New York! New York!

I sit here on a Monday night completely exhausted after a fantastic weekend in the world’s greatest city … New York! There is no place on earth like it. I say this every time I go there. It is incredible!

Joep and I had planned on going to New York next weekend to meet up with the Sgrizzi’s however a slight mix up with weekends meant that the Sgrizzi’s were in town THIS weekend instead of next weekend. No worries! We have drifted from our Dutch ways and stopped planning every weekend months in advance. I know, its unheard of. They might revoke Joep’s citizenship. We have learned to leave weekends open and flexible! Incredible. It is so liberating!!

So, thanks to our new found freedom, we were able to change our plans and head down to NYC on Friday! Joepinator picked me up from work and we hit the road. The drive there was uneventful apart from a couple of wild goose chases to find McD’s. The signs on the side of the road that tell you there is a McD’s nearby are not always accurate in the USA.

But we eventually found nourishment and made it to NYC just before midnight. Finding the hotel was relatively easy … actually I must correct myself. Joep printed out directions to the hotel. I was sure the hotel was on 48^th street, the directions lead us to 46^th street. Joep was adamant that this was correct. Needless to say, it wasn’t. So when we pulled up outside the computer shop at 201 48^th street Joep was a bit sheepish. And frazzled because driving in New York City is an experience all by itself!! Thankfully the hotel was on 48^th street like I thought so we didn’t have to spend too much time driving!

We checked in and made sure we got a good night of sleep in preparation for Saturday. Saturday morning saw us up and out the door in reasonable time. We hit the streets to wander around and soak up the atmosphere. The city is just gearing up for Christmas so all the window displays are getting set up and it is serious business in NYC. They sure know how to do Christmas!

After wandering around a bit we headed to Macy’s to do a spot of shopping. I, of course, had no patience to look for myself (mother ship I am sure you are not surprised by this), but we did manage to shop up a storm in the men's department!! Joepinator was very pleased. Right down to insisting on wearing his brand new jumper IN the store rather than waiting till we got home to change. Delany girls its just like when we were little and got new shoes and would put our old shoes in the box in the store so we could wear the new ones right away hahaha classic Joepinator.

Shopping complete we headed out to meet up with Joep’s colleague from the LA office who was coincidentally in town at the same time as us. It was after midday so we were justified in finding a nice bar to settled down in and people watch for a while. LA Matt hung around for a few and then had to hit the road but Joep and I were set for the afternoon.

We sat at the bar in Carmines enjoying beers and people watching. After seeing numerous people ordering delicious looking meals we decided to get in on the action and ordered a pasta dish. It. Was. So. Good. We were more than satisfied.

A few hours and a few too many beers later we decided to head back to the hotel to plan our evening. On the way back to the hotel the evening ended up planning itself! We had just enough time for a quick nanna nap before heading out to see the Sgrizzi’s! REUNION! Thais and I have not had a chance to cluck at each other for a very long time so we were long overdue. Thankfully emailing has allowed us to keep up-to-date on most things so the clucking was left to idle gossip and chit chat … yes. What we are best at.

After a couple of cocktails at the Hudson (virgin for Thais naturally!) the four of us hopped on the subway to Soho to meet up with Michiel for a few more drinks. The subway in NYC was once again an experience. Last time Joep and I were in NYC we were in the subway late one night completely lost and chatting with friendly bums. This time we passed the time people watching and rat watching. Yes. Rat watching. I saw the biggest rat EVER down there. This thing walked up the stairs like it was the easiest thing ever. Scary!!

Once on the train there was some delay and confusion. Thankfully we were entertained by a friendly local who was daring people to try to hold themselves horizontal on the train poles. He was offering $5 to anyone who would do it. This story would be so cool if Matt had heard the challenge and taken him on. It is one of Matt’s greatest talents so Joep and I were both pretty surprised he didn’t jump at the chance. Alas, Matt wasn’t paying attention to the gentleman offering the wager so the opportunity was lost. Noone was more upset about this than Matt.

