jet back, so it took an hour longer than the flight up. Also, it meant no hot food. We had a cold box lunch with a sandwich, a slice of cheese and a blue Jell-O cup and a beverage. I don’t think I mentioned before that Calm Air serves Pepsi products. That’s too bad for me since they use citric acid. Still I am not complaining because it was much more inflight service than we saw on Delta in coach class. I think these flights are really expensive though, like $700 to $1000 roundtrip and that is equal to the cost of the flights from Raleigh to Winnipeg!

Speaking of costs. We paid Churchill Nature Tours a total of $9990 and Delta a total of $1584.66. Our only extra costs were lunch in Winnipeg the day we arrived and tips. But, that works out to have cost us $2314.93 per polar bear seen on the ground, which in all honesty just seems ridiculously excessive. I told Clay the next time I say Polar Bear, he can just drive me to Asheboro to the NC Zoo! He wondered why I didn’t think of that before. Well, of course, because it isn’t the same thing. We both know that and we are still glad that we went to Churchill. (Oops! While searching for the NC Zoo link, I found that NC's polar bears have been gone for almost 2 years now. Good news is that they should return to a new enclosure in 2013. But, at least now I have a legitimate excuse!)

We got back to Winnipeg in the early afternoon and soon all had our luggage claimed and were off in 2 vans to the Airport Hilton Suites. Our first night here we were in 402 and it had a view of a parking lot and the swimming pool roof, but it was nicely laid out and large and clean. Tonight we are in 210, which is a much differently laid out and smaller and the carpet is filthy. We had a view of the roof of the front carport. This afternoon would have been free time to spend in Winnipeg, but once again we didn’t leave the hotel. The streets and sidewalks around us were all cleared of snow this time, but Clay had more shared photos to get uploaded. Plus, he was desperate to get in some time on a treadmill again. I worked at repacking for the different luggage allowances on Delta and I took a long nap.

Our farewell dinner was at 7pm, if I recall correctly. We were just about the only table occupied in the restaurant downstairs at the hotel tonight. The meal was quite good again. I had beef barley soup and Clay had salad. I had chicken and Clay had steak. I had bread pudding and Clay had cheesecake. It was a nice farewell and Pat got everyone’s email addresses and passed them out. He also gave us all a 2013 Polar Bear calendar. Clay passed out slips of paper to everyone with the links to our fellow passenger’s generously shared photos. Cynthia thanked her for sharing her photos with a map-print covered journal that she had everyone sign. Cynthia also gave Clay a bag of local candy called OMG’s and OMG, they were good. He opened them when we got on our first flight of the morning and we ate the whole bag before the plane lifted off from Winnipeg. So, thank you Cynthia!

We went to bed right after dinner. We got up the next morning at 5am and I had a cup of their excellent coffee made in the room. We finalized packing and were downstairs with our breakfast vouchers at 6am for opening. They did not actually open the doors until 10 past. We needed to be getting on a shuttle to the airport at 6:50am. That was only 2 hours before our flight time. Since you clear US customs and immigration at YWG, Pat and the front desk clerk we asked both advised getting to the airport 3 hours early. This didn’t seem like such a big and busy airport, it was only a few minutes’ drive away and we were assured there was no wait for an airport shuttle that was on demand. But, still we worried we might be cutting it close and we rushed through breakfast by going to the buffet. They did not have the scrambled eggs out yet and so offered us eggs cooked to order and we both got them fried. They were quick and we had no problems. We walked right out onto a shuttle and cleared airport security and US ICE in a timely fashion.

All flights were full and on time and we had no problems, even with checking a single bag. Both flights were small regional jets with 2 by 2 seats and fully booked. We still prefer that to 3 by 3 seating any day. I think they even have more leg room than the bigger jets. At MSP, we could have arrived and departed without leaving Terminal C, but we made a special trip to Surdyk’s Flights for Clay. We ate sandwiches and yogurts from there outbound on our last trip to Canada and Clay wanted to go back there. Mom & Judy’s connection on that return was too tight and on our outbound last Sunday Surdyk’s was closed. We had a little over an hour, so we went to Surdyk’s this time. Clay got a sandwich and a cookie and I had a honey Greek yogurt and a Manchego cheese pretzel for $20.55.

We got home on time, got my checked bag with no problems, and caught a taxi back to Clay’s office to pick up the car. Clay wanted to eat again, so we stopped at Smithfield’s Chicken & BBQ. It was good. We got 2 pints to freeze and take to Mom at Christmas time. That’s all. We got home to find everything at the house in good order. We unpacked and fell gladly into our own bed.

It was a really good trip even though we only saw 5 bears and thought we would get frostbite.

So, that's it for 2012. We have had a busy travel this year! Antarctica, Hawaii and Canada twice. We traveled the furthest we have ever been North and South in 2012. That seems like a pretty big accomplishment for a year in which we had not actually planned in advance to take any big trips. We will go to Florida for Christmas with my family again, but that is it for 2012 travel.

All we have booked for 2013 is Alaska on Alaskan Dream Cruises. Clay has just realized that is late summer/early fall and he is making noise about planning a trip in the spring. We'll see and I'll keep you posted. We are still hoping for another fall trip with Mom & Judy with Caravan Tours to Nova Scotia. We'll see what happens with that too. That's all for now.

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Second day on the tundra

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Thursday, November 15, 2012 – High  14°F Low  -2°F - To Gypsy's for breakfast and it feels, if possible, even colder. The weather changed about 3am. When we went to bed there was no wind sound from the bathroom vent which we had determined was due to South wind and the ice blowing away from shore. About 3am, my head boomed and woke me up out of dead sleep. Cynthia, another in our group, said she woke up like a gong had gone off about 3 am. We both suffer vertigo and we decided that it was a major barometric pressure change we felt. So, as we went out the snow was blowing sideways in hard little sharp shards. Pat said the wind chill was -29. I don’t know whether he meant C or F, but really it didn’t matter because we knew it was really, really, very cold.

