wish you were here

Well, I flew back to Victoria last night and coming back to an empty (and somewhat messy) apartment made me instantly miss Yellowknife. Take a look at these pics and you'll see why!

And thanks to Kyla (my beautiful big sis) for coming out to take photos with me though it was almost -30 and for looking so stunning in the photos!

(Like her parka? She found it at a garage sale for $20! I think I'll have to hunt for one of my own asap).





This is the ice road that connects Yellowknife to Dettah each winter. And YES, we drive across it.

As we snapped our photos we heard the ice under our feet cracking and hissing each time a vehicle passed.

memory lane

On their first date, my mum and dad went skydiving.

It was 1979 and a friend had set my mum up with a "nice, boring man" (as mum put it). A great fit, her friend must have thought, for a semi-shy, patient woman who spent her childhood in Lisoux, Saskatchewan and would weed the garden and collect smooth stones for fun.

The Airport Chalet in Whitehorse, Yukon was a place where everyone knew your name and which seat at the bar was yours. It was here that mum met her blind date, but instead she was drawn to the charming Scot who had only recently packed his belongings in a Tartan-print suitcase and arrived in northern Canada with 50 pounds in his wallet.

Below the photos of planes and flight legends that decked the walls in Yukon aviation history, airline staff, from pilots to ramp-rats, passed their time. Dad, the cargo manager at that time, was relaxing by the fireplace, getting "rum-dumb" as the night went on.

On their second encounter, dad extended an invite to her for a quick trip south to leap out of a plane. They headed south to Carcross, Yukon in his black '71 Ford Interceptor police car - the car he would later sell to buy her engagement ring.






There's more to the story but I'm working on getting it published so stay tuned!

free falling

On a quick trip to Seattle a few weeks ago I had the opportunity to go sky diving for the second time in my life and for the first time as a tandem skydive. Over coffee and french toast a couple weeks earlier my Seattle friend Lauren mentioned that her mum was turning 60 and wanted to celebrate the date by leaping from a plane - what an amazing woman, hey? Lauren invited me along, knowing that I have a love of heights and adrenaline and shortly after we were driving an hour north of Seattle for the jump!

We arrived at Skydive Kapowsin - a family owned skydiving company minutes from the heart of Olympia. We walked in, anxiously signed safety waivers, jumped into brightly coloured jumpsuits and within 10 minutes we were in the plane, climbing 13,000 feet. The entire thing was documented with photos and a video (though we all found it difficult to say interesting things while so nervous).



Because we were all doing tandem jumps we were securely tethered to jump maters - meaning they had all the responsibility and we could sit back and enjoy the ride! Kathy (Lauren's mum) was first to jump, she scooted to the open door of the plane and in one fluid motion, whoosh, she was gone. Lauren was next, and I was seated behind her. I blinked and she disappeared out the window. Last but not least was my instructor and I. He held onto the sides of the door as I faced forward into wide open sky, then WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, he launched us forward and I tumbled headfirst out of plane with nothing between me and the ground below. It was AMAZING.


Don't you love the contrast between our faces and body language??



Brave ladies!

arizona

After a week of steady rain in Victoria, my sister, Erica, and I took our grocery money and booked a flight to Phoenix, Arizona. What was there to do in the sun-kissed state? I had no idea. But +30 degree weather at the end of October sounded perfect.

Our one big splurge - and another thing I can now cross off my bucket list - was going hot air ballooning! At 6am one morning, me and Erica met the balloon experts and a couple we'd be sharing the basket with. Up, up, up we went, approximately 3000 feet and the sun came up with us.




Unfortunately, both the boyfriend and girlfriend were petrified of heights and the entire basket shook with the racking sobs coming from the girlfriend.

Fortunately, the boyfriend distracted her... when he proposed!
Evidently, love was in the air. To celebrate we all drank a bottle of champagne in the desert at 9 am.





The trip encouraged me to add a new goal to my bucket list: walk across a desert. (Although at the moment I'm considering the desert in Carcross, Yukon... the smallest desert in the world).


We were so shocked to see a lime tree that we had to help ourselves to one

Sadly, after only four days of sunshine we came back to the chill of fall and reality. Still, I have a feeling this amazing semester is going to continue.