Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Yellowknife, NWT

I am trying to catch up on our summer adventures so everyone will know why I have not been reading.

It is so spectacularly beautiful here in the summer that I just don't spend any time inside. Highs in the upper 70s to low 80s.  Blue skies.  Sun.  Mountain vistas.  Even when I am at home, I make an effort to just sit on my back porch and look at the mountains.  I look at the mountains in the winter as well, but it is too cold to sit outside and just contemplate them.  Then I have to be inside by the fire, and what better place to curl up with a book.  But I digress ...

A few weeks ago we headed up - with a group of about 15 other planes - to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories for an airshow.  This, by the way, was my husband's idea.  He hasn't gotten a lot of flight time in this year, and here was a great opportunity to get to know some of the flying club members, see an airshow, and see another part of Canada.

O.K.  That is how I would describe the weekend.  Nice, that is another good word.  Well, those and incredibly expensive.  On a good day in the US, flying is a pricey hobby.  Here in Canada, where general aviation is almost dead, the price of a weekend doubles.

I guess we are a little jaded ... we have seen the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds countless times.  We have watched vintage WWII fighters race around cones in Reno.  We have visited the monument to Beechcraft.  An airshow with 6 planes on static display, one F-18, and the Snowbirds didn't do much for me.  I'm happy all of the people in Yellowknife got to see these, but I would have rather been hiking.

The highlight of the weekend (besides coming home) was visiting the headquarters of Buffalo Aviation.  Do you ever watch Ice Pilots?  Yeah, we met those guys.  My youngest son was in heaven.



So, I just reread this post.  The weekend wasn't that bad.  I think if it had been just the four of us, we might have had a better time.  But we were in a group.  I don't do well traveling in large groups.  Especially a group that includes arrogant SOBs and cheap old men who try to stiff waitresses.  Enough ... when were together just a a family, it was lovely and the people of Yellowknife were kind and welcoming. 

By the way - post 100 since arriving in Canada a little over a year ago.

1 comment:

Girl Detective said...

I discovered in the last decade that my maximum number of traveling/bunking companions is 6. This includes dogs, cats and babies. Beyond six, I get cranky/ier and anxious/er.