I had an egg muffin and a cinnamon fry bun. Clay had pancakes today. We had a much longer drive in sometimes zero visibility out to the tundra loading dock of Great White Bear Tours. The distance was the same, but we went much more slowly today and so it took a lot longer. We set out in our Rovers in near zero visibility.

We got an old Rover today. It did not have foot rests, but the window dividers were better placed than on our previous new Rover. The driver today did not clean the snow off the floor before setting out like Bill had done. There was a lot more snow today. Our driver today was Baz and he was a French Canadian. We drove and drove as visibility came and went. Eventually, around 11am the sun came out. This old Rover had a big furnace in the back with a fan to blow the heat forward. We were bouncing to loosen our brain stems from our spines. In addition to the nausea from the pre-vertigo attack aura that I suffered all day today, I had a headache. Eventually, I got really sleepy and I looked back and all the people behind me were asleep. I got up and went to sit by Clay to incoherently try to tell him that we’d all be dead of carbon monoxide poisoning before anyone found our frozen bodies. He couldn't understand me, which really frightened me, before I pointed back and he saw the furnace I was talking about and all the sleeping people. He just said it is too hot in here.

About this time, we got a little excitement from a Tundra Buggy stuck up to its axles in the snow. Eventually, we drove around it and continued to our first stop by the Great White Bear Tundra Lodge.

Other Rovers were leaving and the word was no polar bears here. We drove to where we had gone on the Nunavut tidal flats before and it looked like the bay. It was a high tide storm surge that had completely flooded the area. Baz didn't know which way to go and Pat had no advice for him. Baz sat here for a long time and talked on his radio to others before turning left and away from all the other buggies and rovers.

I spotted a small black and gray shore bird as we drove and we stopped to try to photograph it. We didn't get a picture of it, but our group’s best photographer did and she shared it. Pat called it a shore bird. Obviously, but I don’t know exactly what it was. It was black and gray and fairly small and unremarkable, except for being the first and only wildlife we have seen today.



We parked and sat for a long time while Pat gave us a lecture on polar bear reproduction. I watched a huge sheet of ice break off and drift away and tried to stay awake. We had hot chocolate. We saw all the other buggies in the distance moving and word was they were following a bear, but no one could see it even with big binoculars. Baz tried to start our Rover, but couldn't. He said the throttle was frozen. He had a spray bottle of alcohol and got Pat to help him open the doghouse. A passenger held it up for them, but they still couldn't start it. One of the other Rovers came right next to us and the driver got out and came into ours and helped and got it started. This was a little scary because we had been sitting for at least 30 minutes or more and the vehicle had gotten very cold by this time.

We drove for hours more and only saw a ptarmigan that Pat spotted buried in the snow right beside the road.

After 1pm, Pat had Baz drive us to where a bunch of other Rovers and buggies were parked looking at nothing we could see. They told us there was a polar bear sleeping on the other side of a stand of willows in a snow bank. Pat served us soup and cold sandwiches from Gypsy’s again with the drinks we had ordered. About the time we finished lunch, the bear woke up and walked by the closest buggy and then he left. I got a video of him leaving.  I got a video of him playing in the willows as he dug snow beds. I know my videos are really shaky, but be sure to stay long enough to see him shake the snow off himself. There is also a 3rd video from another day of this trip CLICK HERE.

All the buggies and Rovers followed him and he got pretty stressed. We decided we should leave him alone as more buggies arrived and Pat said we had to start back to get our Rover turned in by 4 pm anyway. Then, he got away from most of the buggies and rovers anyway and sheltered in the edge of some willows for a nap.

One bear and a ptarmigan is all we saw today. Oh, and a shore bird. It was a long, hard and pretty sad final day. (Mom watched the Tundra Buggy Cam pretty steadily today and was so happy to see so many bears and they were so active rolling in the snow and play fighting. She was so happy for us. I will point out that we never saw the Tundra Buggy with the webcam on it today and clearly we were in the wrong places almost all day long! Polar Bear Alley blog reports Great White Bear expected a slow bear day and so he must have heard from the people in the Rovers we were in sight of all day that only saw this one bear. The other experiences he reported were clearly in Tundra Buggies as their experiences reflect what Mom described she watched online.)

We were happy to see one bear really well though. We unloaded and all gathered for a group photo by an example Rover. Here is most of our group in a photo courtesy of a fellow passenger.

As Pat took us back into town, he stopped by a town sign for photos, and then to the hotel for a rest before dinner pickup at 6:50pm. Tonight was free and he offered another fox hunt and Northern Lights tour for those who wanted to go. I don't remember what Clay had and he didn't take any photos of our last 2 meals at Gypsy's for some reason. I had another steak. For dessert, Clay had rhubarb pie heated and a la mode. I had another strawberry and whipped cream filled pastry horn. It was slim pickings tonight in the pastry case.

On the way back to the hotel, Pat drove us by the Town Complex to see the bay. It was crazy! There were great rolling breakers and no ice visible in his headlights. Pat said it was a combination of another front coming in from the North as well as the rising tide. Hudson Bay is dramatically altered every time we see it. After dinner, I stayed in. Clay had volunteered a memory stick and to upload a fellow passenger’s volunteered photos and thought about working on that, but instead went out on the bus for Pat’s fox hunt. He saw one fox and Northern Lights that were good, but he said not as dramatic as the first night. I worked on packing for the morning and by 9pm, I was asleep. I did not hear Clay come in and go to bed.

For some reason, today was the day that Clay photographed our room, 139, at the Aurora Inn. I think I talked about it resembling a 1-bedroom loft apartment and if I didn't that's what it was like. Anyway, below are a series of photos Clay took there this morning before we went out for the day. Excuse the mess, it is all ours and housekeeping did a good job, that is not really reflected in these photos. Sorry!

