Hotels-✓Car Rental-✓Flights-✓Packing✓

Vacation is almost upon us; 17 days are remaining in our countdown and we have everything officially booked and confirmed.  We are just filling in the odd gaps with friends from afar and family outings.  I can’t wait to be sitting under Connie’s hairdryers and enjoying the heavy feeling of a head full of foils.

As the title says, I’m even packed – or about 98% – we have some items coming from Nova Scotia as well as a couple of items from the states that I purchased to wear while on vacation.  I find it fairly amusing that I’m packing swimsuits and shorts/tank tops when tonight we are suppose to dip down to –60 (with wind-chill).  So for that very reason I have two bags; one for St. Lucia and one for the chilly State of Minnesota and Toronto/Winnipeg.   I’m in love with my new duffle-roll luggage from Eddie Bauer; the color makes me smile (Rustic Orange) and it will hold all my summer gear (I have more summer gear than winter gear; how is that possible) and I have a second duffle Eddie Bauer bag for my winter-garb.  I think that someday I will have to grow up and purchase real luggage; but until then I will enjoy my new rolling duffel.

                                         

                                              GO CANADA GO!

I’m thankful for the Olympics and all CTV’s coverage to help pass my time during the day and evening. I’m very proud of all our accomplishments during these winter games and I wear my Red-Mittens & Red Olympic T-shirt with honour and pride.  Sure there has been some controversy with regards to some of the events and the security but even that isn’t enough to snuff the Olympic Flame, or to stop some crazy Canuck from coloring his body and face red & white.  However; the best thing I love about these Olympics is….. there is no CHANT!!! (NO Eh, Oh Canada GO!!)…I didn’t realize that the Olympics are sanctioned by COKE not Pepsi…so therefore there are no signs that depict the “New chant” or not that I’ve seen….or heard!   I look forward to this evening; when I will cheer loudly for my Luongo and the Canadian Hockey Team when they take the ice against Russia.  If I recall my history we are going on ~50 years since the last time we won against them in any shape or form (someone correct me if I’m wrong please)

We have finally got 100% go ahead on Police curling in Timmins this year; and I look forward to walking into the ice shed, grabbing a beer and cheering on my husband.  He is at his best when he is on the ice; so confident and calming – I could only imagine how relaxed he would be here if there was a curling club…

I’m still running 4/5 times per week and thankfully have been hitting all my milestones that I’ve been setting for myself.  This week my goal is to run between 30-35km and I’m half way to 30km and after tonight I’ll be over the 21/22km mark.  I enjoy pushing myself to my limits and then going one step further.  I’m hoping in two weeks I’ll be running between 40-45km a week; but if I don’t get to that I won’t be too bummed as initially my goal was to hit 35km; last week I ran 33km – so I’m only 2km from my initial goal.  There is nothing better than jumping off the elliptical dripping in sweat and feeling the rush of adrenaline.  It is that rush that keeps me going; nothing like perking up the endorphins in your blood to keep you smiling.  Believe me, I need to keep smiling!

“Go Canada…Luongo Go”!!

 

 

Vanoc 2010

 

After spending numerous hours over the last 6 months wanting and wishing for a pair of RED-mitts they finally arrived.  Quickly too I may add – I only ordered them last Thursday night!

Go Canada Go!

*Don’t mind the flimsy gym hair..or the fact I haven’t had it cut or foiled in almost 6 months.

FurKids Part II

It isn’t often the weather warms up enough to get outside and snap some photo’s especially bare handed – but today, if you look past the wind-chill, was only minus 14 (-14).  So I bundled up, first took them for a long walk to tire them out some, and then I let them loose in their kennel for some photo-tastic fun.  They truly do love each other but when they are outside there is only fun & fighting…take a look:

      

Nature at its finest.

It is official, or as official it can get when dealing with the weather, we have our vacation approved.  I’ve been pacing the floors waiting to blog and Facebook the good news to all my friends & family.  Although I believe in Karma and I didn’t want to push my luck and speak out of turn too soon.  31 days until we fly out of Kugaaruk onward and upward to civilization and fresh hot perked Starbucks Grande Non-Fat Latte with a sprinkling of Twin sugar and cinnamon…oh god, I can almost taste it!

The highlight of our trip, is that Hughie and I  have decided on a Caribbean All-Inclusive trip; after spending months and months as well as gigs of our upload/download speed we decided on St. Lucia as our Island.  The biggest selling feature of St. Lucia is how it seems “out of the way” and it doesn’t seem to draw the “youngsters” like Jamaica or Mexico or Dominican Republic.  [We looked at all three of those places and found some awesome resorts; for example:  Montego Bay Sandals Jamaica – was our first choice until we heard and saw via youtube that planes are taking off pretty much on top of your head…they are that close].

