The flight

We're here!  After two days of driving, one day of flying, and two very long hours at the Iqaluit airport, we are HERE!!

JJ on the rocks!

View from up the road.

The road trip was a typical two-day drive with pets.  In short--it was long, noisy, stinky driving interrupted by fast food and (if time) a dip in the hotel pool.  Why stinky?  Because Mylo decided he did NOT like his cat carrier.  He wanted to be sure we knew how mad he was.  So he got his point across in a way that could not be more clear.  His cat carrier got emptied, rinsed, etc. several times throughout the trip.

We're having so much fun!

I do have a suggestion for multi-vehicle road trips that helped us enormously: WALKIE TALKIES.  I know, its old-school technology, and we have cell phones, but trust me on this.

1) You can't read a text or talk on your cell phone safely while driving on highways.  I know people do, but we don't.

2) It gives your children a VERY IMPORTANT JOB.  They become dispatchers.

walkie talkies

Finally, after a 5:30am wake up call today we made it to the airport.  We had 14 pieces of luggage, the dog, the cat, plus 5 carry on bags.  The woman at the check-in counter with Canadian North didn't even blink.

This is ALL ours.

In-flight safety bear.

After we made it to our gate we spotted DJ's school principal (who we had met on our first trip up last fall) who was returning from her vacation.  Then we met a family who live down the road from our Iqaluit house who were returning from their vacation (they also have two children).  Iqaluit is a small city of 7,700 people that feels like a small town of 500.  (Maybe the isolation has something to do with that.)

The front half the plane is just for cargo, there is a
big wall about halfway up the plane. Passengers get the back half.

As the ground became visible from the house DJ commented "It looks like a desert!"  And it does, except that instead of sand, there is nothing but rock as far the eye can see. DJ then said "I thought there were going to be icebergs!" Coraline: "I thought there were going to be houses!"


Ba da bing.


After we got to our house and unpacked (well, ok, after we ate pizza and opened suitcases then walked away from them), the children spent the rest of the evening playing at the park with the same boys they had met at the airport.

Tomorrow: finish unpacking, figure out the "car" situation, get new sim cards for cellphones, arrange for internet and satellite TV, buy groceries, pick up cat food and litter............