Top Stories of the Day in Iqaluit

I suppose the top story on this, Clean-Up Day, the 19th of June 2015 is that it snowed making for a cold and wet experience for the wonderful volunteers who came out to brave the weather and hard work.  It already looks much better on the beach in front of Baha’i House.  We can see more tidy piles waiting for the dump trucks to swing by and carry off the mess to wherever it goes.

 You can see the growing pile made by the wet workers.  Michael offered them to come 

in to warm up and have a coffee.  They gratefully declined.  They were holding out 

for the bbq being held at the newly renovated museum just down the way.  

I’m learning many things about this capital city of Nunavut which includes how much Iqaluit has grown and is continually expanding.  Apparently this rare capital city, void of stop lights, has doubled its size since being capitalized April 1, 1999.  And, for the estimated population of 7,000 there are 4,000 vehicles with 400 more arriving when the ships come in this July.  

Part of the aforementioned clean-up needs to be derelict cars.  Dead cars can be seen about the place simply lying where the fell.  Once every three years the city brings in the car crusher to deal with the rusting and ruined wrecks.  This is the year.  Hopefully we get to see a little of the action.  Apparently cars will be towed away to meet the crusher.  I have no idea where they go after being squished, perhaps back on an outgoing ship to be melted and made into something new? 

It was mentioned in one of my story postings (either here in a blog or, on my Facebook photo stories … ‘friend’ me at Marlene Turner Russell to follow those) that most houses are built on stilts.  That’s because of rock, the permafrost and the fact that the ground shifts and moves about when it freezes and then again when melting occurs.  So, I guess it goes without saying there are no basements in Iqaluit.  There is a sewer system in the roads that carries waste away from the homes which leaves the premises through insulated piping which is above ground.

Here you can see an example of the stilts and the insulated pipes.  

It’s different seeing houses sitting on legs, especially those built on the edge of the many hills in Iqaluit.  It might be said that the higher up the hills one goes, the more expensive and fancier the houses become.  Have I mentioned Baha’i House is at the lowest bay level?  We look out on Koojesse Inlet which is a part of Frobisher Bay.  Currently the seascape changes with each tide.  The size of the enormous chunks of ice that are breaking up and being rearranged is quite amazing to this inland girl.  Well, we do live on a pond in our hometown of Erin, Ontario but never see this kind of action.  It’s truly fascinating.  

When this house was built over 40 years ago it was not in the poorer area of town but in the years since, the lower-priced housing has been built up around us.  Living here has it’s own kind of news events.  Take last Saturday, for example. 

I should preface this story by saying that I found a lovely painted rock a few weeks back while organizing.  I picked it up to take a closer look and noticed this message, “Rock thrown at Baha’i House”.  My heart was touched by the wisdom and peaceful reaction to an act that could not be considered either peaceful or wise.  

On Saturday I was home alone and just drifting off for a nap when I heard crashing and thumping.  At first I thought it might be my husband returning early from a walk.  “He sure is making a heck of a noise getting in”, was my thought.  I called.  Michael?  No answer.  I yelled … MICHAEL?  MICHAEL!  Still no answer.  I got up to investigate while whispering a prayer for protection.  

I found rocks coming through a back bedroom window.  An immediate call was placed to the RCMP.  “Do you have any descriptors”, came the question over the line.  I responded that I wasn’t about to get close to any window in the house.  

It didn’t take long for two officers to arrive but, alas, the many kids I could glimpse, from a safe distance, had disbursed.  It was explained that kids are sometimes alone, hungry and angry after the cheques come in and get spent in a way that definitely does not benefit their well-being.  They sometimes, in their fear and anger, lash out and try to hurt something or someone else.  I’d like to believe they were trying to help … that window was already damaged and needed replacing.

Later, when our housemate returned home, she sympathized with my eventful afternoon and added, “We have more to add to our painted-rock collection”.  

Exactly right!  Thanks, I needed that.  I’m going to Zentangle mine.

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Thanks for following along.  Please feel free to leave a comment below.  What would you like to ask about this journey I've undertaken?  

Dizzy Gillespie Has a Strong Connection with Baha’i House in Iqaluit

There are so many delightful little facts I’m learning while living here.  For example, Beth McKenty (we need a book just about her time here and I sure hope she’s writing it) lived here more that a decade and was instrumental, if you’ll pardon the expression, in helping this famous trumpet player to become a Baha’i.  I would never have learned this and so many other little snippets of Baha’i history if I’d remained in my Erin home. 

