Packing for Canada! (again!)

Two days ago, election day,  people could be heard saying, " I'm ready to pack my bags for Canada".  Yes, I had to laugh because I actually WAS packing for Canada!  However, I will be returning to the US after my short Churchill visit to see the polar bear migration to Hudson bay.  Ahh, what energy there was in at home on election day!  Living in a "swing state" certainly did keep us in the limelight with many visits by the candidates.  I know there are some reading this from far away and some who don't share my political beliefs, but if you are reading this, you either really like me anyway, or just enjoy my very long winded trip reports.

My dear dogs were delivered to their familiar settings, Meli with my friend's family with other dogs where she will be totally spoiled, and Bram at his hang out where he has gone for 8 years, his doggie daycare, country club style.  A holiday for all of us.  And then off for another adventure for me!  

I have a few favorite places to visit, and still love experiencing new ones.  My last trip was a combination of both of those things.  It was to be the last trip of the year as I start looking for a job to pay off my trips.  However, things do come up, and now I am headed to my polar paradise, Churchill, Manitoba, Canada.  (Yes, I do have 2 paradises-Mykonos, being my tropical paradise.)  Churchill isn't quite in the arctic circle, but Hudson bay is the one place in the world where you can be guaranteed to see polar bears this time of year.  If you have followed my travels, you know this isn't my first trip to this remote northern location in Canada.  Well, it isn't even my second or third visit either!  And actually, it isn't that far north compared to many other towns and villages, but for me, it is far enough into a remote location, to be considered as such.

This was a trip that was never going to happen again, it isn't easy or inexpensive.  Just when I'd resigned myself to the fact that I'd be watching the bears this year on the polar bear live cam in the tundra, I received the most generous and amazing offer from my friends who live in Churchill.  Kevin, who I met on my Antarctica trip, lives in Churchill.  I've gotten to know his family during my visits and this year they sent me an invitation to return to Churchill using the one tour he is given to give as a gift to someone for working for the companies he is with.  This is such an amazingly, generous offer, I am still trying to believe this is happening!  But it is!  Along with Kevin and Sandy's generous offer, I was able to get my flights to Winnipeg with miles and my hotel in Winnipeg with points, making this probably the best deal to Churchill there has ever been!  I appreciate this opportunity more than words can say!  And yes, right now I feel like the luckiest person in the world!  

I am so thankful that the weather is nice because I'm still really not all that brave.  I left home before the storm moved in and it is 2degrees C and clear in Winnipeg.  Tomorrow morning I will be on a charter plane to Churchill through one of the tour companies and that will be a first.  I'm sure it will be fine, and I do always look forward to the people I meet as I head north to the bears!  Some really interesting people take this journey.  I'm hoping for cold and snow there.  If it is too warm the bears don't move around much, and to be honest, I want to see it all!  

This trip is short, but filled with bears.  When I arrive in Churchill tomorrow morning we will go out on our own to see bears.  The next two days I will be on the tundra in the tundra buggies, courtesy of Kevin!  Then a flight back to Winnipeg, a night in the hotel there and then home.  Short, but bear filled!  I'm really not sure how to show my gratitude.  I'm so touched!

And so, my bags are packed and off to Canada I go!