Yellowknife, NWT

When I heard that I had a conference in Yellowknife and a chance to visit this city, I was elated.

What was the first thing I had to do the first evening there?  Go buy suntan lotion.  Temperatures were in the thirties (Celsius).  Back home Nancy reported the high was to be seventeen.  Go figure I'm in the far north and suffering from heat while Nancy's back home suffering from rain and cold.  After the shopping spree, on to sight seeing.  A walk into the old town and up to a lookout point over the bay.

I had to get that suntan lotion for my guided hike with Rosie Strong.  She picked me up at my B&B at 8:30 then dropped me off at my hotel after 2:00 pm.  If you go to YK and want to gain a greater understanding of the area, book a tour with her,  You won't be disappointed.

While checking in I met up with a couple of guys who were attending the same conference.  Adam said that he and Andrea had rented a car and were going for a hike.  Kindly they invited me.  In less than 15 minutes I was back out into the sun and driving northeast out of YK.  We returned about 7:30 for the conference's welcome reception.

The next evening was a visit to a place called Aurora Village.  Tourists (I'm told mostly Japanese) spend upwards of $500 for a 3 hour stint in heated outdoor seats, hoping for great views of the Aurora Borealis.  The place was great - large teepees that would hold up to 80 people each,  to warm up after being in the Arctic cold.  Our dinner of bison and whitefish was terrific.

That same evening, before going and after returning to the hotel, I went to a very nearby lake and shot some waterfowl and muskrat.  The reddish haze turned out to be forest fire smoke from far off fires.

After the conference wound up, I again walked out to the old part of YK. The sun was so strong that most of those shots were not very good.  However the heat of the day got me ready for the next leg of my trip...Calgary where temperatures were forecast to approach 40 degrees.

A Great Horned Owl chick.  We never saw mom or dad.

For Glenn's son's info;  This and the next shot are merges or 128 separate images each.

Morris Barn, June 2015

A return trip to this barn did not disappoint.  Even the drive there provided great views with wonderful light.  Once the sun went down we painted the inside and then the outside with light.

Port Bruce, in June

Many of you will recall that I somehow don't get to the beach in summer (very often).  This is one of those rare exceptions.  The fact that I had to wear a warm hoodie on this very cool evening made it somehow feel a little more normal (at least for me).

The bright orange light is probably Erie, Pa and/or Cleveland, OH.

Harvards

Yesterday, my father and I attended the 30th anniversary of the Canadian Harvard Aircraft Association.  The Tillsonburg airport is the home base for the CHAA.  Within seconds of arriving, two Harvards were powered up and taxiing out to the runway.  Shortly after that four more were prep'd with passengers and pilots.  While they were getting ready, I was thinking what a great thing it would be to be one of those passengers.  I shot various angles of these four planes.  As I was finishing up I heard one of the ground crew ask another, "Do we have any air sickness bags?"  Kind of made me a little happier to be staying on the ground.  After they took off, there were other planes, to look at in a "static" display.  During lunch, a ground crew member was seated next to us.  From his walkie talkie we heard that the four planes were about 12 minutes out.  They arrived on schedule performed some maneouvres before landing.

It was great getting so close to these planes before and during take off and then again during landing and afterwards.  All in all, it was a fun few hours watching and learning about these WWII training planes.