A bit of winter in videos and pics

January. The last days of our stay in Thunder Bay.

Highway 11 (Trans-Canadian Highway) intersection



Final skiing day in Thunder Bay



Loch Lomond beginner ski runs




The end of the skiing day (4pm)



As usual - Jill and Ash are the last off the hills



Ash demonstrates his snowboarding skills in -27C weather

Our Limo ride

A wonderful friend at school organized a surprise event for us. She wouldn't give ANYTHING away, so we had no idea about what was to happen - just that we had to "be ready" at 6.30pm to be collected. Mysterious.
At a little before 6.30pm Jill was upstairs getting things for the kids when she began shouting, "Ian! Look out the window!"

When I did - this is what I saw.



Ash holding our goodies basket alongside our limousine.

 Not only did we get a limousine ride, but it was pink too! For an hour we were driven around Thunder Bay - in a state of excited luxury. The kids couldn't contain themselves and climbed everywhere including Paige going upside down in the back window for a while. They just couldn't believe it. Jill and I enjoyed the sights and the excitement of the kids.



The Jenkinsons in their first family limo ride.

 We even had our own paparazzi in the form of Eileen - our neighbours daughter who was pre-warned to take photographs of our reaction when the limousine arrived. She was easy to convince to come along for the ride too.



Eileen - our very own paparazzi



The last word belongs to Ash: " This is the best night of my life!!"

Fun at school

The classes that I have been "teaching" allow for a certain amount of levity. One example was moustache week, where I started wearing a different fake moustache each day. Part of the fun was in the names that each 'tash' had (the bruiser, the hollywood, the weasel) but mostly I enjoyed the fact that one of my students, Dean, got involved.

Dean and I model the days moustaches. The grandpa on Dean and  I have The Bruiser.

Trust me Dean - it's a good look.

Cycling to school

You're mad! That's crazy! You're what...!?
These are the usual responses from people at school when they hear or see that I am riding to school. The reason? Well the temperature has dropped a little over the past month and there was a cold snap the other week which subtracted a few more degrees from the daily temperature. More on that later, but for now let me describe my cycling attire. The picture below begins to give you some idea.

My riding kit BEFORE it got cold.

As you can see, riding conditions here don't lend themselves to t-shirts and short cycling knicks. The hat is windproof, (I usually wear ski goggles instead of sunglasses), the headphones keep my ears warm and I wear a face wrap and the dominatrix style mask over it. To keep my upper body warm I wear a thermal shirt under my long sleeve cycling top, under a windproof, lined outer layer. On my legs I wear both winter long legged cycling knix and 3/4 length cycling shorts. My hands are encased in two sets of  mittens, and my feet in two pairs of woolen socks inside goretex shoes (but still freeze by the time I get to school).
So why all the rig? For the better part of a week the temperatures were about -15C to -25C air temperature, but add in wind chill and the that drops about another 10C.
My current record riding temperature has been - 26C and with wind chill it made - 35C. By the time I get to school after a half an hour of riding, my mask is frozen, the headphones have major ice build up and my toes are stinging like crazy. It is just great fun!

Halloween

Paige shows off her Unicorn costume.

Halloween in Canada was definitely an eye opener for the uninitiated. We had an idea that it would be a fun event from the build-up to the day at the end of October, but I certainly didn't expect the extent of celebrations that it brought.



Paige and Megan in Unicorn costumes.

 

Ash in his Grim Reaper costume.



The kids had been getting excited for weeks leading up to the day (or more accurately the evening) and I saw it as a kids event - but I was wrong. We spent the day touring the Sleeping Giant with my parents before heading to a friends place in a more 'up-market' area of Thunder Bay. The reasoning was two-fold; 1. the people in the area are ore affluent and likely to spoil the trick or treaters and 2. many in the area are older with grown children and so like to spoil kids even more! This reasoning proved true on both counts, with Ash Megan and Paige gathering more lollies and chips than they have seen in their entire lives. The whole family has been living off a poor supplemented diet of lollies and chips for nearly a month now and it shows no signs of stopping soon.

The real surprise for me was the way in which Halloween created a sense of community spirit. Adults walking in costume with their costumed children around the streets, kids calling trick or treat and people in their decorated homes enjoying giving out treats by the handful to strangers. This part of the evening had that whole "community loving" and good spirit that I would associate with Christmas, it had a feelgood atmosphere.

