Tuesday, June 10, 2008

First 24 Hours in Nunavut

Greetings to y'all down south!

To answer any immediate questions:
- No, there are NOT any polar bears in my front yard.
- Yes, it is cold. Not too cold though.
- No, we don't live in an igloo!

However, we'll recap the day that was on the way from Toronto to Baker Lake.

At 7:45 AM Eastern Time, we caught the shuttle service from our hotel to Pearson. When we got to Pearson, we had to do the usual checking in. Since we were moving, and since we had "too much stuff", we paid our overage on our luggage and then found our gate. We then got some Tim Hortons, because it was the only reasonably priced food at the airport, and waited for the 10 AM flight to Winnipeg.

The flight to Winnipeg lasted about 2.5 hours, and we were able to pass the time by watching a movie. We both chose Horton Hears a Who. Not a bad movie, not a great movie. Worth watching though. This flight would be the worst one of the day for us, and it was very bumpy.

We got to Winnipeg and the weather proved why it is a world class city - cold and rainy. :P

We grabbed lunch at a restaurant and waited once again for our flight, this time to Churchill, Manitoba.

Of course, as we are waiting at the gate, something somewhere went wrong with a Calm Air plane and we had to wait nearly an extra hour to board the plan to Churchill. Once we got going, we went to Arviat, Nunavut for about five minutes, and headed out to Rankin Inlet. We landed there and we waited for about 25 minutes for a refuel and such, and we finally got on the plane to head for Baker Lake - one hour behind schedule.

We landed at the Baker Lake Airport at 10 PM Central Time. Once we got our luggage - and it was all there to our surprise - we waited to get picked up.

And waited...

Nobody to pick us up.

So Mike asked the lady at the front desk about it while Grace guarded the luggage. The lady at the counter told Mike that there was a little mix up at the store about when we were coming in.

The assistant manager, Ken, was told that we weren't going to be in until Tuesday night at 9, and we were told Monday night at 9. Anywho, after one phone call and about 5 minutes, a big cloud of dust came up the road - Ken in a Northern truck.

Ken took us to the store to pick up some food for breakfast - at this point it's 11 PM - and we were a little surprised by the prices of some things.

Here's an example:
- Large jar of Cheese Whiz: $17.99
- 10lb Bag of Red Potatoes: $18.89
- Small bag of flour: $10.45
- 2L Bottle of Coke: $12.99

All we could say is thank God for a food allowance!

We got to the apartment around 11:30, got comfortable and fell asleep.

We ended up having today off, so we gave the apartment a good cleaning and got unpacked and did some more shopping. Pretty uneventful day.

Below are some pictures of the apartment. Enjoy!

-Grace and Mike

Kitchen
Living Room
Bathroom (sorry for sideways picture)
Dining Area
Bedroom
Other side of bedroom
Dining area and front door (door on left)

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey Grace ... I am glad you guys made it safe and sound! Your place looks very nice! I am glad you had time to get settled in before you have to become a working women.

William said...

Exciting times! good to see you made it in one piece.

Paula Barnhart said...

I'm glad you are safe and "home". The place looks great. Can't wait to hear what is next. Enjoy and let me know about the polar bears!!

Gramma and Papa said...

Hi Grace and Mike,
What an adventure, it's great to be young. Your home looks real nice and I'm sure you'll br confortable. Will write you later when Papa comes in.
Love Gramma

Unknown said...

Looks cozy... but where do I get to stay when I come visit haha. Hope your first day at work was good

Anonymous said...

I am glad the bagel guided your way and everything turned out good!

Laura

kmallett said...

How's it going up in the Great White North eh you hosers?

Glad to see everything went ok (for the most part) and I think the question everybody is dying to ask is:

How much does a case of beer cost up there?

LOL

Richard said...

Think of the money saved on refrigeration of the beer though. That has to be taken into account.