Polar Bears and Belugas!

In 2010 I first learned that there were beluga whales in Churchill. At that moment, I knew that I would go there someday. This July it was time.

I decided to go on a 'learning vacation' with the Churchill Northern Studies Centre. It seemed right up my alley. I would get to tour around with other people with the same interests, while also learning from an expert in the field through lectures at night. I signed up and waited for Via to have its 50% off sale.

In early June, there was a train derailment between Gillam and Churchill. As there are no roads into the town, and I'd already booked my train ticket, I started to get a bit worried. The train issues dragged on, and I started to think this might be to my advantage. If the derailment was publicised, maybe people would postpone their trips, therefore making my trip in economy a bit more comfy. I was in luck! On my way up to Churchill, there were only a few of us going the whole distance. The car was almost empty.

I decided to get off in Thompson, and fly from there to Churchill, as I was able to get a seat sale. In Thompson, I shared a room with Mel. We'd met on the train, thanks to an older man who was telling us about his life in Churchill, and as we were both heading to Churchill, and had just spent 30+ hours on the train, we decided it was ok. The next morning Mel, a Swiss man and his son, and a Japanese student (all who had been on the train) got on the one hour flight to Churchill.

Let me start by saying I love Churchill! I ended up spending 10 whole days there, and by the end, almost wanted to move there.

I went whale watching 4 times. Twice I was in the big tour boat run by Sea North Tours. Once I was in a zodiac and once I was in a kayak. I saw loads of whales. Every time it was so exciting! Many of the whales were babies, so that was neat too.

The most exciting trip out was the kayaking one. I ended up being paired with a Chinese student who'd never been in a kayak before. To add to that, it was a crazy windy day. We lasted about 45 minutes in the kayak before I asked Remi, the Sea North zodiac driver, if we could go with him. Man, am I glad I did. About an hour and a half into the kayaking Remi got a radio call. As there is no coast guard in Churchill, Sea North helps out when there are water related issues, because they have boats in the water. It turned out that a canoe with 7 people had flipped the night before, and while 5 of the people had been located, 2 were still missing. We had to go on a search and rescue mission!! The whole time I was torn between excitement and fear. It turns out the other people were fine, but I got a great story out of it.

Another highlight of the trip was seeing polar bears in the wild. I hadn't even thought that it would be possible, but it was!! Over the 10 days I was there,  I saw 8 bears. Most were mothers and cubs, but I also saw a male who had been injured and was hanging around the Prince of Wales fort.

Two fun facts related to bears: 1) There is a polar bear jail in Churchill. Any bears caught around town are caught and put in jail. They aren't fed, and have no contact with people. Eventually they are released outside of town, or flown down the coast. 2) Every Halloween the men of the town get their guns, hop on their ATVs and surround the town so the kids can go trick or treating. It's called the Polar Bear Posse.
On one of my last days I took a Tundra Buggy tour. This is a must do in the winter months, but my 6 hours were not wasted in July. While on tour I got the sight I'd been longing for. A saw a polar bear in fireweed. I also saw a caribou.

While there, I also got to see the first two freight ships of the season come into port. It was such a big deal, many of the people in town headed to Cape Merry to see them come in.

As well as the whales and bears, I also saw a lot of different types of birds. Luckily, the expert on our tour was also a birder, so he was able to identify many of the birds for us.

The Study Centre, where we stayed, was amazing. It's a new, environmentally friendly building, about 20 minutes from town. It's on the old Churchill Rocket Research Range. Many of the old buildings are still on site, and there are still rockets in the ground.

The town is very small, less than 900 people, but there is much to do. There are some great shops and restaurants. I recommend the Tundra Inn for dinner, and Gypsy's for lunch. There's also the complex which houses the school, hospital, arena, pool, bowling alley, theatre,  library and town offices. It's a pretty impressive building. Everyone must also visit the  Eskimo Museum.

I also got lucky on my train trip home. A few days before I was to leave, they finally fixed and tested the track, so I could take the train the whole way to Winnipeg. Again it was pretty empty, and as I was the only person in economy going the entire way, I got to be safety monitor. Excitement!!  I had four seats to myself, and they made a pretty comfy bed for my 40+ hour trip.

Overall, my time in Churchill was amazing. I loved every minute of it, from being splashed by a beluga, to searching for the northern lights, to meeting some great people. I'm not sure if I'll ever get back there, but I'll never forget my time spent in the Polar Bear Capital of the World.

 

I only have one regret about this trip, and it's that I wasn't there when the orca pod rolled into town. It showed up at the beginning of September. I would have loved to see that!

Bella Italia!

During March Break 2014, 17 students travelled with Mr. Beckett and I to Italy for 8 days. It was an amazing adventure.

After a crazy trip to Montreal, and a long flight, we landed in Milan. Once in Milan, we were picked up by the group from Texas that we would be spending the rest of our trip with. They were a big group, and many of them were very nice.