To top the night, Jill drove everybody to a 'Haunted House' that had been created in the suburbs of Thunder Bay - another traditional part of Halloween. Here we saw the usual spooky displays, but there were also people dressed in character and moving among the "guests". Our favourite part of the house: a siren sounds and from the rear of the house a costumed mad man rushes out, chasing anyone who screams, with a chainsaw! Apparently this house has been setup in this way for the past 20 years and it is only one of many such houses created in the area.
The whole occasion has made ME rethink my attitude about Halloween. In the past i have pooh-poohed the idea as a North American money spinner - now I see it as a genuine opportunity for kids and adults alike to enjoy community spirit and a party atmosphere - almost a practise Christmas. And so with the demise of Guy Faulks and the traditions of cracker night, I intend to have Halloween parties in our Haunted House in the future. The prerequisites? Everyone MUST dress up.

 

Mothers Day in Thunder Bay

The weather was perfect, but our health wasn't. Megan spent much of the day feeling very sick and throwing up periodically from suspected food poisoning and Ian wasn't much better.

Ash returned from a friends sleepover after that friends birthday party and a late night of 1am early 6 am start - so he wasn't entirely happy to be going out either. But go out we did because it was Mothers Day and mother wanted to see Mt Mackay the highest bit of land around these here parts.

In true Jenkinson style we set off early at the crack of midday and promptly got lost. But it was a nice drive (except for the vomit stops for Megan and dad's worrisome bottom).

Eventually we made the parking area of the Mt. and stepped out into the gorgeous sunshine and sub zero winds! Not to be thwarted by the icicles from our noses or fingers slowly turning blue, Jill, Ash and Ian wandered about for a bit while the girls played in the car parked directly in front of the 300m precipice.

Many pictures later, numb hands and a few nosicles, we scoffed some lunch and decided to head to the top (well Ian and Jill decided and children grizzled mightily).

It was a surprisingly difficult but short walk to the top and to her credit our little 3 year old trooper walked all the way to the top and back again - way to go Paige.

Once on top we admired the views, collected a geocache, met another Australian and posed for a couple of group shots to prove that we were there.

Later we drove along the shoreline of the lake in the background of the picture above and found another geocache and a nice camping area at Chippewa Park. A nice day to explore and mum was happy(ish).

Fort William historical park

Another wonderful day in Canada. This one was spent at the Fort William historical park and was made all the better for the daylong snowfall.
There were plenty of things to do there and it was topped off with a fireworks display that rivalled the fireworks we have seen from the Brighton beach on New Years Eve. Very different weather though.

Tubing was the first activity of the day and it would have been the ONLY activity we didn't drag the kids away to see other things! Paige absolutely loved it when she rode down on mum or dad's lap.

After numerous 'last one' rides we managed to explore other parts of the park and discovered all manner of interesting things to do and see.

The snow maze was a different take on mazes being made completely of snow and ice - very clever - just like Ash who worked out how to get through well before his father!

As we looked for more things to do and see we were entertained by some great live music from the band on a stage nearby. It was interesting to see that the bands were being kept warm by large blow heaters running off to the sides of the stage and pushing warm air into their faces via long tubes mounted directly in front of them. The sort of big commercial blowers that you might see when a building floor needs to be dried. Looked like a good gig to me as I stood in the falling snow. We headed over to the dog sledding area to try that, only to find out they had been sold out in less than an hour after opening! You could tell what was popular as this was one of the very few activities that cost extra. We were disappointed but hope to get a ride later through 'contacts'.

Megan our snow shoe model is proudly posing for the next activity that we did for the day. Ash took off in his determined to be the first to do whatever it was we could do in them - which was to join a group and be lead around a course - but we missed that in our impatience to get going. I struggled with the snow shoes as my boots are more like boats, but eventually I settled for half on snow shoes and followed Paige through some soft snow areas. A lot of fun and yes they really do look like tennis racquet's on your feet when you look at them!

Doing this lead us to our next adventure for the day - a sleigh ride drawn by 2 draft horses. Very neat indeed.

These sleighs were running since 12 noon and the poor horses looked very sweaty. Apparently this is the sort of work the horses do all year round with sleighs and trailers depending upon the weather. They certainly hauled a lot of weight each time as the rides filled VERY quickly. It was a magical ride through falling snow to an Indian settlement complete with wigwams!

The Aboriginal lady sitting in the wigwam explained the names that sometimes get used for the different Indian shelters. The wigwam is a mispronounced Indian word that became the general term. It refers to shelters made from birch bark which carries an Indian name that sounded similar to 'wigwam' to early settlers learning the language. Jill asked if they used animal skins for their shelters and was told those were only made by groups further to the west and were known as tepees. The warmth inside the wigwam was surprising from one small fire and not very smoky at all. We tried a type of deep fried damper so delicious the kids took thirds!

