I just realized I have changed mind sets and become a North American once again. I went kind of hog wild in Whitehorse and bought myself some "STUFF". Man what was I thinking. I bought a lovely gold nugget ring, with the remainder of my Christmas bonus from my employers. As well I purchased a pair of hiking boots, the last pair, while still good, hurt my feet, so what good are they??? I bought three, count them three new tank tops, the other ones are really sun bleached and old. They would have been perfectly fine for the boat and lasted a few more years before shredding!! I also indulged in a pair of earrings which I really did not need, just because I always buy earrings when I am in Whitehorse (what kind of sick mentality is that).
When I thought about it I figured out that I have once again become a Canadian consumer and NEED to get back to the boat to regain my perspective.
Oh yeah, I also bought all my grandchildren presents but that doesn't really count because all grandparents give their grandchildren necessary clothing. It is their job to look cute!
We have both not bought much except boat parts since we arrived in Canada, so I guess it is time return to our other life.
We are planning to leave Yellowknife on March 20, drive to Wpg. to visit with my Mom and then head out to the coast visiting family and friends on the way. Barry is interested in trying out his new hip on the ski slopes and thinks that Panorama close to Windermere where our daughter Trish lives is a good place to try it. I would like to go kite skiing if there is some good wind.

Usually, what goes on the road stays on the road, but I thought I would share a few pictures with you. We were planning on going to Ottawa this year so we thought that a beaver theme for the year would inspire us
When we got to Whitehorse we found Bucky the Beaver in the store, here is our lead Lois modeling him. The girls were huddled on the bed. Everyone is in our room tonight and the topic at the moment is ice and whether or not the Yellowknife ice is better than Whitehorse ice.
We took a little side trip to the Olympics to check out curling!!!!

It was nice to have some time off work to watch and good friends to discuss the curling shots with. Go Canada Go!
Whitehorse is a city with a lot of history, I love the buildings in the downtown area. The gold rush is a big tourist draw and while we were here they had the Sourdough Rendezvous contest and the men were singing to see who would become Sourdough Sam.

Okay we lost. We are not in a position to win anymore so my dream of going to to go to the Nationals is squashed. It is unfortuneate but the other team came up big and we lost. I am not going to Ottawa and at the moment we are partying and having a good time. We went to the oppositions room and gave them a bottle of champagne. I know that I really wanted to go to Ottawas but not this year.
Instead, Barry and I will go to visit my Mom in Wpg. before we leave to go back to the boat.
Hasta La Vista.

Barry and I have been wearing Tilley hats which my Mom gave us before we left Canada for the first time. I lost mine in a big storm just west of Tahiti but Barry managed to hang on to his. It has a lot of sun damage and then he got a hole in it when he put it in the dryer. Tilley offers a life time guarantee with their products so Barry sent his hat in and sure enough a while later a brand new one showed up in the mail. It is amazing what the sun has done to the hat and now I know what it does to your skin, no wonder mine looks a little used!!
Life just kind of rolls along here in the north. It has been cold and windy the last few days and I am counting the weeks (just 6, maybe 5 and 1/2) until we get to return to Cat's-Paw IV and warmer weather. We did inventory at the store last week and I worked all day on Sunday and then 12 hours on Monday counting everything in the store. We had a bit of fun on Tuesday making up some interesting window displays.
Our curling season is entering it's competitive phase. This weekend is the NWT playdowns but since there are only 2 senior ladies team we both get to go on to the next level, the NWT/Yukon playdowns. The NWT Curling Assoc. in their wisdom has decided that we only have to draw to the button to see which team will be designated NWT 1 or 2. We both get a 10 minute warm up then each team member has to draw to the button, with sweepers, the cumulative distance from the pin is measured and the team with the least distance wins, Whoop Dee Do!! The other team has agreed to play a game so at least we will get one game out of the process, it will mean nothing though. We will do that this Sat. afternoon. Once we get to Whitehorse in 2 weeks there is only 1 team from the Yukon so we have to beat 2 teams to get to the Nationals which take place in Ottawa in mid March. We have a pretty good team so I am quite confident at this point that we have a good chance, but anything can happen.

Barry has been busy spending our hard earned "cold cash." He has bought a new wind vane, ours getting really old and we bent the paddle the last time out in NZ. We have also decided to install a wind generator as our solar panels are great but the sun only shines 12 hours in the tropics and the wind can blow 24 hours at a time. He has also ordered a new ham radio so the sailing gods willing we will have a working radio when we cross to Fiji. We will have to order a new dinghy when we get to NZ as our old one was still suffering from the huge hole I put in it when I took Mom shore in Whangamumu. It still holds air but it is not reliable any more and you really need a solid boat to get to shore and back. Cat's-Paw IV should be in great shape when we leave NZ, almost as good as when we left Canada.