You are my Sunshine

So I guess even though I thought I missed the first day of the sun, I was wrong!! Today at 1:43 the sun was in the sky for the first time in over 30 days!! And as luck would have it, T and I were walking to the cafe to get a drink and happened to catch it! It was really pretty. It's funny because it is something that we all take for granted, the fact that the sun and the moon rotate and rise and fall every day, but up here, it is something that is valued and treasured. In fact today was the Sunrise Festival. There was a dog sled race (which we found out about too late and missed) and there was a free pancake breakfast, and a giant bonfire, and fireworks. It was a really good day.

The first sunrise of 2011, that's as high as it went

 T and I started by going to the free pancake breakfast at the local legion sponsored by Tropicana. (They wanted to sponsor the 1 year anniversary of their commercial that they filmed here last year, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abkIIypRWv4 )

(Some news coverage of the commercial, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTw0Dsd0ovA&feature=channel )



The breakfast was yummy! Pancakes (of course) loads of bacon (mmmmm) and sausages..... and of course.... Tropicana Orange Juice. There were a few students there and so I heard a lot of "Hi Ms. Winchester" which was funny to hear for the first time in public.

After breakfast T and I decided to go into every shop in town. It only took us about 2 hours, but we completed that challenge, lol. We went into all the art shops to see what they had for sale and I have to say, there is some really nice stuff up here. I am definitely going to be coming home with some Prints and Carvings. This won't be until I have some more money because the Soapstone Carvings (for a really nice one) run about 200$-500$.  But it is something that I will invest in before I leave. The Prints on the other hand, which are beautiful, run about 35$-50$ so if anyone thinks they may want one just let me know!!!

The Inukshuk and Igloo Church in Inuvik, NWT

Once we finished that we decided to take a quick trip down to the ice roads on the Mackenzie River. It was cool to see and drive that.

Me on the Ice Roads on the Mackenzie River

 To end the evening we walked down to the Sunrise Festival which was a giant bonfire and fireworks. The bonfire was huge and the heat was pretty intense. My body didn't know how to feel, part of me was pretty cold, and the other part sweating, lol. I had frozen hair and eyelashes. It's only -20 C / -4 F, but it was the first time I was outside for an extended period of time. We were only out for about and hour and a half but we were just standing outside so it got cold. We did layer up though, long underwear, pants, snowpants, mitts, hat, parka, big boots, etc. I was really impressed with the fireworks, they were really good.

Sunrise Festival Bonfire

The Bonfire

The Bonfire

Me at the Sunrise Festival

 Also, for the first time, I saw the Norther Lights!!!! Yeah!!!! They were a very faint green, but they were there! I hope to have a good night where I can really see them, which I am sure will happen eventually.

E invited me and T to go to a friends house for a drink and to just hang out, but we were tired and decided to just go to my hotel to hang out. It was a good ending to a busy day.