August 8
We checked in, but were unable to take possession of our room just yet. We had arrived too early in the morning, and the former occupants had not yet left. We opted to leave everything packed in the truck and decided that we would do a drive around to get the lay of the land.
It was fascinating to me how very different the geography seemed, and yet how similar in some ways to places I had visited before. The smell of the Bay was certainly familiar, as was the rocky beach leading down to it. The absence of trees, save for the odd cluster of stunted evergreens, was new to me. The vast openness of my surroundings drew me to look over the next horizon, and then the next.
We were both aware of the amount of time we had, and the places we wanted to visit. It wouldn’t do to see everything the first day, but it was certainly difficult to curb our excitement, and pace ourselves adequately.
The town of Churchill itself certainly has a great deal to see. The artwork exhibited on almost every flat surface in town is such a huge part of it. After wandering many of the streets in town, we realized it was time to get into our room and consider our dinner options.
The room was adequate for our needs. Most importantly, it had a refrigerator, and access to a microwave. We had decided that we would cut costs for this trip as much as possible by buying groceries and limiting our use of restaurants. Food was already expensive up here, so we assumed that restaurants would be as well.
Despite this, however, we decided to have dinner at a local restaurant, The Tundra Pub. While very noisy with happy tourists, it was an amazing place to eat with quality food!
It had been an exceptionally long day, and an exceptionally long trip on the train. Our beds beckoned, a little earlier than normal, and so we answered the call. Then, we were startled by a siren! It took us a day or two to find out, but we discovered that at 10:00 PM, the people who patrol for errant polar bears go off shift for the night. The siren is sounded to remind the citizens of Churchill to either remain inside, or to be exceptionally vigilant if they go out.
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