At this point Ash decided that following the food trail was the best option and became fixated with getting to the sugar mill for some sugar thingy. Unfortunately we didn't make that in time and despite his disappointment, he was good about it.

We were delayed by a visit to Fort William proper and all that could be found within it. It is an original structure that has been conserved. It was like stepping into a wild west film production set. The tall wooden walls surrounding buildings of quite European design inside and spikes poking out of the walls to deter unwanted intruders.

We had to run to catch one of the last sleigh rides back to the rest of the historical area where the bulk of the activities were taking place. Catch the sleigh or walk for 20 minutes through the forest - with near exhausted children and more snow falling there wasn't much choice.

The sleigh ride was much appreciated and lifted all our spirits when we returned and were allowed to see the horses up close.

With so much fresh snow having fallen through the day there were plenty of chances to make snow angels and soon our children were falling into the snow at every opportunity to make them!

For anyone wondering how Jill is surviving this cold weather - take a look for yourself.

Thanks to the wonders of down and goretex she has been quite comfortable thank you very much. Today she ventured forth with Kelly's Sorrell snow boots and some ski pants - no cold for this girl.

What about the grumpy ol' man? I hear you ask (out of politeness) - well I wasn't quite so well prepared but I didn't notice the cold until the end of the day when the sun dropped. Oh and I got a bit of snow down my neck - ooooh.

Paige didn't even notice the whole time we were there - still sliding down a snow slide into the night!

Snowfall in Thunder Bay

The snow has been falling around town both overnight and all during the day. We cleared 4cm of powder snow from the windscreen of the car from ovvernight falls and then another 5cm of the same powder snow after being parked at Fort William for the afternoon.

Skating on a frozen lake

This has got to be the ultimate in new experiences, skating on ice that is actually a frozen section of Lake Superior! The spot where we were was in Amethyst Harbour. Later I will video and or record the sounds of the ice moving - for anyone who has not heard such a thing before you will not believe the sounds.

Both Ash and I thought that we had heard a 'hoon' driver's over powerful sub woofer in his car the first time we heard the ice "moaning"as our hosts put it.

Our hosts for the afternoon were Nancy and Ross with a late supporting act by the amazing ski aerial artist Van. And what wonderful hosts they were - incredibly welcoming (as we have found ALL Canadians to be), living a dream in their house of million dollar views amongst a close knit community. We were treated to personal skating lessons that included all manner of fun contraptions for playing on the ice - snow scoop, deck chairs and GT sleds.

Ice skates being what they are lasted yours truly  less than 5 minutes before returning to base to be replaced with shoes more comfortable and return to the ice to photograph. Jill displayed considerable skating aplomb and grace - most of the time!

The kids absolutely adored the skating and lapped up the undivided attention of Nancy and Ross as they towed them around the ice on sleds or held them up to help them balance. Hot dogs toasted in an open fireplace tempted the kids inside briefly, and Valentines Day cupcakes kept them inside just long enough to make a mess and promptly go out to play again. This is where Van comes into play.

This talented young man having returned from a day of ski training, went outside again to play with our children (so we could laze over a beer longer) and show the kids how to use his very own unpatented ski ramp.

Ash took the challenge and tried to jump a GT off the ramp which ended in a rather anti-climatic end. A few tips from Van and Ash was away and excited to try more. Both Ash and Megan went for more skating, already showing improvement from 1 hour of practice, with Van.
For me the real excitement of the day came when we skated, walked or fell our way further out onto the lake and discovered clear ice! The photographs here do not give justice to the effect of standing on clear ice and looking into the depths of the lake below. In places trapped air bubbles have made white patterns part way into the ice which is about 1.5 metres thick. Cracks spread away in all directions and meet at some points to create vertical splits that dive down into the ice below. It is like looking at incredibly thick glass that has been cracked in places.

Pressure ridges have formed in places and there are thin plates of ice laying like broken shards of glass of low snow mounds. When you throw a shard of this ice onto the smoth ice it shatters instantly with a tinkling sound like wet glass might sound if such a thing existed. The smaller shards skitter across the ice surface like crazed ice crabs racing from a disturbance. Some travel for over 30 metres before stopping, taking up to half a minute to stop! And again, beneath all of this are the sudden echoing sounds of moving ice adding atmospherics to the otherwise silent landscape. An amazing experience for all the Jenkoz clan and certainly not one that we will forget in a hurry.