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No tundra today

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Wednesday, November 14, 2012 - High  12°F Low  -17°F - We had the chance to sleep in and I guess we did, but were still up by 5am. I made a really awful cup of coffee in our kitchen. I hoped it would be better than Gypsy's but no such luck, sadly. I won't do that again. Today we were supposed to have helicopter and dog sled rides then free time for a few hours. Since the helicopter rides were the first day we arrived, today we are going to start late, see some shops and I think another museum in town, go drive around town in the school bus looking for bears, have lunch, then go for the sled dogs kennel visit and dog sled rides. After that I don't know. Dinner, I guess.

Tomorrow we go back out in the Polar Rover. We fear it will be too late. Pat, and everyone else here, is stunned by the sudden freezing of Hudson Bay. He says in less than 4 days, the ice has doubled and he has never seen it freeze so suddenly in his 18 years working in Churchill. I think that tells us how really cold it has been here the past few days! Good for the bears, I guess, but not so good for tourists. Evidently bears have already been seen seal hunting on the bay's ice. Again good for bears, but that means few bears are left in tundra buggy land. Maybe we'll get lucky around town today as the buzz among the locals is that there have been a lot more bears in town this year. An interesting fact is they don't lock their vehicles here in case a pedestrian needs to make a quick escape from an errant and hungry polar bear. That's a little scary and if the cold, snow and ice weren't keeping me from wandering and discovering Churchill, that piece of information would!

For some reason, I am having a much harder time than usual of regaining my equilibrium after flying. I wore my Ear Planes on all the flights and did not experience any really unusual symptoms on the flights, but I have some lingering and long lasting mild vertigo-like spinning sensations that are getting really bothersome at this point.

I had oatmeal with a very ripe banana and a peach yogurt for breakfast. I think Clay had his usual breakfast. Gypsy's has something like an Egg McMuffin and tomorrow I may try it. We drove to the hotel to allow a potty break and for people to pick up their passports and then we drove to the Post Office to get polar bears stamped in out passports. We drove by a plane wreck. After that we drove out as far as Cape Merry and watched ice floes pass on the Churchill River as the tide was going out. Pat talked about the history of the local area. There were rangers there with guns because they had chased off 2 polar bears and had lost track of a 3rd one. We did not see any live polar bears today, so I'll just break your suspense. We did see 2 red foxes and a white ptarmigan on the ground and flying. I don't think we got a photo of the red fox.

Then we came back to the hotel for another potty break and drove in the other direction to get photos of the Churchill sign, photos at the polar bear jail and the traps they use to keep them away from the town. Then we drove along the coast road to check out how the ice had blown back off shore with the South wind today. It is amazing how that much ice can change and move so quickly. Hudson Bay looks different every time we see it and the difference in just hours is stunning to me. Next, Pat took us to the Great White Bear Tours gift shop as they are the tour operator for the Polar Rovers we are using through our Churchill Nature Tours Polar Bear Adventure. They gave each of us a small souvenir tote bag with their logo on it which I thought was a nice touch. We found some great t-shirts there of a black polar bear face on a white T-shirt. I was hoping to find a white coffee mug like that but I use t-shirts at home too. We also bought a polar bear Christmas ornament there. Then it was time to eat again!

Pat drove us across the street to Gypsy's since it was so very cold, windy and snowing. Nothing sounded good to me but I had seen people with grilled cheese yesterday and that sounded good still, so I had a grilled ham and cheese on whole wheat with fries, they also gave me a long slice of pickle and it really hit the spot. Clay was interested in the special of Portuguese chicken, but the lunch special portion is dinner-sized and he thought it would be too much. The people who got it said it was really good. Clay ordered a hot dog with fries. He ate it all, but I don't know if he really liked it or not. For dessert I asked Clay to share what was signed as cream cheese brioche. It looked and tasted like a kind of gooey cinnamon roll with a snow-like arc of cream cheese frosting. He brought one back but also brought a dessert of some kind for himself. I didn't want to do it, but I ate the whole thing! We have now been pretty much alternating between the wood table and the Formica tables. I am not sure I prefer the wooden table as it seems to slope off either side from the center, but it is still called the good table as it's a little wider than the Formica ones that are pushed together to form another long table in the center of the room.

Time for dog sled rides. We visited their shop in town first, though I did not see any souvenirs related to dog sledding and we did not buy anything. Dave Daley called his dog sled tour The “Ididamile”, a clever phonetic play on words of the most famous dog sled race, the Iditarod. Then we boarded another bus in white with some independent travelers and went out to Wapusk Adventure Kennels for our tour, talk and rides. It was the coldest I have ever been and I had on so many layers I could hardly walk or see. It was interesting. Having done it, I still wouldn't have visited a sled dog kennel or taken the ride if it hadn't been part of the package. I just hate seeing the dogs living on short chains outdoors in the bitter cold. I’m not saying those dogs weren’t healthy and happy. They seemed to be. We had a very noisy dog or two in sled 2. It was magical when we started running as the dogs went quiet and we glided silently through the snow falling down the tree-lined path. The sleds had 6 dogs and 2 seats, or rather places for riders, in addition to the driver. I was too cold to try to take photos, so I made Clay sit in front since they said the photographer should sit there. I stood at the back seat on the rails as directed and held on. The driver was behind me and was a young woman. Everyone seemed happy at their work. We got signed certificates. Another nice touch.

Then we were driven back into town to Pat's bus. He brought us back to the hotel and since it was our only free afternoon for shopping offered to drive those who wanted to go to the furthest store and we could walk back, Clay and I went to the Northern Lights store and then walked back without buying anything else. We both rested quietly on our separate floors until dinner time. Other than Winnipeg, this was the closest we came to taking naps in Churchill. You don’t do a lot of walking, or get much physical activity other than shivering in the cold, but you stay busy without much downtime. So, this is not a relaxing vacation by any stretch. The lack of a fitness room, or treadmill, would be the only downside that Clay or I would probably point about about the whole package. That is only available the 2 nights in Winnipeg, but not in Churchill at our hotel anyway.