Oddly, I’ve had two other encounters with Dizzy in my travels.  On one of my trips to Cuba when I visited the Baha’i Centre in Havana, the lovely Cuban Baha’is asked me to sign the Centre’s guest book.  Dizzy Gillespie had been there before me and so our names sit side-by-side in that record book.  I know, a very small claim to fame indeed.

I found the cutest photo of Dizzy on the internet.  Of course,

it would not allow me to copy it here.  It was from an episode

of The Cosby Show.  He was bulging out his famously puffy 

cheeks for the youngest Cosby child.  So cute and funny!   

I don’t know if Dizzy ever made it to Iqaluit to visit Beth but, I expect if he did I’ll find his name in one of the Guest Books here.  I’ll be going through those books and trying to make contact with any who have been fortunate enough to have passed through these welcoming doors.  I’ve agreed to help start compiling a time-line of visitors in order to obtain their Baha’i House memories and stories.  

Meanwhile back at my third encounter with Dizzy.  In January of 1993 I visited the Gardner family while they were living in Ljubljana, Slovenia.  Daddy, Dave was in Canada on business so Grandma Helen thought it a good idea for me to go to be with Sylvie to help herd the kids.  Daniel, my young friend who got me here, would have been five at the time and his sister Julie, our current housemate, was just two years old.  During my precious and all-too-short two weeks there, I picked up a newspaper.  I couldn’t read Slovene but I was able to understand enough to know that Dizzy Gillespie had died.  It was one of those ‘moments’ for me that I knew I’d remember for a very long time.  Dizzy was only seventy-five when he died.  I say only because I'll get there myself in just over three years.  Yikes, I'd better get cracking, I've got a lot I still want to write about and do.  

A lovely lady, also famous to Baha’is, is Dorothy Baker.  I have no idea how or if she has a connection with this house.  What I do know is she did make her presence or, perhaps I should say her absence here known.   

Knowing how she loved to travel why did it surprise me when Dorothy recently took the strangest little junket to Michigan?  I used an envelope I found in the over-stocked supply in the house to mail an Iqaluit Visitor’s Guide to my sister.  She and her husband are coming for a visit later in the summer.  When my sister thanked me for the brochure she asked, “Who’s the pretty lady in the picture?” 

“What pretty lady?” was my response.  I then received this photo via email.   

Dorothy’s photograph must have been in that envelope.  I did not know of my mistake and I can tell you it made my job of sorting through the huge supply of envelopes here very labour-intensive.  I held each one up to the light to make certain no other archival photos or since-departed Baha’is would accidentally be tripping off hither and yon. 

The photo of Dorothy will be making the return trip to Iqaluit along with my sister.  In the meantime if anyone knows how or why her photo came to this house, please let me know.  Would you look at that mischievous smile on Dorothy’s beautiful face?  Her eyes seem to twinkle.  

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Just so you know, Michael passed his RCMP check.  Another thing you should know.  A message is NOT sent to you each time I post to my blog when you've clicked on 'follow'.  However, please click 'follow' anyway.  It helps get my blog postings more 'out there'.  Thanks, see you next time.  

     

Michael Gets Fingerprinted by the RCMP in Iqaluit (and other updates)

Before you start raising bail relax, it’s not as bad as it sounds.  Sometimes we writers just like to grab your attention.  

We have many local Inuit children who come to Baha’i House in Iqaluit for Arts & Crafts classes and sometimes just to visit with us and have a snack.  Our housemate, Julie Gardner, is a Grade 8 teacher in the middle school here and thought it a good idea that the custodians of Baha’i House take up the practice of having a police check.  We agreed so, off to the RCMP shop we went. 

 Iqaluit's RCMP building with an Innukshuk made from metal.

It’s quite a hike for me but not for Michael, not to mention that the journey takes us into unpaved roads that raise a lot of dust so, off I go in a cab and end up in a conversation with the cab driver about what brought us to Iqaluit.  He was visibly excited to learn I was a Baha’i and wanted to know more about it.  Any Baha’i reading this just started to tingle.  We love being asked about our Faith.  I reached into my bag to give him one of my cards so I could write the number of Baha’i House on the back while voicing my concern about not having a pen.  I pulled out my card case and a little pen happened to come out with it.  “Oh”, my cabby said, “I think God works with you”.  The Baha’is are tingling again.  He was an interesting fellow with a fascinating story, I do hope he makes contact.  

