November 6, 2022 - Churchill to Winnipeg, Canada

We turned our clocks back last night but wished we could have rolled them back more than one hour. I was not ready to have this amazing trip end, although we awoke to snow, strong winds, and bitter cold temperatures and we were thankful this wasn't the start of our trip. A couple of the women in our group went out early and made a snow person just outside the hotel.

After a late breakfast, our group took a short drive by the Polar Bear Holding Facility and the "Miss Piggy" plane crash site.

On our way, Krista spotted a cross fox on the hill.

The holding facility is kind of like a polar bear jail. It can house up to 26 bears that are considered troublesome or dangerous. They have been caught in town in live traps and then isolated here in individual "cells" before they can be relocated. It is not open to the public, but we were able to get out of the shuttle and read the signs and see some of the live traps. The first picture is the bear holding facility which is part of the mural project, as well.

The "Miss Piggy" plane, a Lamb Air C-46F, crashed shortly after taking off from the Churchill airport on November 13, 1979 due to a mechanical failure and an oversized load. It was attempting to make it back to Churchill aiport, but fell short and crashed on a rocky patch of land. The three occupants of the plane were only slightly injured, but the plane was badly damaged. It rests in the same spot and became part of the mural project from Churchill!

Back in Churchill, we had a wonderful presentation by Sandra Cook, a local indigenous artist. She had slides of her work and told us her story. I had tears listening to her talk about her life.

The garage door is one Sandra painted on her husband's garage! It's beautiful.
We made a few more stops in town to see some of the other murals.


As if we hadn't eaten enough, we had an early lunch before our flight back to Winnipeg! It was still snowing and the wind was really blowing. Once we took off, we couldn't see anything because of the clouds.

We arrived back at the Fort Garry Hotel about 5, turned in our heavy winter coats and boots and had a little time before our farewell dinner. Our tour guide, Miranda, put together a small photo show that ran throughout the dinner. Krista introduced us to "air drop" on I-phones as a way to share our pictures. It's pretty funny watching a group of 50+ year olds attempting new technology on our I-phones. (me included!)

Natural Habitat provided us with some really cool coffee mugs to take home with pictures from Churchill and the bears on them. We have some amazing memories and they will give us that visual reminder of this wonderful trip. We are off to bed because we have an 8 am shuttle to the airport so good night!