Back to Gypsy's where it was packed and finally overheated as we were wearing all our clothes since it was so crazy cold! Clay asked for the Portuguese chicken from lunch, but they were sold out. Against my advice Clay had the Italian-style chicken and like me pronounced it too dry and almost inedible. I had the special pork Parmesan and it was the best thing I've had there. Clay started with salad and I started with turkey rice soup that was also the best I've had there. For dessert I had a strawberry and whipped cream filled French horn pastry shell, Clay got another apple blossom, this time heated and with ice cream.

Pat drove us back to the hotel and offered to take those who wanted on a fox hunt. We drove around the port area looking for arctic foxes. We saw 2 out on the ice, but only very briefly. We drove back up through the rocks where we had seen red foxes and had very good sightings of at least 4 different arctic foxes. No one could get a photo of them darting back and forth across the road in the headlights, but it was great seeing them. They are very small and fluffy with fast tiny legs. Adorable and beautiful.

Pat brought us back to the hotel and offered to be the designated driver for a trip to a bar, lounge or pub of some kind. Clay and I were done for the day, so I have no idea if he had any takers.

Tomorrow is our last day on the tundra and we have to report for breakfast at 6:50am. Everyone has fingers crossed for bears. Pat hopes because the ice went away today that we will see lots. We saw the couple from Steve's group that went on our rover yesterday and they had been out on the tundra with his group again today and they reported that they saw lots of bears today, more than with us and better. We'll see. They and another group reported seeing a mother with 2 COYs, that is cub of the year, so small cubs. We hope for a good bear viewing day for us tomorrow.

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First day on the tundra

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Tuesday November 13, 2012 - High  5°F Low  -9°F – We were up at around 6am to meet in the lobby at 6:50am for the school bus ride to Gypsy's for breakfast. I had the Eggs Benedict today. Clay had his normal 2 egg breakfast. We got the Formica tables lined up in the center again.



By 8am we were driving out of town to the Great White Bear loading facilities to load our Polar Rovers, not to be confused with Tundra Buggies which is what I mistakenly thought we were using. Evidently there is some serious ill will between the organizations. Say what you will, the Tundra Buggy Cam is way cool and in no way harming any one. Anyway, ours was newer and looked nicer and more modern and sturdy. Our Polar Rovers have 6 wheels and the Tundra Buggies only have 4. It was quite nice inside and everyone had their own 2-seat row even with a couple of hitchhikers from Steve's group that wanted to spend every day out on the tundra. It had a small restroom that got more use today than the spacious back porch! It was so cold in the wind back there!

We drove for less than an hour before our first and best bear sighting of the day at the Great White Bear Tundra Lodge. Two big males got very close to us and were in and out of willows. I hope we got good photos but that is harder than you think in the cold. It was something like -2F and -25F wind chill. There needs to be a whole new word other than freezing cold! I will use frigid, but I am not sure it conveys the bone chilling, frostbite-in-minutes feeling. Below are a bunch of Clay's photos of our first and best 2 Polar Bears.

We drove out of the province of Manitoba and into Nunavut and back into Manitoba on dry tidal flats. Around lunch time we found another single bear checking out the Tundra Buggy Cam vehicle and then he dug a day bed and lay down. More buggies arrived. We started lunch and the bear got sick of us and left his bed and our view. We drove some more and found one more bear asleep within a half football field's length from us. It was finally on Clay's side and Clay was the one who spotted it and called it out. This was back by the Tundra Buggy Lodge where we had our best sighting earlier. I think Bill, our driver, would have driven right on by. As the other buggies were driving away from the lodge empty-handed they were all surprised to see him there. A little surprising because the polar bear was very easy to spot and evidently the world's most relaxed and sleepy bear. All the others we saw lying down were fidgeting but not this guy, he barely lifted his head.

While we were here we saw sun dogs. These are like vertical rainbow pieces on either side of the sun caused by light refracting through ice crystals. I have wanted to see these ever since I first heard about them and so, check!

We drove the rest of the day until past 4pm and found one bear maybe half a mile away and sound asleep. It was too far away for me to photograph with my 18x zoom, though Clay got it. Pat had big binoculars and said he could see another bear walking about a mile out past the open water, but I never saw it with my little binoculars. So, Clay and I did not count those.

Without bears or sun dogs, a little tundra goes a long way.

We headed back to our loading dock and Clay and I got a photo by an empty buggy for scale and then it was back on the school bus. We had an unscheduled but popular demand stop at the liquor store. Clay bought 3 Canadian beers for $9.48. They were Angry Fish Pilsner, Thirsty Beaver Amber Ale and his favorite was Fort Garry Dark Ale.

Then we went back to Aurora Inn. Shortly after taking care of business here we got a phone call that there were good Northern Lights and we ran back out, then back in, then more clothes and back out. The evening's plan was to go to Gypsy's for dinner, then to an Inuit presentation in a caribou hide tepee and then to look for Northern Lights. The lights were so prominent and stunning that we all bailed out of dinner early surprising Pat who drove us to the graveyard for a quick look at the lights. Then we went to dinner. I had the sirloin steak tonight, it was cooked well and I ate about half of it. It was big. I think Clay had the pickerel tonight, which was another fish on the menu besides arctic char. He seemed to like it. For dessert, I had a piece of what was basically peanut butter fudge with marshmallows embedded in it and drizzled with chocolate. It was too sweet, but I finished it all to the annoyance of Elly who later told me when I announced it too sweet she hoped I would not finish it and offer her a bite. Sorry, Elly. Clay got an apple blossom and said it would have better warmed with ice cream. The woman across from him got one too and hers had been microwaved. Clay was upset with dessert envy.

