Churchill, Manitoba, Day 1

We arrived in Churchill, Manitoba this morning at 8 AM, an hour early, in part due to the fact that due to a derailment on the branch to Thompson, Manitoba, we did not go to Thompson at all. Indeed, because the back-and-forth on the Thompson Subdivision, we actually stopped for around eight hours at The Pas, not because of any blockage on the line, but because in general, trains are not allowed to run ahead of schedule, and we consequently had to let enough time pass that when we left Gillam, farther up the line, we were not running "hot."

I would love to show photos from today, and as I write this I just spent more than an hour trying to caption and catalog just the photos I took today in Flickr, but then Flickr went down. I hope it will come back later and that it did not lose my captions.

Today was a big day for Lisa. She achieved a lifetime bucket-list item. Those of you who follow me on Mastodon know what it was. I'll write more about it when I have access to my photos again. In the meantime, I'm going to try and get some sleep in the four-bedroom/two-bath, fully-equipped house that Lisa, I, and four others have rented for our three-day/two night stay in Churchill. My early impression of the Beluga Beach House is that I wish we could stay here for a week instead of only two nights. More later, with pictures.

Churchill, Manitoba, Day 1: This Time With Pictures

Here is the posting that I would have made had Flickr not gone down earlier.

( Welcome to Churchill )

Theoretically, each of the four rooms in the Beluga Beach House can be rented individually. We had only six people, but we went ahead and rented the entire house, which saved a lot of bother since we all know each other. It still was less expensive than hotel rooms. With the self-catering facilities, we all went to the grocery store and got various food to suit ourselves. Groceries are expensive here, and due to that derailment, the stores were under-stocked. (This would be corrected by flying in some things.)

( Back to the Station )

While walking between the station and the Beach House, we walked past Hudson Bay Helicopters, which does helicopter tours. I'd tried to contact them without success before our trip, but apparently they hadn't been able to hear my telephone number. We inquired about availability and costs. A 30 minute tour for two people would cost CA$880. That's a lot, but not impossibly expensive. We made a reservation for 5 PM.

That price included the cash discount and would be more expensive by credit card. Putting our heads (and bank accounts) together, we determined that we could get enough cash to pay for it by taking close to our maximum daily limits from both accounts. We walked to the RBC banking center and pulled enough cash to pay for the trip.

We arrived early in order to watch the safety briefing and then it was time to go.

( Lisa's Bucket List Item )

Lisa was absolutely delighted to get this trip. She did take fixed-wing pilot training when she was younger, but had never been in a helicopter and has always wanted to ride in one.

Click through the various photos to see the others, including one that includes the cost of the rides for various group sizes and ride durations.

Later, we did a little train chasing.

( Via Rail Leaving Town )

Returning to the Beach House, we made dinner from some of the material we bought earlier today and turned in to sleep in our (regrettably stuffy) room.

Thursday was a banner day and Lisa was very happy to have achieved a major bucket list item. The rest of the weekend is expected to be very busy as we try to squeeze a lot of activity into very little time. This house is nice enough, and to some extent I wish we could stay a week instead of only two nights; it would make the stay a little bit pressured.