Quaint But Not Diverse

The title of this post is in reference to something Ghost (husband, formerly Fiance for those of you keeping track) read.  It was a description to some place saying that it was "Quaint and Diverse".  After he read that he began to question whether something could be quaint and diverse. According to the all mighty online free dictionary (too lazy to go find a Websters) quaint means charmingly odd, unique, especially in an old fashioned way.  I would like to add in "small" as after discussion we decided that quaint generally refers to something small, unique and charming.  We also decided, post discussion, that quaint did not include "diverse" as it seems to generally be describing one specific thing like "oh look, isn't that a quaint old house?" or "oh look, aren't those old people spewing racist profanity quaint?". Quaint, but not diverse.

Ghost and I are currently into day four or five of our honeymoon, during which we are exploring Canada.  As I write this we are in Churchill, Manitoba.  So far we've been to Calgary, where we got to see the leftovers of the flood, Regina, where we encountered flat, watch-your-dog-run-away-for-a-week-prairies and Winnipeg, where we encountered what Winnipegians (Winnipeggers?) called a shopping mall, that turned out to be a Toys-R-Us and a beer store.  So after listening to the enthusiasm of little kids in the store you can enjoy a refreshing, pick-me-up beverage!  I call it well placed marketing.

What is quite neat is how massive Canada is.  To get from Winnipeg in southern Manitoba, to Churchill, 20 or so km south of Nunavut, one must cross a distance of 1700 km.  That's within one province.  You have two options; flying or train, as there is no highway that connects the two places.  We chose to fly up and we are taking the train back in a couple of days.  As we taxied down, we got a glimpse of why there is no highway.  Do you remember the aerial shot from the Lord of the Rings movie, when Sam, Frodo and Gollum are moving through the dead marshes?  It looked a lot like that.

(This photo stinks as an example but kind of like that.  Water everywhere)

 Just a little more green and with the occasional pine tree standing proud.  The trees here are barren on one side from the wind.  It's kind of impressive.

We landed around 2:30 this afternoon, got off the twin propeller plane

Twin Propeller Plane.  It was cool.

and immediately were hit with the wind.  Churchill has apparently decided that it should mimic the British Isles in weather with just a touch more rain.  It does make for a very active Hudson's Bay and it is pretty cool to see the waves come crashing into the massive rocks.  It's also fun to watch the ducks ride the crests of the waves and really not care when they get swallowed up.  Sadly, we weren't able to take a photo of that.

That white stuff is water.

We're staying at a cute little B&B called the Polar Bear B&B and the theme here seems to be yellow.  Yellow walls, yellow bed spread, yellow doors etc.  But we have a lovely room with desk, beds, drawers, access to tea and a kettle, we can adjust the heating if it gets too cold and there are bicycles outside that we can play around with should we so choose.  Verdict is cozy, especially with the weather outside the way it is.  As we were walking to dinner, I commented to Ghost that I was pretty sure that I was going to take flight any second now.

Interestingly enough, we ran into some dogs who could not care less that the wind coming in should be downing power lines.  Outside of the Arctic Trading Post, or whatever it is called, are two Eskimo dog puppies and behind it, a kennel with a bunch of younger ones.  They are all insanely cute and once you pet them you can tell why they are able to sleep comfortably in this wind.  Honestly, as I told Ghost, I am surprised that people haven't been marketing their fur for warmth.  That stuff is thick!

PUPPIES!

Hopefully the wind dies down before we leave and we get to go kayak out onto the water and see the beluga whales. And even if not, we're off tomorrow to go find a former rocket testing site and a downed plane (and potentially polar bears).  

(With regards to my previous ramblings about quaint but not diverse, the arctic trading post is a prime example.  Definitely quaint with a wood burning stove, made in house moccasins and carved ivory earrings, but certainly not diverse.  And maybe even a bit ethically sketchy.  But still not diverse)