Then we went to Peter and Mary's little presentation and then further out of town to see the Northern Lights. Pat got out with a shotgun and a flashlight and did a bear check and then we all spilled in and out of the bus as we could not stand the cold for too long. I think Pat said the temperature was about 20C below. No idea what the wind chill was, but it was frigid. The Northern Lights were amazing. They streamed and swirled and arced and hooked and ran. One even formed a rainbow prism colored counter-clockwise drain swirl. It was otherworldly. This was almost as high on my wish list as the polar bears, so check. We had trouble photographing this. At first it was because we had not changed the settings on our cameras to fireworks, which works. I’m not sure whether our continuing troubles were the cold affecting our cameras’ autofocus, or that the entire sky that night was filled with Northern Lights overhead and it turned out the best photographs of them always included the horizon. Neither Clay nor I ever got any like that. 

We fell into bed a bit after 10pm. We don't have to meet for breakfast until 7:50am. The wind has really died down per the roar and buffeting noise no longer coming from the bathroom vent fan. Note: We eventually figured out that it roars with a North wind, but not with a South wind. There was almost always some wind!

Weird fact: A polar bear can swivel his snout kind of snorkel-like, and is the only bear that can do that.

All the polar bear photos at the bottom of the display are mine (Debbie's) of our 1st day on the Polar Rover. 

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To Churchill

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Sorry the photos are out of order. Photobucket sucks!

Monday, November 12, 2012 - High 16°F Low  0°F 



We had a 4:45am wake up call for lobby meet with pastries and coffee at 5:50am and departure at 6am for 7am boarding of a Calm Air flight that was slightly delayed. We all had to check rolling bags because it was a very small 2 by 2 configuration. We also all had to have all our bags weighed. We took off at 7:45am. They served a full breakfast with fruit cup, yogurt, croissant with butter and jam, and an egg and cheese omelet with Canadian bacon and potatoes and drinks. Evidently, this hot food is only served on the jet which is also an hour faster flight time. The turboprop or jet equipment for this flight is luck of the draw and the turboprop flight lasts an hour longer and only gets the cold meals. The jet flight from Winnipeg to Churchill lasts about an hour and a half, and the turboprop flight lasts and 2 1/2 hours.

We drove around Churchill and got out to see Hudson Bay and a big inukshuk with the polar bear warning sign. There were tracks into the rocks behind the sign! Patrick decided to take us to Gypsy's to lunch early and then to take the helicopter rides today since the sun was out. Clay had the special pork lunch sandwich with fries. I had the special Portuguese sausage (not in the sandwich) and poutine on the side. I had a long john for dessert.



Then, Pat drove us to Hudson Bay Helicopters. I did not go on the helicopter. Clay got a front seat and declared it the smoothest helicopter ride he ever had. They said the saw more than 20 polar bears out at Cape Churchill. The 2nd group went an hour after the first group. Pat took us to the Eskimo Museum for an hour. I went back to the museum for a 2nd hour visit while the 2nd group took their helicopter rides in ever worsening weather. It was snowing by 2pm and almost dark at 3:30pm or so!

We got to the Aurora Inn about that time and our bags were in our 2 story apartments. We unpacked and then went shopping.  That was good. The bad news is that I don't think there is a level surface in our hotel room. I feel like I'm in a fun house. Our favorite store was The Arctic Trading Post. It sells locally made products and we bought a framed polar bear made of tufted, dyed caribou hair for $65. Then Clay wanted to go buy Diet Cokes, but at Northern (their discount store) a 12-pack was $10. I pointed out that he could get a Diet Coke that was included in his fare at 3 meals a day and how many more could he drink in the evenings at the hotel. He didn't get any and said they were cheaper at the vending machine in the hotel anyway.

We met for dinner at Gypsy's at 5:50pm and went to a slide show presentation at Mike Macri's photo studio at 7:30. First night's dinner at Gypsy's with Churchill Nature Tours is Arctic Char. But, if you don't want that they have a small fixed menu of other selections they are happy to provide and it is the same menu offered throughout. Somehow our Churchill Nature Tours group has lost our good, wood table privileges. I asked Pat what had happened and he replied it was just luck of the draw but I'm not so sure. I had a 1/2 roast chicken with pasta pomodoro instead of the evening's scheduled arctic char. Those that had the char said it was closest to sole in flavor and to salmon in texture.

At the slide show, I got stuck in my parka and delayed the start. Embarrassing. I was having trouble zipping it in Gypsy's and so Clay came over and yanked the zipper up and it caught fabric inside so I couldn't unzip it now. I was struggling and Clay was trying to help and finally, Kim who was sitting on our row got up to come over and try to help me. I was red faced by then as they turned the lights back on and I said I would take it off over my head so, the show could go on. I told Kim she could still help free the cloth from the zipper. I tripped my way down my row and to the side of the room and started wiggling out of the partially open coat. I think Pat came over to me and pulled it loose once I was mostly out, but someone(s) started the stripping song. I got out of the coat in time to see Pat and Mike exchange a look. We were all laughing and Pat told Mike, and this is their first night. Mike replied, what have we got ourselves into? I wasn't the clown the whole trip, but I think it did start everyone good-naturedly joking with each other for the duration. The slide show was over about 8:15pm. Mike had some pretty amazing photos. We went straight back to the hotel and to bed after a long day. One guy went out to a local tavern since the liquor store was closed today for Veterans Day, or Remembrance Day or whatever they call it here.

Tomorrow is our first day on the tundra. I can't wait to see polar bears! Pat pointed out today where we will be getting our Polar Rovers from Great White Bear Tours and it is a different company than Tundra Buggy, whose webcam I have been following. I hope it won't make any difference. I bought a book today written by the guy whose blog I have been following, Polar Bear Alley. That was cool.