We started our Italian tour by visiting Verona. As an English teacher, I was pretty excited that I would be seeing Juliet's balcony. It's in a tiny, very crowed square, but now I can say I've been there.

Turns out the highlight of Verona is not, in fact the balcony, but the intact 2000 year old Roman arena. It's smaller than the Roman Colosseum, but in much better condition. I took on the challenge of climbing the crazy big stairs and hiked to the top. It was worth it!





Roman Arena



View of the square from arena edge





After we left Verona, we headed to Lido, on the Adriatic Sea, where we spent the night. Some of us took the opportunity to explore the beach and watch the sunset, while others took the opportunity to get showered and relax after our long travels.

The next day we headed to Venice. We saw a glass blowing demo, spent way too much money on authentic Venetian glass, toured the crazy alleys and ate an Italian lunch. Before touring the Doge's palace, we did what all tourists do in Venice; we went on a gondola ride. It was a pretty exciting day.

 Venice, while it is beautiful, is crazy busy. I wouldn't suggest going when it's high tourist time.

The next day we went to Florence. The drive was beautiful. Most of the students, and the other teachers slept through the bus trips, but I tried my hardest to stay awake and see everything. Once we go there, we had a guided tour. What a city! 

One of our first stops was in the city centre, where we saw a replica of David. Next we saw the famous Ponte Vecchio. This is the only bridge that Hitler ordered saved during the bombing of Florence during the second world war. It houses many jewelry shops, and above it there is a walkway to the Pitti Palace.



The following day, we headed to Pisa. Turns out the tower is not the only building leaning. There is also a cathedral and baptistry on the same site, and they are all leaning. The baptistry was my favourite part. There is a keeper of the building sing. It was built so a voice will echo a number of times.

After Pisa, we returned to Florence. Some of the group went to the Uffizi gallery, while some toured the Pitti Palace. No matter what the option, everyone enjoyed themselves.

On the way to Rome, we made a side trip. This turned out to be the highlight for me. We stopped in San Gigimano. It is a walled, medieval town, set on a hill in Tuscany. There we got to walk the town, taste the best gelato in the world, and climb the 218 stairs to the top of the largest intact tower in the town. Families used to build up back in the day, and when trouble came, they could climb, and therefore had an advantage over their enemies. I would move to this city in a heart beat! (if I were a millionaire).

In the town square on market day

View from the tower

After San G., we stopped in Assisi. We toured the two churches there and explored the town.

This is the San Francesco Basilica. Having the students in the picture gives you a good idea of the size.

Our final stop on our Italian tour was Roma (Rome). What an amazing city, but crazy city. We stayed outside the city in a hotel perched on a hillside. There were real orange trees growing on the property, and a number of the students had their own little villas. It was really cool. 

Our first stop in Rome, was Vatican City. We got a guided tour, and saw a lot of the famous artwork housed there. We also got to see the Sistine Chapel. It's pretty big, and impressive, but I think I would have liked it more if it weren't filled with other tourists who were breaking the rules. St. Peter's Basilica is huge! It looks big on tv, but until you've been inside, you have no idea. It was very busy, but we were lucky. The day before we went, they had celebrated the first anniversary of the new pope. It would have been stupid crazy then, or we wouldn't have been able to take a tour. 

After the Vatican we went to tour the Roman Forum and Colosseum.  One word describes these two wonders: Amazing! It's hard to believe that they were built almost 2000 years ago, and are still standing. 

Group at Colosseum

Roman Forum

In St. Peter's Basilica

View from St. Peter's square

Overall, I think everyone had a fantastic time on this trip. I can't wait to go back to Italy!  

English Adventure Part 2

In 2011, when Nan and I went to England, we both thought that it would be a once in a lifetime trip, and that Nan's travelling days were behind her. That turned out to not be the case. This past January, while I was reading The House at Riverton by Kate Morton (a great book by the way) I started thinking more about the house where Nan worked when she was younger. I decided to do a bit of research about the house. I called her to get the name of the place, and soon discovered that it was now a hotel and conference centre. When I told Nan this, she was very surprised, as the last time she was there it was an electrical college.

A few days later I got a phone call. It was Nan, and she was proposing that we go to England and stay at the house. She told me it was my decision. I wasn't sure at first, but as I finished reading the book, my decision was made. I called her and told her we were going. In July, we were on a flight to Birmingham.

We landed, rented a car, and were on our way. It was quite an experience driving a standard car, on the wrong side of the road, with no sleep, but we made it to our b and b. The b and b was a converted farm, and was very close to Rugby.That first day we just toured around the area a bit, and got rested.



Nan at the bed and breakfast.