On the way to the Cop Shop Michael had to get a certified cheque in the amount of $50 to pay to be fingerprinted.  As it turned out he was called to do this because of his birthdate and not because of his name.  When they ran the check on him his birth day comes up as suspect.  My application passed without the added expense but, he got to tour the inside of RCMP headquarters.  Lucky him.  Yes, an expensive tour but, he liked seeing the holding tank.  We now await the call that his fingerprints checked out okay.

The photo that was to go here would NOT upload.  Go to Marlene Turner Russell on Facebook.  

A big thank you goes out to the editor of Erin’s newspaper, The Advocate.  One of my Erin friends forwarded a piece Joan Murray wrote about my adventures in the north.  I was truly moved by how Joan complimented the writing in my columns that appeared in the paper for ten and a half years.  “… unfailingly thoughtful, humourous, touching and informative”.  I’m aiming for that kind of writing in my blog posts so, please, rattle my chain if I fall short.  

Joan also mentioned my Baha’i Faith which, again, got me tingling.  It turns out the best way I can teach about my Faith in Erin is to leave town … hmmm!  

One final little snippet.  We finally made it to the Grind & Brew which is only two doors east of Baha’i House.  They are reputed to have the best pizza in Iqaluit.  Oh, my, their reputation stands.  Delicious!  We had the Grind & Brew special.  Next time we’re going for the Char pizza.  Yes, it IS expensive to eat out however, it was doubly expensive last night.  Apparently the best way to buy local arts and crafts is to sit in a restaurant and the locals offer you a better price than you might pay for in a store.  I’m delighted with what we bought and am happy to know my hands will never be cold again whether here, or in Ontario.  

There were two photos that would NOT upload.  Go to Marlene Turner Russell on Facebook. 

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I regularly upload the bulk of my photos to my Facebook page.  Please ‘friend’ Marlene Turner Russell if you’d like to follow the pictorial version of our Iqaluit experience.  I’ve been unable to do much on the internet as our month of purchase began again today and we had indeed eaten up our monthly allowance. 

Finally, if you click on ‘Follow’, as seen to your right, you’ll receive an email message when a new piece is posted to my blog page.  I invite you to take that step.  Will some kind person let me know if it actually works?  I also invite you to 'comment' and/or ask questions.  Thanks again for joining me.               

Experiencing Iqaluit

We’ve been here now in Iqaluit more than a week and, to put it bluntly, I’m weak!

Weak with the wonder of it all … like, I wonder where I get so-and-so or, who sells this’n’that?  Because it stays light for 24 hours, well, almost light, we need to block the light in our bedroom so our body and brains think it’s time to sleep.  My brain hasn’t really cottoned on to ‘it’s time to sleep’ since my twenties but, I digress.

What one might expect but will they have paint?

Michael wanted paint and I wanted light-blocking fabric so where does one go in Iqaluit for these items?  Would you believe ‘Baffin Electronics’?  We made our first trip there yesterday.  I had a great time because, TA-DA, they also carry yarn.  I was in my element with all that fabric and yarn.  The delightful women behind the counter also had interesting ‘yarns’ to spin.  Hang on, I’m about to digress again, it’s what I’m best at.  We keep meeting people originally from the south, these two women being part of that group, who came here temporarily and then never left … hmmm?  Did I mention we bought only a one-way plane ticket?
  

Ah-hah, the bonus items for the wife and yes, he got his paint.

Baffin Electronics, being way at the other end of town, was too far to walk so, we took a taxi.  The taxi service here is splendid.  They charge $5/senior and $7/adults AND after you’ve made the call you barely have time to put your shoes on before your cheerful cabby it at the door.  Once out, if you get tired walking home, there’s always a cab passing by.  

We were able to get absolutely everything needed to make Roman blinds for the kitchen (just to spruce it up a little - those who know me, know how much I like to decorate) and our bedroom, once I’ve made the blind, will be totally dark at night.  Oh, and the yarn?  I bought what’s needed to make a tea cozy … I’ve lost count of how many tea cozy’s I’ve made.  If you guessed I bought yarn to coordinate with the kitchen curtain fabric, you’re getting to know me.  

I wanted to tell you about the light.  Baha’i House looks out onto Frobisher Bay which, as I understand it, will remain frozen until the first week of July.  So, if you stare out on all that bright white for long it takes awhile to see inside the house again.  The sun rose today (May 29th) at 2:41 a.m. and will set at 10:21 p.m.  After sunset it goes to dusk and never gets totally dark.  Being one who wakens often during the night and makes many trips to the bathroom, I don’t need a nightlight to find my way there and back.  Bonus!

