Day Two, Part One: Further North

7:00 a.m. -- Off to the airport in the shuttle.  At the airport we start moving things around in our checked baggage. The goal of is to reduce the number of items so that we won’t pay too much for the two boxes of food (155 pounds). My overnight bag goes in Pascal’s giant duffle. Every inch of extra space in all other bags is filled with food. We end up with 11 items to check, all weighing between 65 and 70 pounds. Only an extra $55 to ship all that food! The place in Yellowknife would have charged over $700.

8:30 a.m. -- Boarding a First Air flight. I have my hands swabbed to check for dangerous chemical residue, but luckily I don’t have to take off my shoes. You Know How I Hate Shoes!

I love First Air. They are totally about service. During the three-hour flight, I was offered, in this order: a pillow, a blanket, a warm towel to wash my face, a hot or cold breakfast, orange juice or coffee, a soda, a warm cookie, a mint. Flying to Chicago on United I got: a soda.

We're flying to Iqaluit, which is the capital city of the Canadian federal territory of Nunavut. Scales here are a little different than we're used to: Nunavut, with a population of 27,000, covers 746,000 square miles. Iqaluit, its capital, has a population of 7,250.

So Nunavut is 4.5 times the size of California, with about the population of Windsor, and its capital has as many inhabitants as Cotati. I'm guessing they won't be needing to form an Open Space District anytime soon!

As we land, I see the first patches of snow! I was told in a taxi in Iqaluit that no one bothers to wear seat belts, because no one can remember when the last cars accident was. Many of the residents are Inuit, and everything is in all three languages.

I have about 1½ hours in Iqaluit, so what do I do? I go grocery shopping, of course! First Air has approved us for up to three more 50-pound bins. I spend nearly $900. Big items: ham, bacon, candy, cheese.

Sculpture Garden in the middle of town

I return to the airport. Kira has just placed the food order in Yellowknife. My work has paid off! We have cut over $7,000 from the food and shipping bills, and have expanded the variety of food.

This is the entire airport!

Please share with everyone from any Rotary Club!

We board an 18-seat  First Air flight. We’ll fly for three hours, stop in Arctic Bay, refuel, then fly for another hour to Resolute Bay. I'll tell you about the flight and Resolute next time!