To make up for the disappointment we headed to Balthazar’s for drinks with Michiel! We spent the next few hours enjoying the atmosphere and chin wagging before heading to a late night pizza place for a snack. At this point the Sgrizzi’s left us for the evening while those less responsible members of the group headed out for a few more drinks. Hours later we found ourselves standing at the entrance of a club that Michiel is very fond of. Whilst waiting to go inside we witnessed a very charming young lady get escorted from the building whilst trying to hit the bouncers with her shoe. Oh lord. It was time to go home. The night was deemed a huge success and Joep and I went back to the hotel content.

Sunday morning was less pleasant. We were up in time to meet up with the Sgrizzi’s for a greasy breakfast. Exactly what the doctor ordered. After breakfast we took advantage of the amazing weather and walked up to Central Park. Oh New York! The weather put on a real show for us and we basked in the sunshine for a long time. The boys left Thais and I to cluck in peace for a while which we very much appreciated and it was with a heavy heart that we walked back through the park to go our separate ways. Sadness. But hopefully not separated for too much longer … Right Thais? Yes? Right? Good.

After saying our goodbyes we headed back for a last bit of shopping before preparing for the drive back home. Now, the drive to NYC is just under 7 hours which is a decent drive but Joep and I love road trips so its perfect for us.

The drive back from NYC was much longer than the drive to NYC. There are 2 reasons for this. Both of them involve us getting lost.

We left the city and all was going well until we missed a turn off and ended up half way to Philadelphia (look on a map, this is the opposite direction to where we needed to be). This one was manageable and we had a good chuckle about it. Once back on track we shared driving and at the border in Canada we swapped for the last time. I fell fast asleep next to Joep for what was supposed to be the last hour of driving before we were home.

I awoke a couple of hours later to feel the car doing an abrupt u-turn while hearing Joep cursing next to me. Why? We were lost. And not just a little bit lost. Poor Joepinator had pulled off the freeway to get fuel but, as happened many times on the way to NYC, the sign saying there was fuel nearby was lying. There was no fuel. And Joep couldn’t figure out how to get back on the freeway. Uh oh.

We drove around in circles for a bit while I spoke in a soothing voice that apparently was not very soothing. Eventually we spotted a road that said it headed towards Ottawa. GREAT! Not really. We took this road and soon found out that it was not a highway. It was a very dark, very scary back road that showed no sign of ending. There were also no fuel stations. It was stressful! We found a fuel station at one stage and pulled in to fuel up. It was a self service spot that allows you to use your credit card to pay outside. Noone was around. Seriously it was like the beginning of a very bad horror film. So Joep was trying to fuel up but the machine wasn’t working. Whilst waiting for him in the car I let my imagination get the better of me and, convinced that a serial killer was waiting in the shadows to jump out, I completely freaked out and demanded we hit the road. Hysterical. My imagination is far too active. Thankfully Joep has the patience of a saint and let me be a cry baby. Phew!

Not so thankfully, we still had no fuel. And no sign of getting fuel. It was stressful but, as seems to be the case very often in our life together, luck was on our side! We were just about out of fuel when we re-joined the freeway and there was a fuel station! Thank goodness!! The last hour of driving home was less stressful and we were able to laugh about the situation.

We laughed even more today. Joep called me at work in hysterics laughing and asked me to look on google maps to see where we had been last night. Turns out the highway he had accidentally turned off was the wrong highway anyway! We were headed to Montreal, Quebec. If he hadn’t gotten off that highway we would’ve driven straight through Ontario and ended up on the wrong side of the state entirely. The highway we found was a total fluke. We both feel rather like Dumb & Dumber but silver lining of all of this is that we got lost. If we didn’t get lost we would still be driving back across the country right now!

We’re buying a navigation system this week. Lesson learned.