We shared a taxi on the way home with two Inuit ladies who were also shopping for yarn.  They spoke to each other in Inuktitut so I’m not certain if they understood me when I spoke to them but the universal language of laughter was very much present when Michael got into the cab and shut the door on the wooden dowels we’d bought.  The driver was starting to take off when an obviously distressed Michael called out, “Wait, wait, wait!”  We all looked to see why the WAIT and then laughed together when we saw the struggle to get the dowelling out of the closed door.  So glad the inspector in him made sure he bought undamaged goods.

I’m interested in learning an Inuit art and/or craft while I’m here.  That’s what I tried to question these ladies about, one of them was buying tiny beads.  I asked if she taught bead-work.  She shook her head.  To this end I’ve placed an ad on a local ‘Sell and Swap’ Facebook page.  I’m offering Zentangle lessons in exchange for taking home some Inuit craft knowledge.  I’ve got my fingers crossed but will quickly uncross them in order to learn a new craft.  I’ll keep you posted. 

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I have trouble uploading photos to my blog page but have been able to put some out on my Facebook page.  Please ‘friend’ Marlene Turner Russell if you’d like to follow the pictorial version of our Iqaluit experience.  I’ve got lots more to post but am a little worried about sucking all the gigs out of our monthly byte allowance.  Yet another thing for me to learn.

Finally, if you click on ‘Follow’, as seen to your right, you’ll receive an email message when a new piece is posted to my blog page.  I invite you to take that step.  Thanks again for joining me.          

      

Here We Are in Iqaluit and Everything's New to Nunavut

We arrived in Iqaluit on Wednesday, May 20, 2015 and were greeted at the airport by a welcoming committee of one.  That one being in the person of Cam McGregor.  He helped Michael heft our five matching pieces of luggage off the airport carousel and into his waiting vehicle.  Before you get too carried away imagining five leather-bound lovelies, think again.  We packed our clothes and supplies in U-Haul cartons.

More than a little awkward for two men to haul however, they did manage getting them safely stowed for the short tour and description of Iqaluit given by Cam during our ride to Baha’i House.  

If you go on Google Earth and ask for the street view of Iqaluit you will find our temporary home is on a corner just left of the spit (if you’re facing the shore) that goes out into Koojesse Inlet on Frobisher Bay.  The reddish house surrounded by large boulders is our home away from home until late August or early September. 

Reports seemed to indicate the house is small.  We, whose home in Erin, Ontario is small, do not find it so.  Our bedroom here is quite roomy and our thanks go out to whoever organized this warm and wonderful queen-sized bed.  It is indeed comfortable, not to mention high.  Being short, Michael had to organize a step to help me get in and out otherwise I’d have to take a flying leap which, I dare not attempt.      

We did move the furniture about in the room knowing the window, located just over our head, may cause some head drafts and we do like to sleep with the window open a crack. I’m grateful for the desk/office space in our room.  It’s a great place to escape to, hopefully, get some writing done but, first we must figure out where everything is and this we are accomplishing by organizing so it’s convenient for us.  I’m posting photos of our time here on my Facebook page.  I go by Marlene Turner Russell on Facebook.  You may find my shots will help to fill in any gaps missing in my words.    

Julie, our housemate, is a delight and is teaching a Grade Eight class at the Aqsarniit Middle School.  I’ve known Julie and her brother Daniel (yes, the same Daniel mentioned in my previous blog posting who put forward the proposal that we come to Iqaluit) since before they were born.  We lived in the Baha’i community of Scugog in the town of Port Perry for over ten years.  Julie and Daniel’s parents, Dave and Sylvie, were also members of the Scugog Baha’i community and we all served on that Assembly together until the Gardner family moved to Slovenia to pioneer for our Faith. 

Daniel was about four and Julie and her twin sister, Carolyne, were about two when they made that brave move.  I was lucky enough to spend a couple of weeks with them in Ljubljana during their stay overseas.  

As a Baha’i when you serve on an Assembly or, engage in any kind of service, you get to know the true character of those you serve with.  We have many wonderful memories of that time in Scugog and the many laughs we shared.  

Before we left Erin for this great adventure, Dave and Sylvie came to Erin along with another Baha’i resident of Baffin Island.  David Parks and his wife, Pat live even further north in Pond Inlet.  It had been about ten years or so since we’d seen the Gardners but as these things go, a decade quickly melted away and it was old-home week once again.  

