Winnipeg, Churchill and Beyond

The long-awaited polar bear adventure in Manitoba…. with Henry’s daughter Holly, husband Matt and kids Caleb and Lily and his son Clay, wife Polly Etta and kids Kaylyn, Hayden and Hailey.  

Manitoba’s capital city was our meeting point…

The best way to transport a group this size was to just rent a whole bus!

We visited the mint where we saw how Canadian coins are produced and later learned a bit about the Hudson Bay Company, a huge commercial enterprise sponsored by the English government that was the center of industry during the colonial days.  (Below is their logo; the slogan “pro pelle cutem” means “skin for a pelt”, often interpreted to refer to the hardships the traders went through to obtain, store and ship the furs that were so treasured by the European markets.  Hudson’s Bay has evolved through the centuries and is now a retail clothing/housewares company, much like JC Penney.)

We flew on to Churchill, northeast from Winnipeg on the shore of massive Hudson Bay.  Henry made a friend on the plane…..

Churchill is a pretty small town, the major industry being tourism.  The most phenomenal feature is how perfectly positioned it is to attract beluga whales in the estuary on which the town is perched.  We first saw them on a Zodiac visit….

and later when we all went out on kayaks to get up close and personal!

Quite a thrill to have several of these leviathans nudging your teeny tiny vessel only a few feet away!

Churchill bills itself as “Polar Bear Capital of the World”, so they do get the occasional large furry white visitor.  Here are Lily, Holly and Kaylyn outside the polar bear jail…

They also have non-polar-bear/beluga-whale residents…. a fine canine and a couple of Icelandic ponies…

From Churchill, we had to separate into two groups to take the small fixed-wing flight to the remote Nanuk Polar Bear lodge, about 80 minutes away further south on Hudson Bay.  Although the day was slightly overcast, we were able to spot more than 20 polar bears from the air on each trip!  (Caleb and Matt below enjoying the flight…..)

There were 6 other people on our adventure – and as Henry and I have learned on similar outings, all of them were friendly, fun to be with and interesting.  We enjoyed hearing their stories and learning a bit more about them.  (The person in the hood is Mai, a dermatologist from Taiwan with perfect skin…. likely to remain that way, unlike mine.  She is also a master flamenco dancer!)