And despite the getting lost the weekend was fantastic! The Sgrizzi’s remain a favourite and their return to this continent is a must! New York will be visited again asap … just try to keep us away!

The Polar Bears

As you all know, a few weeks ago we lived Joep’s Canadian dream by heading to Quebec to see the whales in the wild. This weekend it was my turn and, I may be wrong here, but I think that my Canadian dream kicks Joep’s Canadian dream’s butt!!

Friday night saw us boarding a flight to Winnipeg … yes, yes, this doesn’t sound very exciting. Have some patience!!

We arrived in Winnipeg laaaaate on Friday night in time for a good night of sleep prior to our 5am start on Saturday morning. Yes, a 5am start. Very early. But were we cranky? NO! We were far too excited to be worried about lack of sleep!

At 6am we met up with our tour operator Don of Heartland Travel at the dinky little charter air terminal in Winnipeg. Three and a half hours later we were landing in Churchill. Why? To see the polar bears in the wild!! Churchill is a little town on the southwestern shores of the Hudson Bay. For those of you who don’t know the Hudson Bay, Google it OR think of Toronto and head way northwest. Way. Canada is very big remember.

The population consists of 900 permanent inhabitants and many many polar bears that visit between the months of August to early November. OK so here is a quick explanation of why the bears are there and then I will tell you all about the wonderful adventure we went on!! So the Hudson Bay is frozen solid for the winter however is melts completely over the summer, refreezing in November. As a result, all the polar bears come ashore for a little summer vacation!! Although it’s not my idea of a great summer vacation because the poor bears don’t have much to eat for 3 months and only survive on their fat reserves built up over the winter (after 2 months in Canada Joep and I could probably survive a summer on our fat reserves too!). So, after hanging out on dry land for the summer, the bears all head towards the coastline in late October early November in anticipation of the refreezing of the Bay. Once the ice freezes over they head out and start feeding again.

All of these things please me greatly because it allowed us to head up north to see actual polar bears in the wild!! How exciting!

We have had this tour booked in since our arrival in Canada and have literally been counting the days till we arrived there. I was NOT disappointed. Joep’s expectations weren’t as high as mine so imagine how much HIS expectations were exceeded!

Now –As mentioned above we flew to Churchill early Saturday morning and arrived at about 9:30am. Once disembarked, we hopped onto a bus to head to our Tundra Buggy. This is a special vehicle with special wheels on it to allow it to travel across the tundra (**shores of the bay**) without causing any environmental damage. As you can imagine it is all conserved land here. And rightly so! On the way out of the airport we drove past the polar bear jail.

Yes. Jail. It was set up as a means of protecting town locals from curious/hungry bears who wander into the town in the summer months. This is a bit unfair though because the town falls right onto the migration path of the bears so they kind of have no choice. Awwww, poor bears. But provided they don’t hang around for too long they are ok.

If they DO hang around too long however, they are captured and placed into polar bear jail for 7-10 days where they are given only water to keep them going as a means of deterring them from returning to the town. Once the poor bears have served their sentence they are air lifted by helicopter approximately 40 miles from the town to resume their wait for the ice to freeze.

When we were in Churchill there were 11 bears incarcerated. We weren’t allowed to visit them. Shame! 

But we weren’t disappointed for too long because within minutes of passing the jail we spotted our first bear! Just strolling down the beach in the distance. Un. Be. Lievable. I was so excited and this was just the beginning! We hadn’t even reached the tundra buggy yet!

We arrived at the tundra buggy shortly afterwards and took up our positions to head out into the wild. The buggy was heated indoors and there is a viewing platform on the back where you can go outside and soak up the atmosphere. I must say, even without the bears, the scenery is phenomenal out there. It is so untouched and I hope it stays that way because it would be a shame to see it change.

It is also pretty cold up there but apparently while we were there is was unseasonably warm. Huh?? Luckily Joep and I bought our winter coats last week and they are good to -40 degrees in a t-shirt. True story. We tested them out on Saturday and I must say I was toasty warm for the entire day! Perfect!!