The resort we decided on is called Ladera – it is situated on the side of a mountain with direct views of the Pitons. (Grande & Petit).  Their website had this to say, and says it much better than I ever would be able to

“Taking full advantage of its natural surroundings, Ladera offers a unique design in guest accommodations. The 9 villas and 23 suites all have an "open wall" - the west side of each unit is left open to expose the breathtaking view, and the orientation of the buildings maintains complete privacy. The villas and suites are constructed of tropical hardwoods, stone and tile, furnished with 19th century French furniture or replicas, wicker and accessories crafted by local artisans. All units are decorated with local artwork and feature magnificent views of the Pitons and Caribbean Sea.”

This is one of the rooms located on the Resort, I will take plenty of pictures of our room when we arrive, I just wanted to give you a taste of what the rooms are like with their open wall concept. 

http://www.ladera.com/

I’m looking forward to five-star Camping; and drinking little fruity drinks, and the best thing was that we got a promotional deal and a seat sale with West Jet so we managed to snag this for a reasonable discounted price! 

Of course, it wouldn’t be a true Hughie & Tammy vacation if we didn’t hit up a hockey game.  We are heading to Minnesota to catch the Wild verses the Blackhawks near the end of the month.  We have our favorite hotel booked, within stumbling distance to the Xcel Centre.  We wanted to do a Vancouver Canucks game but the price of the tickets were crazy, pretty much due to the fact that the game we wanted to go to was pretty much their first game back to GM Place since they left almost two weeks ago for their big long road trip due to the Olympics.

Although we are not going to be able to get back East for this vacation we are still going to visit Toronto to catch up with Andrew & Laura; it wouldn’t be a vacation if we saw no family. We look forward to catching up with them and having a couple days of downtime before we head off to Timmins for Police Curling for 10 days.

There you go our month broken down as simply as I can.  There will be not as many flights as our last vacation, but just enough so we don’t start getting antsy in one location.  We are spending our first week in Winnipeg with myself hanging out at a Physiotherapy clinic, Spa and Hair/waxing locations.  There is nothing better than taking a week of downtime to bring yourself back up to snuff in the world.

Now I can take a deep breath and relax for the next 31 days! 

28 days

What???? Another 6-weeks of winter?  What the hell… …  wait a second, if Sam or Willie said we would “only” have another 6 weeks of ice and cold I should be and would be jumping for joy! Although, I realize that is pretty much false information for us Northerners, so much for getting excited.   So I remain hunkered down for the next 3 months wearing my comfy worn Sorels and Toque-Scarf with matching gloves and jacket until the sun shines bright enough to start melting the snow off our windowsills.  I was very much looking forward to February this year, January was just a down in the dumps kind of month – nothing major happened; just small little annoyances that got under both mine and Hughie’s skin.  Hopefully this month leads to exciting blog titles and blog worthy posts.  I’ve been running low on ideas, even heading out for a walk around to take photo’s have been hindered by the chilly temperatures and I’m not willing to freeze my fingers to take the gloves off to capture the daily grind.   However, before I leave this town I’m wanting to walk around the town just taking pictures of whatever captures my attention; I got a million scenic shots but I want some reality, everyday shots so people can really see what life in Kugaaruk is really about. 

Things are still up in the air with pretty much everything.  We have been “planning” our vacation – booking our vacation slightly without touching the first week or last week due to not having an official date to leave.  The dogs have been booked at the kennel but even that can be changed by a day or two…so we are still waiting on a definite “yes you have your dates” so we can book the first/last week – however if there is police curling then the last 10 days are spoken for and we will spending our time in the curling club in Timmons hanging out at the club (I can’t wait to smell the curling club…I know you may think it is weird, but all clubs have that ice-smell that just curls my toes in a happy-go-lucky way). I’m actually looking forward to sitting behind the glass going over the strategy and calls - “behind the glass curling” and visiting and shooting the shit with all the other members/officer’s and there significant others.   Although if we don’t get to police curl this year due to circumstances out of our control then I’m looking forward to hitting up a concert at the ACC.  Like I said everything is pretty much up in the air; usually we have our vacation planned out fully by this point but the Olympics are slightly messing up that plan.

I’ve been doing some major online shopping lately, thanks mostly to my hubby’s American Express!  (I love aeroplan miles).  I realized that I don’t have any “summer'” clothes – sure i have some shorts and t-shirts but nothing for a “dressy” 5 star resort.  So I’ve purchased a couple of Summer dresses via Victoria Secret and some new luggage from Eddie Bauer.  That is probably why we went over our 5+1(purchased) gigs two days before our “start over” day with Qiniq.  I’m not sure what else I need for our vacation, I think I got a good solid foundation; and unless I find something that really sticks out then I’ll probably do the rest when I hit civilization.   I plan on not needing that much clothes as I plan to sit in our pool, drink lots of Pina Coladas and catch up on some reading and movie watching.    One thing for sure on this vacation I doubt will be landing “19” times – I think we are only planning on about 10-12 landings…which I suppose is a bit more than most people do.

I’m hoping these 28 days will give us some peace of mind and give us some closure on open story lines – until then we are as in limbo as we were in January.  The only difference is that I’m not going to loose our camera case!