 The next day we headed to Stratford Upon Avon to tour around and to meet Sue and Alan. We had a great day, including a boat trip on the river, a stop at Shakespeare's burial place, and an evening at the Attic Theatre to see A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Royal Shakespeare Theatre

Alan, Sue and Nan on the boat trip

Shakespeare's Grave

The next day we went to Kenilworth Castle. It was the home of Queen Elizabeth's lover Robert Dudley. It's just ruins now, but it's still pretty impressive.







Garden Dudley had made for Elizabeth

After the castle, we went to Coventry. Nan was born nearby, and pretty much grew up in Coventry. We went to the Coventry Transport Museum, because the lady at out b and b recommended it. It was very cool. The best part of it wasa 'tour' of Coventry through time. There was a section on the blitz, that devestated the city, and while we were looking at the pictures from then Nan told me that her Mother was in Coventry when the city was bombed, and wasn't able to get home for 3 days. Nan and her sisters didn't know if she was alive or dead.

At age 14 1/2 , Nan had to get a job. Her choices were Cashs, or going into service. She tried Cashs for a day, but said it was too noisy, so the next day her mom set up with an interview at Dunchurch Lodge.

The used the sewers in Coventry to film the original Itatian Job movie.

The ruins of the Coventry Cathedral

The next day we met Alan and Sue in Rugby. While we were having a rest, Nan mentioned that she'd try contacting her neice who lives in Rugby, but had no success. Alan got out this cell phone, called her up and within minutes, she was at the pub with us. We all had a great time, and it was nice meeting another family member.

The highlight of our trip was going to and staying at Dunchurch Lodge. We stayed in the converted stable.  The first night there I toured aound the whole original house and took pictures of all the rooms for Nan. It was cool actually seeing the things she'd told me stories about. I saw the staircase that she slid down on baking sheets, I saw the area of the roof where she walked from window to window, and I saw a lot of the brass that she had to clean daily.

Selfie at the Lodge. The upstairs windows are where she walked along the roof.



The Lodge from the bottom of the garden.



The servant's staircase.

Billiard room

Second front entrance gate

This lawn is where the tennis courts were when Nan worked here.



The staircase where the sliding took place.

 We had a great time in England, and survived me driving on the other side of the road. It was really nice seeing family, and even meeting new family. I guess the lesson learned was 'never say never'.

Scotland and Ireland

During March Break 2013, I travelled to Scotland and Northern Ireland with some SF students. It all started out well...we made it to Ottawa in plenty of time to catch our plane to Toronto, but that's when things started to go badly.

When we got to Toronto, we were to collect our luggage and then transfer to a flight to the US. From there we would connect to Dublin. The airport had recently updated their systems in the US area, and it backfired on us. We waited for luggage that never came, tried to get through customs, with no success, and were eventually forced to face the fact that we were stuck in Toronto (we did see Mike Holmes in customs though). And to make matters worse, because of a storm on the east coast earlier in the week, and it being March Break, there was no way to get us out until 2 days later. The kids and I were pretty upset, but I was determined to make the most of it. We were booked on a flight to Belfast, and were to spend some time in Toronto and New Jersey.

Since we would be stuck in Toronto the next day, I decided that we should go downtown. We got on the subway and made our way to the CN Tower.

After the CN Tower, we went to the Eaton Centre. The kids shopped while I read. We all had a great time. The next morning we flew to Newark where we were to have a 9 hour layover. The company we were travelling with arranged a personal sightseeing tour of New York City! Everyone was so excited. We toured around for 3 hours and saw all of the sites.

New York City

 Finally, we were on out way to the UK. Because of our delay, we had only one day in Ireland, but we made the most of it. We saw the sights, bought our souvenirs, and had a great time. While in Belfast we toured both the Protestant and Catholic areas. Even though it is now pretty peaceful, tensions are still high.



The murals in Belfast

 We also got to go to the Titanic Museum, on the spot where the great ship was built. It was very cool.

After one day in Ireland we were on our way by ferry to Scotland. This was to be the highlight of our trip.

One of the first sights we saw on our trip from the ferry to Edinburgh was this giant rock sticking out of the ocean. Turns out it is the place where they get rock to make curling stones.



While were were in Scotland, we visited two castles. The first was Edinburgh. It was very cool, but my favourite part of this city tour was going on a witchery (haunted) walk that evening. I learned a lot, and it was very entertaining.

Edinburgh Castle

The place where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter.

On the way to Stirling we travelled through Glasgow where we had an impromptu visit to the cathedral and the Glasgow Necropolis. We stayed in a hotel just outside of Stirling. I walked down the street one night and I could see the castle sitting on a hill. Stirling was also the place where the boys stocked up on Irn Bru, a delicious Scottish pop.

Glasgow Cathedral

 

Stirling Castle

One other place we visited was the town where Robbie Burns lived. We toured his home, and went through the museum, but the most exciting part for me was seeing this monkey tree. They are my favourite kind of tree.


Monkey Tree

Overall, I'm very glad we got to go on this trip, and I can't wait to go back to Scotland again!