So our first bear sighting on the tundra (and I won’t bore you with all of them don’t worry!) was a mother and her 2 cubs. It was incredible. They are such beautiful animals! They were walking towards us when mum smelled our bus and made an about face with her cubs in tow. They then marched off into the distance much to our disappointment AND the disappointment of one of the cubs who was very curious about us and kept trying to make a break from his mum to come over and say hi. Mum wasn’t silly though!! However, a few minutes after heading away from us mum stopped again, sniffed the air and made an even faster about face to head back towards us … why? There was a huge male in the distance and she was not risking her little cubs around him! Apparently the males do not often attack young cubs but they will give them a scare if they come too close. Awwww, big bullies! Another interesting fact – The difference in size between the male & female polar bear is the largest size difference between sexes for any animal. The male can often weight double the female … having said this; Joepinator and I are pretty similar to polar bears. Except Joep doesn’t weigh 600kg. Yes, a male bear weighs 600kgs. Incredible. I seem to use that word a lot in relation to this trip.

So, this sighting was very exciting and believe me when I say it was only the beginning. As the day wore on we saw close to 30 bears!! Even our tour guide Don was amazed. According to him it is normal to see 5 or 6 bears in a day so we were very lucky!!

Even more so when you consider that a couple of big male bears were so curious that they actually came right up to our bus, stood on their hind legs and had a good look inside. Incredible! My heart was in my mouth! I have never in my life seen anything more impressive than these bears. They are so huge and they literally do not make a sound when they walk along.  At one point there was a small bear hanging around the tundra buggy very curious about what was going on. He was so curious that he didn’t hear or smell a very big male coming up behind him … when the big bear got within swiping distance the poor little bear got the fright of his life and ran a mile (Delany girls – it was just like dad that time he was changing a light bulb and mother ship crept up behind him and shouted BANG! I can’t write that without laughing …).

There are so many highlights of the day but I won’t bore you with all of them because I am sure this is not as interesting to read as it was to live. Instead I will tell you Joep’s highlight of the day. There was 1 child on our tour. He was really sweet and very well mannered. I chatted to him a bit. Late in the day we spotted a bear looking much worse for wear. He was covered in blood. It was really sad …. Until we found out that he had been trying to fight with a mama bear and her cubs. She gave him what for and he was left licking his very nasty looking wounds. Awww. That’ll learn ya!

So anywhooooo, this young child on the bus was very upset about the hurt bear. I took it upon myself to make him feel better by telling him that it’s just what boys do when they grow up and that the bear would be fine. I then went on to announce that he would do exactly the same thing when he was a grown up. And I finished with the grand finale, which Joep repeats to me excessively at the moment ‘I’m glad I’m not a boy!’

She wasn’t a boy. She was a very sweet little girl. The awkward silence that followed my monologue about the behavior of boys should’ve given this away but it didn’t. I kept going with the ‘boy’ comments until her father politely slipped the fact that he is actually is a she into the conversation. At this point I stopped speaking to them out of sheer mortification. Joep, on the other hand, had a field day with my humiliation.

Being stuck on a bus with someone you have inadvertently offended is awkward so it is lucky that I didn’t know of my error until the end of the day.

Feeling sufficiently excited, exhausted and a little bit embarrassed we headed back to Churchill for a crazy Saturday night out. Of course, I am using irony here. But Churchill is a lovely town! We had a great dinner, we wandered around the town in the sub zero temperatures as the snowstorm got progressively worse and we chatted to some of the locals who were very excited about the Olympic torch, which was run through Churchill on Sunday!

Late Saturday night we all met at our designated spot and headed for our chartered flight back to Winnipeg. Exhausted. And more than satisfied after a day of unforgettable memories with the bears in Churchill!

I recommend it to EVERYONE! You will not be disappointed!