Bathurst Inlet Lodge Yellowknife

... above a dance bar (actually look above and below the room you're in) - make your luggage very identifiable so that no one thinks your bag is theirs (this is what we thought happened to our big bag the second time; at customs) - distribute all NECESSARY items in all bags so that if one bag gets lost, at least you have some in other bags (ie. Baby clothes) - bring plenty of Tylenol/ibuprofen (we actually did this, so yippee) Done and done! WE DID IT! Bring on Mexico we says!

... in front of the cabin are breath taking. On leaving Little Doctor Lake we flew between the mountains at the other end of the lake and into the Nahanni national park. Once in the park we flew over the Ram Plateau where the weather started to change. Thick cloud hung over the mountains and visibility was reduced. On arriving at Canyon One we were unable to proceed any further towards Virginia Falls. At this ...

... for stuff that you might need, like large appliances, tires, miscellaneous junk. Apparently, it costs too much to move your stuff out of Yellowknife once you get it here, so there's lots of good stuff in the dump. I personally, didn't see anything too palatable. Plus it would probably stink. One think that would be useful though, is the giant pile of wood they have just lying around. We paid $10 for a little bag ...

... Keith has. So we had to walk maybe 1k each time we wanted to use the phone. Not a big deal when you want to get away from it all, but it becomes a bigger deal when you want to rent a car. Renting a car sucks, and they didn't have my work discount company in the area, so I couldn't decide on a place. I ended up phoning all kinds of places, and settling on Hertz, because this was the only place answering the phone for me still. Anyway, we got a nice blue one ...

Sunday; Cheryl and I went for a ski with Billy and Sandra at the Ski Club. Great set of ski trials which track up and down the Canadian Shield rock that dominates the landscape here. I set up the sound system and checked out the music and range of the microphones. Lots of athletes coming into town with new uniforms from all over the North. Teams from Yamal Nenent Russia, the Sami from Northern Scandinavia,Greenland, Nunavut ...

... disarray (the organized part from the cleaner, the disarray from the contract painters). Books everywhere, furniture not in the right place, and my kitchen table covered with this and that. This is what I had come home to after a year away! Anyway Catherine had brought me a 'goodie bag' of food so we had tea, then went out to dinner and to a COSY (Classics on Stage Yellowknife) and it was a lovely end to the day. Sunday I met friends for brunch and got ...

... of a mind game. I set various destinations for myself, only to arrive there and then decide to carry on to the next point along the road. Frequently mentioned turn around points would have been Tombstone Campground, the Ogilvie Mountain Ridge Rest Area, Eagle Plains, and the Arctic Circle. A counterweight to this "piece meal" approach to the Dempster Highway were the words of an Edmonton trucker who seemed to think that there was no problem at all in ...

... Airways is an important means of getting into Nahanni National Park Reserve with the Otter aircraft being able to carry up to 17 passengers and equipment. My final stop was at the Tourist Office where a young employee was waiting for someone to bring the key to open the office. In the ensuing wait there was time to talk about the community. As a retired (occasional) high school teacher I was especially interested in the local high school ...

... et on a traversé le lac gelé pour aller jusqu'à la "vieille" ville où on a finit dans un bistro/resto de pêcheurs réputé ici (pas traditionnel comme on pourrait l'imaginer mais couvert de photos de jeunes touristes un peu fous, de blagues (du genre "Personne n'est parfait... je suis Personne") et tenu par des lesbiennes... toute une expérience) Après retour énergique pour braver la température et livraison de mes boulos pour demain matin ...

Monday January 16, 2006 PHEW.....we made it, and Canada never looked so GOOD!! Our flight left Cozumel at 12:45pm on Friday January 13th, we arrived in Houston and changed our flight home since we knew we would miss the rest of our flights cause we had to go through US customs.....so after a 5 hour lay-over we hopped on the flight to Edmonton and arrived at 12 ...