It’s a bonus for us to be connecting again with this family through the next generation.  In all we’ve covered three generations with this family.  It was at the first Baha'i unit election I attended back in ’78 when I met Helen, grandmother to Julie.  

The history of Baha’is living and moving through Baha’i House in Iqaluit is palpable.  Maybe I’ll get to learn some of it and share it with you.  If only the walls could talk they’d have one heck of a story to tell.

    

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Internet service is 'different' here and not allowing me to post pictures with my blog site.  If you would like a pictorial view of our experience befriend Marlene Turner Russell on Facebook.  If you have questions about any of this do ask and I'll try to cover the answers as part of my regular blog postings.  Thanks for reading.   

It WAS Minus Something in Iqaluit

Are you thinking by degrees?  Degrees as in cold weather?  Yes, that too, but, what I’m really talking about is … well … ME!  Iqaluit was missing me!  Bear with me, there’s a story behind this … when one likes to write there is A-L-W-A-Y-S a story. 

Back in February I read a middle-of-the-night Facebook message from my young friend Daniel.  I’d been following Daniel’s Facebook stories and photos with great interest, he was in Iqaluit.  Daniel basically said in his message that my name had come to mind as someone who might like to come to Iqaluit to live ‘temporarily’ in Baha’i House.  Amazingly I went back to bed and went right to sleep. 

It was about mid-afternoon the next day when I said to my husband, Michael … “Oh, by the way” ...  I went on to explain my wee small hours wake up call.  Then it sunk in … Iqaluit? … IQALUIT??? That’s in Nunavut, isn’t it?  It's south of the Arctic Circle for heaven's sake.  I/we replied to Daniel with great interest.  He gave us the who-to-contact info which we did right away and before long we had our one-way tickets to what we consider to be the opportunity of a life time.   

“Wait until you get there to book your return flight so you can watch for seat sales”, was Daniel’s advice.  Our departure tickets were dated April 12th which, I had discovered, were $300 each cheaper than departing one week later on the 19th.  Then the packing and planning became like a full time job.  Luckily we are both retired.  

Coincidentally we had booked a cruise around Cuba only a few days before learning of this wonderful opportunity.  It seemed prudent to have as much packed and planned as possible before going aboard.   We would have only two weeks after our return from the cruise to complete our Iqaluit preparations.  I actually started to regret booking that cruise.  Our plans for it went immediately onto the back burner as the desire to serve the Baha’i Faith in Iqaluit by acting as custodians of ‘Baha’i House’ burned ever so much brighter. 

There is a Baha’i Centre in Iqaluit that was built in the early 1970’s and it was in need of custodians.  We knew we could try to fill the custodial shoes until early September.  That would mean a four and a half month stint.  The Cuba cruise approached.  We had come to think of it as our one-week taste of summer for 2015.  And then it happened!  Maybe it was a slight slip in the shower that started it or, was it the bumpy ride on a Cuban excursion bus or, maybe being trapped in an airplane seat for over three hours was the spine-cracking culprit.  Most likely it was a combination.  Whatever it was I had to visit the ship’s doctor to be diagnosed with sciatica and believe me, it’s a real pain in the butt and down my right leg. 

I manoeuvred my way through the rest of the cruise on pain killers but on the third day after our return to home base AND another long airplane ride, I had my husband dial 911 to be peeled from our bed and carted off on a stretcher.  A four-day hospital stay managed to get me up and limping through life ever so slowly.  We delayed our departure until May 20th and, I’m delighted to say, I’ve had a surprisingly fast 'almost' recovery and  now?  Here we are!

Every day or two ... maybe three if I'm busy ... I'll post to my blog so those who wish to can have a taste of life in The Great White North. 

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Internet service is 'different' here and making it difficult for me to post pictures with my blog site.  If you would like a pictorial view of our experience befriend Marlene Turner Russell on Facebook.  If you have questions about any of this do ask and I'll try to cover the answers as part of my regular blog postings.  Thanks for joining me.  Enjoy the ride! 

Mother Said There'd Be Days Like This

She also said ... things are never so bad they can't get worse.  Why are mothers always right? 

I have to say it wasn't the best day I've ever had.  It started out cheerfully enough with the complimentary breakfast at the hotel in Trois Riviere, Quebec.  It was the morning after our first day on the road to Newfoundland and Labrador.  

A most helpful lady gave Michael explicit instructions, in English by the way, on how to pour juice from the automatic dispensing machines.  I know, sounds crazy, doesn't it?  It's automatic!

