Hi! Belated greetings from Churchill, Manitoba in Canada! (I'm actually home now..) Now I know some of you are wondering where is that, because you're curious like me...some I know are more geographically challenged...so I thought I'd make it easy on everyone and take a photo of my atlas! So, the tip of the pen marks where I was, you might be able to click on it to enlarge. Basically, its at the very top of the province of Manitoba (almost to Nunavut) and sits on the shores of the Hudson Bay. Some of you might be thinking..cool..maybe I'll take a road trip one day! WRONG! No roads lead to Churchill! But...you can arrive on the train (36+ hours from Winnipeg is what I've been told), or a 2&1/2 hour flight on a very small airplane from Winnipeg. Being that I do have to return to work promptly..I went for the plane, which had about 40 people going up, and 25 coming back (no empty seats either), a little noisy in comparison to a 747, but..much smoother flight and landing!
Here I am shortly after arrival in Churchill at the scene of my 1st "bear sighting"! The owner of the B&B at which I stayed for a few nights was gracious enough to pick me up from the airport and also give a quick tour of the town/orientation to Churchill and play photographer too! It was a very overcast and dark day...but surprisingly warm! Was in the high 20's this day! (I was prepared for down to -20 Fahrenheit!)
Also on the same flight I met Helen and Barb (both from Winnipeg) and they are staying with George & Stella as well! We hit it off and had a very fun day checking out the town...Churchill may never be the same.....Here we are at an inukshuk (inn-ook-shh-ook) at the beach! An inukshuk is a stone landmark that marks a place of importance. Might be for navigation, hunting spot, reference point, of just because it makes a nice photo for camera happy tourists!
I am told the town has a population of about 900, and of those that I met....I found them to be very welcoming, polite, helpful, funny and downright Paula Deenish to crazy tourists like myself! Here's Helen & Barb on Kelsey Blvd, the main drag of town. I'm not really good at determining how big the town is... but to walk from one end to the other, no more than 10 minutes leisurely pace. And going the other direction...maybe 2 or 3 minutes. There were maybe a dozen stores with all sorts of treasures and several restaurants and hotels/B&B's to choose from. They are very welcoming to tourists which sort of surprised me...I'm not sure how I would feel if for 2 months out of the year the town increased by more than 25% and I was asked the SAME questions more times a day than I could count. But....the residents are truly gracious, remembering you from a day or several days past and taking an interest in you and making you truly feel at home and part of the family! This is another reason why I will return to Churchill some day...maybe in the summertime to see the Beluga whales, birds, and flowers...oh...and bears too!
And I just really liked this sign!!
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