Note: this looks like some heavy dining at Gypsy's! It really was and the carb load from the irresistible pastry case had to be bad for me. But, I am happy to report that I did not gain any weight for the week. I was worried about it because in addition to the extreme cold, I had been warned that I would gain weight. Luckily, they were wrong about that! My theory is all the heavy food and sweets were offset by all the shivering in the sub-freezing temperatures.

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To Winnipeg

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Delta napkin - a good sign

Sunday, November 11, 2012 - Our 2 Delta flights were on time, full and uneventful. Our first flight was a small regional jet with 2 by 2 seats and fully booked, so large rolling carry on bags had to be gate checked. You had to put them in a bin, but it was full and after Clay turned all the bags up on their sides to make room and put mine in, some guy who stood by him and waited for him to do it alone took the last slot. Clay squeezed his onto the shelf in front of mine and it was still hanging off. It got its wheel broken for his trouble. Clay is very sad as he has had that big-wheel suitcase for a long time and this is the first time it’s been damaged.

We got to Winnipeg to a foot or so of recent snow, their first of the season. We quickly cleared Canadian immigration and customs and caught a shuttle to Airport Hilton Suites. It is a very nice hotel, minutes from the airport and near nothing in walking distance in this weather. After expensive ($14) sandwiches for lunch Clay went for a treadmill workout. We both had a great nap with the snow blowing outside.


Historically, I have not been a fan of Hilton hotels. Usually they have that dial-a-comfortable-bed gimmick on very hard mattresses that never change no matter what setting you try. Not here. They were generously soft and fluffy beds, pillows and comforters. I loved them. The 2 room suite was nicely laid out and spacious. The only problem was that I forgot to pack my bathroom nightlight. Again. The last trip that I remembered it, the room had an outlet that shut off when the lights were turned off. So, it seems like I just can't ever get it right.

Our group dinner was at the hotel at 6:30pm. We met our group of 15 + our leader, Patrick Rousseau. It was Clay & I, a couple from California, a couple with their recently graduated daughter from China, 2 couples from Britain, 2 women from New Mexico and a woman from Michigan and one from Texas. It was a good group. The meal was very good. Clay had salad, ribs and pecan pie. I had soup, steak and chocolate caramel cake. Sorry, no food photos, Clay didn't bring his camera to dinner, I guess.

We were early to bed. We have to be in the lobby tomorrow morning at 5:50am for the ride to the airport. One couple has to go an hour earlier. For some reason, they are not on the same flight. (Bad news for this couple, they were on the turboprop and only arrived about 5 minutes before we did and only had a cold breakfast on board.)

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We're back from Churchill, Manitoba!

Let me start by apologizing to every person that I scoffed at when they told me Churchill was so much colder than Antarctica. You were right! I just couldn’t imagine it. I’ve studied the globe and I still can’t imagine it. Antarctica seemed much further south than Churchill is north. But, just because I can’t imagine it, doesn’t mean it isn’t so and I’m sorry for not believing you.

With the holidays starting up here I may be a bit slow getting these blog entries posted, so let me break the suspense with some polar bear highlights photographs. That way you will know that there were polar bears and we saw some of them. Clay and I both carried cameras again as in Antarctica, so I have best of polar bears photos for both of us.  Together we saw only 5 polar bears. Clay went on a helicopter ride that I did not and he photographed a lot more polar bears, but said he couldn't see them well. So, he says his count is still 5, same as mine. If I were him, I would count all the bears seen from the air too, but he isn't. He was surprised when we looked at his photos and he had relatively clear images of polar bears. I have included some of his aerial shots in his best of polar bears photos.

Debbie's Best of Polar Bears

Clay's Best of Polar Bears

Next up

Here is some teaser information about our next trip. I will likely post here about it after we return with photos. So, in the meantime, here are some links to bring you up to speed on what we'll be doing and where we'll be going.

Here is our itinerary. We're going with Churchill Nature Tours. We're going to Churchill, Manitoba via a charter flight out of Winnipeg. Here is a live Tundra Buggy Cam. This is very cool, you can actually see what the people in the buggy see and without the windchill! We're staying at the Aurora Inn. Speaking of which, we'll be hoping for an aurora borealis display! Here is a blog by a worker during polar bear season which is very informative. Here is weather for Churchill. Everyone who's been assures us that it is colder than Antarctica which is frankly hard to imagine! I hope you enjoy the webcam as much as I do until I get back with our own photos and videos.

Autumn Train to Appomattox, VA

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November 3, 2012 - We picked up our tickets at the Greensboro Amtrak Depot after 7am. The train was expected at 8am and to depart at 8:15am. I think it was about 15 minutes late. The volunteers in Greensboro were very well organized. They had people directing traffic for parking on arrival. They had a table set up right inside the main entrance of the depot for handing out tickets and t-shirts that had been pre-ordered. They had a big section of lobby seating set aside for our group. We never heard any numbers but there must have been 200 to 300 people boarding in Greensboro alone. Things fell apart a little at actual boarding time but it all turned out OK, I think.

This was NCTM's first trip to Appomattox, so hopefully if they go again they'll do an even better job. We traveled on 3 different sets of tracks today. We started traveling on the Crescent Line, which is normally only used for night-time travel. So, this was a rare opportunity for a daylight trip on it. We switched to the Norfolk Southern's Virginian Line near Lynchburg and finally to the Lynchburg Belt Line at Phoebe.

We arrived in Appomattox about noon and we departed about 3pm. Again, boarding time was a bit disorganized and we stood in line as directed for about half an hour before following others examples and just breaking for car 7. Then we got right on. With only 3 hours scheduled to spend on the ground, that amount of time in a reboarding line is just unreasonable. I am not sure what the problems were or how they could improve the process and crowd directions.