        "First you pour a bit of the juice into your cup from the left side", it actually said apple, "it's concentrate you know so, you have to add the water from the right side".  The right side said orange but, okay, Michael thought.  "Believe me", the woman said, "I've already been through this and figured it all out".  So he followed her pointers perfectly and enjoyed a juice mixture of apple and orange.  Not to worry, it tasted okay and besides this was going to be a good day, wasn't it?

The earliest we can ever get out of a place in the morning is about ten.  This day we made it out by 10:30 to start the day-long drive to Fredericton, New Brunswick.  After loading the trunk we took off.  About a block from the hotel we heard something fall in the back.  On quick inspection Michael remarked the trunk had somehow come open.  He did have trouble, he said, getting it closed.  

"We better drive back to see if anything small might have fallen out".  We didn't see anything.  When he circled the car again to head in the direction of our day's destination his cup of coffee toppled from the dash and landed at his feet.  Luckily the lid was still on and stayed in place.  Whew, a close call.  I'm starting to feel a little tense.  

Later in the morning when we stopped, I re-arranged wet clothing Michael had draped over the luggage to dry.  

"Where's my bathing suit"?

"It's there", he said, "right beside your nightgown".  No bathing suit was ever found.  Did it escape when the trunk popped?  Damn!  The swim in a hotel pool at the end of a day sitting in the car was a must so, we stopped along the way for a replacement.  

As we got out of the car to shop for my new bathing suit I noticed the floor mat under my feet was making squishy noises.  My water bottle had fallen over and the lid had been loosened.  The entire contents had soaked into the mat.  Now, I was going into try on bathing suits in a mood that wasn't my usual one.  I was getting mighty irked, the tension was ramping up.

Is there anything that puts more fear and panic into the heart of a woman than trying on bathing suits ... in front of a three-way mirror AND under the unflattering glare of fluorescent lighting?  I looked in the mirror and the day was definitely looking really, really bad.  I reluctantly made my choice - a two piece ensemble.  Don't panic, it looks like a one piece when it's on.  

The lost bathing suit made me look about seven months along, as the ladies liked to say.  The new one?  Not so much.  I'd say I look full-term.  Double damn!  

At about this point on any given day when I'm travelling the ankles are starting to look pretty puffy.  This day was no exception.  If you get the idea a kind of depression was setting in, you'd be right.  Thank God the medication bag with the anti-depressants was still on board.  

Should I mention that I get restless legs on long drives?  Would it take you down as low as I was to go?  Remember the other thing mother said?  Things are never so bad they can't get worse.  Well, at dinner I was served chicken that wasn't quite cooked.  We sent it back and then I had to worry about whether they replaced the salad underneath or simply re-arranged it to make it look like it was new.  At this point I'm anxious to get into bed where, hopefully, I'd be safe from this day. 

We stopped by the car to get the rest of our things before returning to our room and VOILA!  Did you think I found my bathing suit?  WRONG!!!  My bag of shoes was missing.  

"It must have fallen out of the car when the trunk popped", his lordship said. 

Now my heart really sank as I realized I had only one pair of shoes, sandals that are not all that comfortable to boot.  I mentally went over what was in my shoe bag ... my Shrine Shoes, oh, no ... only my friend Susy will get this, she's to start a painting for us that includes those shoes.  Always one to try to find the positive I said, "Well, at least I took the photos for Susy before we left" ... but then do I really want a pair of shoes I no longer have in the painting?  Those shoes were darned expensive too.  Expensive?  My two pair of runners, now lost in that bag, were also expensive.  My new leopard crocs were the only bargain buy, but I love those funky shoes, I'm going to miss them.  My final thought, before my eyes teared up was about the extremely expensive orthotics that were still in my Shrine Shoes.  

With sick stomachs we went to our room for the night.  Did I mention Michael had forgotten to pack his underarm deodorant?  This day turned out to be quite the stinker.  I was glad it was over. 

The next morning my bowels told me that perhaps some of the uncooked chicken did get through.  Is this going to be the trip from hell, or what?  

If you've hung in through this lament you deserve some good news.  Michael called the first hotel we stayed in where the shoe bag escaped.  It was turned in, along with my bathing suit.  TA-DA!  Now we know where we will spend our last night.  And, yes, I've also done some shoe shopping to get me through the next two weeks.  

Saturday (June 28th) we catch the ferry for Newfoundland.  It's sure to be a better day.  Unless what mother said ...  

Do you remember we struggle to get an earlier start than ten?  We have to be out of here by nine in order to catch the ferry.  Maybe you'd better check back in to see how we made out.