Justin time for solstice

Justin was ‘just in’ Yellowknife!

After returning from the airport to drop off Rashaad’s family, we quickly got  to cleaning up the condo and doing laundry as our next guest, Justin, was set to arrive the next day! We headed back to the airport on Sunday to pick him up. He was very excited to arrive in Yellowknife, having been to the north before (Whitehorse and Inuvik) but never to Yellowknife!

Justin arrived on the solstice. The sun is up in Yellowknife for exactly 20 hours on solstice, with 4 hours of twilight (no darkness!). Unfortunately all of the solstice festivities were on the Saturday night, so he missed out on some fun, but we did the usual welcome BBQ and walk on Tin Can Hill with him instead. We did lots of catching up and chatting that day!

Monday was a statutory holiday in the territory (celebrating National Aboriginal Day) so we were off work. We had a full day of activities planned. This started with somewhat of a windy and cloudy canoe jaunt around Frame Lake - where we almost got attacked by some nesting gulls! We then hiked the entire Frame Lake Trail as the sun came out. We had a quick bite to eat at the Wildcat Cafe and then headed over to the Old Town Float Base for the adventure that Justin and Rashaad were all too excited for - a floatplane ride!

We chartered a floatplane for a 45 minute tour around the Yellowknife area from

. Vanessa was nervous as this was the smallest plane she had ever been in, but everyone came away from the ride loving it. It was so much fun! Thanks to our pilot James and owner Peter - such a great experience!

Again, this week involved Vanessa and Rashaad working so Justin was left to explore on his own. He walked around so much, he is definitely headed home with a tan! He walked to Old Town almost every day and discovered as much of Yellowknife as he could. He hit up a couple of Yellowknife’s food trucks and brought home a large filet of Great Slave Lake trout one night that we grilled up on the BBQ. It was delicious.

As per our weekly tradition, we hit up the farmer’s market on Tuesday for food and goodies - including some fresh, local NWT morel mushrooms (they were delicious fried up the next night for dinner). They also had ‘Music at the Market’ last week which was wonderful.

Rashaad and Justin hit up the Buffalo Airways for their hangar tour on Thursday over lunch. They both love planes so this seemed like a no-brainer.

While visiting the NWT Diamond Centre and learning all about the diamond mines and mining process in the territory, Justin even got to try his hand at diamond polishing!

On Justin’s last night in town, we headed out on the Ingraham Trail immediately after work for a picnic. We ended up at Madeline Lake (just 20 minutes out of town) where we picnicked and sat on the dock on the lake for hours chatting and enjoying the beauty of the NWT.

We were back at the airport on Saturday to drop him off. Thanks for visiting, Justin!

What a busy month (and year!) it has been. It has been so great to have so many of our close friends and family up to visit so far and we look forward to the next. Consider this an open invitation.