You could get lunch onboard from a limited menu at the Commissary Car, or you could preorder a $15 box lunch of chicken salad croissant in a souvenir insulated lunch bag, or you could do what we and many others did and pack a small cooler with your own food and drinks. We had yogurt, string cheese, drinks, and Jello pudding dirt cups (for Clay's birthday!). We also had protein bars and almonds. There really wasn't time to eat lunch in Appomattox and see anything else. So, most everyone in our car ate lunch after we switched to the very low speed Lynchburg Belt Line for the last 16 miles or so. This was true whether they brought their own, bought their own, or had their preordered lunch delivered to their seat. We ate again from our supply on the ride back too.

We had beautiful weather this weekend. It was sunny and the air was cool and crisp with a slight breeze. We were worried the the winds of Hurricane Sandy would have blown off all the leaves as it did in Raleigh, but there was still some color in the trees. That was nice and scenic.

In Appomattox, we got a ride on one of the first 6 school buses. They were running a continuous loop from downtown to the National Park, then to the Museum of the Confederacy and back to downtown. They really needed to mix it up because there was a crazy long line at the museum and the buses were full on arrival there. But, we wound up spending a pleasant couple of hours at the National Park. I enjoyed it much more than any of the previous battlegrounds we have visited. This was a small rural historic village. You could see almost the whole thing from any point without driving around it. You could go inside at least half of the buildings. It was very scenic and informative.

We enjoyed our visit to Appomattox. As I said earlier, if NCTM offers this same trip again next year, we would repeat it and go to the museum instead. We saw people that spent their whole 2 hours at the museum, so that is an option.

We got back to Greensboro around 6:35-6:40pm, so close to on schedule. They had to move the train to unload the tourist class. So, we didn't actually set foot back in Greensboro until about 7pm.

We had thought to have dinner at Natty Greene's Pub around the block from the depot. But, there were street closures and when we finally arrived there, it was a madhouse of throngs of people and streams of traffic. There would have been no where to park and we'd have never gotten in. I don't know what was happening there that night, but we passed. Clay was still craving a hot dog from Yum Yum. So we drove there only to find it closed for the night and UNCG having homecoming. Third time was the charm as we had seen a Mexican restaurant, San Luis, right at the intersection of Lee and Aycock Streets last night. We went and found parking, seats and some tasty Mexican food. Clay even had a cold beer! Still sad about missing those hot dogs but it was a good meal. No complaints. I couldn't finish all 3 of my enchiladas, so Clay got the last one to go and used the refrigerator and microwave to have it in the room for an early breakfast on Sunday. We didn't have any dessert tonight. Just went back to the Super 8 to our room and to bed.

We slept through the night and I mean all night even with the time change meaning we slept an extra hour!

There's not much more to say, so rather than start a new entry for Sunday, I'll just continue here. We got up and skipped the continental breakfast at the Super 8 today. I guess I should talk about it. They had apple and orange juice, coffee, hot tea and hot water, milk, hot cereal, cold cereal, toast and butter only, cinnamon buns with and without nuts. I think that was about it. We did have it yesterday morning before stopping at Bojangles! We had takeout biscuits at the depot while waiting yesterday that I think I forgot to write about. Bojangles was on Eugene St. between the Super 8 and Amtrak, so very convenient. Today, we were hoping for a big sit down breakfast to kill time while we waited for Sports Authority to open at 9am. We wound up at Jake's Diner on Wendover because it was near Sports Authority. It was fine. We both had 2 egg breakfasts with meat, grits and biscuits. I think it was less than $10 for the whole thing. No complaints. Except, it was not a killing time, linger over your meal place and we still had an hour or so to kill before 9am. We found an open WalMart and wandered in there. Bought a cable Clay has been looking for, bought 2 new bathroom rugs. Found an idea for another Christmas gift for Mom! So, an hour well spent.

What you may ask is up with the 9am opening of Sports Authority. Therein lies a tale...  Last year around this time I won a $100 gift card in a Deer Park Water website promotion. I didn't receive the actual gift card until maybe February. We don't have a Sports Authority in Raleigh, in fact Greensboro is the closest one. There is also one near Mom's house in Florida but we weren't sure how long the card would be good. Then, there is our trip to Churchill Manitoba next week... I had outgrown all my boots and needed some. Online, SA has a good selection of snow or winter boots at a $30 or so price point, hence our anticipation for 9am. Debbie needs free boots. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend the Sports Authority in Greensboro, since I've never been to any other I don't know if I can recommend them at all. They did not carry winter or snow boots. The help, other than Arthur in the shoe department, were useless and no help at all. They did not know anything about their products, where to find things in the store or what they carried onsite or online. Clay and I cannot remember when we last worked so hard to spend $100 and enjoyed it so little. But, I did end up with a pair of Columbia women's waterproof hiking boots, and I hope they will work for our polar bear adventure, a larger pair of waterproof pants (my feet weren't all that grew!), 2 pair of sticky pad gloves, a pair of 8 lb. dumbbells for Clay and 4 metal skewers (don't ask). We still had about $2 left on the card but we couldn't take anymore, Sports Authority can keep it!

Then we drove towards Raleigh. But, there was one more freebie to collect. If you read here, you know that we are ADF season ticket holders. I had cut out of one of the programs this summer an ad from the Nasher Museum that you could get free admission with an ADF ticket. So, we detoured through Durham and had a quick look. It is a beautiful building and a small and interesting collection. Glad we saw it free! Then we went to Mad Hatter and had sandwiches for lunch. Clay got a chocolate whopper cookie too. Then we drove on home and unpacked.

It was a good trip for Clay's birthday present. He ended up with 4 t-shirts.

Next up is Polar Bear Adventure in Churchill Manitoba. Now, I know that technically you cannot take a road trip to Churchill because there are no roads to there, but since it is only a week in North America I am going to just include it in this blog and not make a free-standing one for this short trip. Short, but a big and expensive trip that has been on my bucket list for a long time! Stay tuned.

