My Travels Around the World

Category: Canada

Churchill, Canada – Baby Beluga in the Deep Blue Sea

July 10-14, 2022

If you or your children are of a certain age, you know all the words to Raffi’s song, Baby Beluga.

Baby beluga in the deep blue sea
Swim so wild and you swim so free
Heaven above and the sea below
And a little white whale on the go
You’re just a little white whale on the go

Well, my friend Ruthi and I got to see baby beluga along with a few thousand of his/her family and friends.

We traveled to Churchill, Canada with Natural Habitat (nathab.com), a company devoted to travel and conservation. If you follow my blog, you know that I’ve traveled with them quite a bit. And if you follow my blog closely, you will recall that I’ve been to Churchill once before. In fact, there are three reasons one visits Churchill, a town of about 900 people in the arctic along Hudson Bay. The first is in January-February when you are very likely to see the aurora borealis (that’s what my other Churchill post is about). In October-November, you go to see polar bears as they migrate over the ice on frozen Hudson Bay. And in the summer, you go to see beluga whales who swarm into Hudson Bay – approximately 3500 of them. And so that’s just what we did in July 2022.

The Murals of Churchill

February 16-24, 2019

We spent 5 days in Churchill in the middle of winter. Yes, it was cold.  Very cold. Most people come to Churchill in October or November to see polar bears. Or in the spring to see beluga whales. We came in February, with Natural Habitat,  to see the Northern Lights, the Aurora Borealis (please see that post). But of course we also got to know the town of Churchill (please see that post).

For a small town of only about 800 people, Churchill is full of art. On June 16-26, 2017 the Pangea Seed Foundation, an international marine conservation organization, together with Kal Barteski, founder of the Polar Bear Fund, hosted a festival called Sea Walls: Murals for Oceans in Churchill. The idea behind the project was to bring in recognized public artists to learn about how a remote community, like Churchill, faces the many challenges of living on an ocean coast. By creating large murals, they would change the visual landscape and thus inspire conversation about protecting the oceans. But like many projects of this magnitude, it ended up inspiring the devastated small town, here on the edge of the Arctic, to appreciate their own place in the world. This project brought education about environmental issues, but it also brought beauty to the town. I must add that Churchill was already beautiful. The glistening snow. The sunsets. The trees. The wildlife. But the Sea Wall project brought color and meaning to the many empty, large walls of the buildings of Churchill.

Aurora Borealis

February 18-21, 2019

Seeing the Aurora Borealis, also called the Northern Lights, was on my bucket list for a long time. We finally got to plan a trip to Churchill, Canada (please see that post).  We traveled with Natural Habitat so they could guide us and teach us and feed us and take care of us.

Why Churchill?  Well, so many of our friends had traveled to Norway or Iceland and never got to see the lights. Churchill has one of the highest probabilities of seeing them. Churchill has over 300 nights a year of aurora activity due to its northern latitude and because it sits in the auroral oval (see below to learn what that is). The skies tend to be clear between January and March because moisture is trapped on the frozen Hudson Bay.  Less moisture means it is colder and clearer. So Churchill it was.

Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls

We found ourselves in Buffalo for a few days for business, so we thought, “What a great opportunity to visit Niagara Falls,” a place known for its beauty and power. If you follow my blog, you know we were in Iguazu Falls in October, so now we could add another fabulously famous fall to our bucket list. Both Andy and I have been here before, but as young children, so we had little memory of it. My only memory came from a photograph of me in a raincoat and hat on the Maiden of the Mist.

But this is winter, so there would be no chance to replicate that pose.

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