It’s been warming up as of late, a sign that spring is on it’s way! The warmer temperatures have allowed for some great weekend activities. A few weekends ago, we skied across Yellowknife Bay to the ‘untouched wilderness’ on the other side. We sat around in the snow for a bit enjoying the beautiful sunshine. We realized how much more work skiing in ungroomed snow is, especially when there are big snow drifts.
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Last weekend, on Valentine’s day, Yellowknife experienced some ‘warm’ temperatures, so we headed outdoors! We went for a snowshoe in and amongst the Tin Can Hill area. Suffice to say, our snowshoes, which we purchased cheap and for southern Ontario winters, are not the most useful up here. The light and fluffy snow left us sinking, but we had a lot of fun regardless. We found it really awkward to walk on packed down snow afterwards.
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As per the requests of a few individuals, here are a few pics from last night’s aurora. Once again, I was PJ’d up, and didn’t bother going outside, so you get more pictures from our window. Maybe I’ll shovel off the balcony so I can at least step outside…
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After a week of “warm” conditions and cloudy skies, we have finally returned to “cooler” temperatures and clear skies. This meant we were able to see our first northern lights. It wasn’t the most spectacular show, but it was quite a sight…especially from the comfort of the apartment. The lights didn’t last long before fading into the night sky, but we managed a few pictures. Most of these were ruined by our projection alarm clock showing up in the reflection of the glass (that’s right, we didn’t bother dressing up and going outside), but here is one:
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Our first week in Yellowknife is just about wrapping up. It has been quite warm since we got here (it is currently -15C), which has meant good walking conditions to work. However, this warmth has also resulted in poor aurora viewing conditions (too cloudy!). On Saturday we took advantage of the warmth and explored Yellowknife by foot. We checked out the visitor centre, Northern Heritage Centre, and the NWT Legislative Building before heading inside for lunch.
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We have arrived at our final destination! Day 5 started out, again, in the dark. We left a bit later than our usual 5AM because we knew we had a shorter day of driving ahead. After an eventful night in our hotel room, this late start was welcomed because it allowed us to sleep in a bit more. We were awoken around 11PM to random beeps on the smoke alarm. They kept at it, every few minutes, for awhile.
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We have headed NORTH… finally! We arose to a wonderful weather forecast and were eager to get on the road. We knew we had a very long drive ahead of us (the longest section of our journey - 1300km). We were treated to starry skies while exiting Saskatchewan. It really is the land of the living skies! We counted 5 shooting stars and we think we saw a lynx (or some sort of bobcat-looking animal…).
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We finally made it out of Ontario (at about 6AM this morning)!!! We were worried last night about our early morning drive as the weather forecast called for anywhere from 2-10cm of snow overnight and into the day today. We woke up to a VERY light dusting that didn’t even cover the entire car. With this great surprise, we headed out on the road. We got a quick and dark glimpse at Huskie the Muskie (a giant fish statue in Kenora) on our way out of town - sorry for the lack of photo.
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We are still in Ontario. We are getting quite bored with this province (it is HUGE). The drive from Wawa to Thunder Bay is beautiful, as you travel alongside the northern shore of Lake Superior. We did much of this in the dark, unfortunately (having left our motel room just before 5AM again). But as the sun rose, we got some beautiful views of the lake and surrounding rocks, once our car windows defrosted completely from the -31C temperature.
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Our lives have been a little crazy the last few days, and we have had little time to share details of our news with everyone before we headed out on our latest adventure, so we decided to use this blog to update you all. Rashaad has been hired on contract working for the Government of the Northwest Territories for at least the next 6 months, based in Yellowknife. With an immediate start date, we had to pack up our lives and get up there in about a week or so.
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