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Greensboro, NC

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November 2, 2012 - This is Clay's long-awaited 64th birthday gift trip. Back in June, we booked this Autumn Train Excursion to Appomattox, VA with the NC Transportation Museum. You may recall that we did this trip last year, but to Toccoa, GA. We enjoyed that trip so much, that we wanted to make sure to go again this year. As last year, we opted to travel in Tourist Class which was in standard Amtrak equipment. Our tickets were $150/per person. The train this year had 25 cars. We were in car 7. Cars 1-9 were standard Amtrak equipment and were all the tourist class passengers. Cars 10 and 11 were the Commissary Car and the Commissary Gift car. Cars 12-23 were all vintage cars and included the Clinchfield car that we rode to DC this spring! Cars 12-23 carried Deluxe Coach Class at $185/pp which included lunch and snacks and beverages, then Premium First Class at $260/pp which included continental breakfast, newspapers, light snacks and beverages and dinner, then there was Dome Class at $295/pp which included riding in the dome cars and continental breakfast, newspapers, plus dinner. I had preordered with our tickets a $20 commemorative t-shirt for Clay. I asked then if it had a nice picture like 2011's and the woman did not know and said it had not been designed yet. I took a chance and ordered it anyway. It was not an attractive shirt and does not have a date or trip name on it. I won't make that mistake again. Next year if we go, I'll let him take his chances shopping on the train trip. I also preordered tickets at $3/pp for the Appomattox Court House National Historic Park which included round trip rides from the train station on public school buses. If they do this trip again next year, we would do it again but buy the extra tickets to the Museum of the Confederacy instead. But I get ahead of myself...

Sadly, by having these non-refundable tickets we missed Clay's brother Warner's surprise retirement party on Saturday afternoon. We were sorry to not be there. All of Clay's siblings and a lot of other relatives were to be there and it was sad to miss the gathering. Clay especially wanted to go, but it was one of those can't be in 2 places scenarios and we had already invested in the train trip and still really wanted to take it as well. Sorry Warner! Hope a great time was had by all and that it was a great surprise!

We drove over to Greensboro after Clay's morning at work and my follow-up visit with Dr. Carnes, the neurologist. He wanted to see me after a month on pramipexole and he thought the tremor was responding well and that reinforced his opinion that I have Parkinson's Disease. We skipped lunch and snacked in the car while listening to one of Clay's audio book CDs. We got to downtown Greensboro in the early afternoon and went straight to our first stop, Blandwood.

I visited Blandwood when I was at UNCG from 1976 to 1980. Clay had never been, though we had visited Greensboro and UNCG since returning to NC in 1990. We are very familiar with the architect A J Davis now, but when I saw Blandwood originally I had never heard of him. Since his name comes up all the time in downtown Raleigh now in discussions of historic properties or Oakwood Cemetery, we frequently hear references to Blandwood, but neither of us had any experiences of it to relate to the conversations. Now, we do. We rang the bell and were rewarded with a private tour for $8 each. It was a very rewarding visit. We learned a lot about Governor Morehead and his family. After the death of his last child, we learned that for about 60 years Blandwood was an addiction treatment facility! That explains a lot about what I remember of it from my late 1970's visit!

After Blandwood, we drove into downtown Greensboro proper to visit the International Civil Rights Museum which is housed in the old Woolworth's building where 1960's Sit Ins took place. I had been there too while at UNCG when it was still a very rundown store and I sat at the lunch counter for a Coke, just to say I had been there. It and downtown Greensboro are very different now! An improvement, but you can't sit at the counter anymore. We paid $10/pp and joined a tour in progress with a group of young black college students. One other older white couple joined our tour shortly after we did and the 4 of us started at the beginning of the tour again after this tour ended. It was nicely done though perhaps as Clay said, a little too close to home. It was interesting that the student group was viewing it as history and we were remembering! You know when you are old! The other couple was not local and perhaps not even Southern, they too seemed to have a different perspective. I was glad we went, Clay seemed mostly uncomfortable with the whole thing. He perked up when I took him across the street and we read the plaques about other notable locals, O. Henry and Vicks.

After that we drove down Eugene St. to our home for the next 2 nights at the Super 8 Motel off the Interstate. We paid a total AARP rate of $108.22 for the 2 nights. For the price, it was a good location and relatively quiet and it included Internet, a refrigerator and microwave, HBO, and a continental breakfast from 6am to 9am. We were happy enough with our choice. We had a room with 2 double beds on the ground floor. The only down sides were that the HVAC unit under the window was loud and the first night some idiot parked a couple of doors down and then honked his horn intermittently for about an hour from around 2 to 4am. We slept undisturbed the 2nd night even with the time change giving us an extra hour!

Then to dinner. Stamey's BBQ has been in Greensboro a very long time and is famed as one of the que restaurants still cooking over wood coals. I don't have a preference for wood vs. gas so this is not important to me. Clay prefers the purity and flavor of wood fire. He has long coveted a meal at Stamey's especially when Bob Garner talks about it! I ate there once when I was at UNCG and did not remember being impressed or making a return trip. Clay would finally get to go and as I predicted, he was disappointed mainly because it is Lexington-style and Clay really prefers Eastern-style. He especially dislikes the red slaw.  I ordered BBQ chicken breast and baked beans instead of the slaw. On the plus side, no onions in the hush puppies. They served on paper plates! Classic.Oh, well. It is now checked off Clay's to do list and got the t-shirt.

We were not tempted by dessert at Stamey's and drove to UNCG for ice cream at Yum Yum. Clay had been here before on a previous trip to Greensboro with me. We were in a chocolate mood I guess as I had a small chocolate cone and Clay had a large chocolate almond cone. The hot dogs smelled delicious and looked like Bright Leaf! I don't know what to make of us both craving a hot dog after eating dinner! Clay got another t-shirt here.

Tomorrow we can actually sleep in a bit as the train doesn't load in Greensboro until after 8am!

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