Good morning, good day, good evening and nice night for a walk.  These are the words of complete strangers as we stroll through the community of Nain.  After three days in the community we have met so many friendly faces and are continually shocked by the generosity of the community.

We are here for work and have limited tools with us and within minutes from another job site across town a plumber shows up on a ski doo with the tools we needs to complete the task.  It is hard to believe that in a community where everything is limited and hard to get they come with open arms and just give it to you, no questions asked.  

I was able to record the tides over the day and time lapsed a video for your enjoyment. It took 8 hours, one shot every minute to produce this video.  The tides here in Nain fall and rise about 7-9 feet.

In our quest for polar bears, caribou, or any wildlife for that matter we have come up empty handed, well almost.  Can you spot our new found friend in the photo below?  

Meet Hermin the Ermin or as JT calls him Erm.  

No he is not a sea otter or an arctic fox, and yes he is in the photo.  

Tonight we are on the hunt for the famous Aurora Borealis, it has eluded us every night since we have been here, although JT says he saw it on the plane from Goosebay, sorry the white whisps, oh how his story changes when it gets entered into a Blog.  

We have been invited to go for a snow mobile ride into the mountains on Sunday with a local resident and fuck yeah we are going.  There maybe hope to find a polar bear yet, or something besides Hermin the Ermine.  

We have learned a little bit here as well:

Lesson 1:  The restaurant is like going to your grandmas house, lunch is at 12 and dinner is at 5, don't show up an hour late because your getting cold left overs.  

Lesson 2:  You have to ask for refills and if you both need refills you both better ask because the person who asks is the only one getting a refill.  True story.

Lesson 3:  To pay your bill at the restaurant stand up, put on your coat, toque, gloves and knock on the kitchen door, or else you will be the sitting there until closing.  Even if you stack your plates, and stare at the waitress. Lesson learned day 1.

Lesson 4:  If you tell a resident your interested in his carving, he will find you. Even in a locked building at your job site under a desk. True story.

Lesson 5:  Don't ever complain about grocery prices back home. Case of pop $30, Orange Juice $15, a white regular fridge $1600, the only reason I know the price of the fridge is because everything is sold at the grocery store, even ammo.

How much do you think these groceries cost?

$64.00

Lesson 6:  A Newfoundland accent is impossible to understand, unless your me who mumbles 80% of the time then you just fit in.

Lesson 7:  Beer store is only open from 6-9 and you can only by 16 a day and closed on Sunday, I think I will be okay.

Lesson 8:  There are no Polar Bears or Caribou in the town of Nain. Don't know why I thought there would be, but fuck can't I just see one?

Lesson 9:  I've been a lot of places and Nain will rank as one of my favourite places to visit, it has a vibe that resonates tranquility and harmony, a very calming and soothing place to rest your soul.

Lesson 10:  Stereotypes are just that, I came with preconceived notions and not one has been true. I hope in reading this blog you have the opportunity to visit a place that opens your mind and expands your heart.

Lesson 11:  Rising early to catch the sunrise, it's worth it.  (note: sunrise here is 8:00am) 

Lesson 12:  When entering the beer store you are not shittered, the beer store is just sinking and sitting at 30 degrees.

Next time you hear from me, hopefully I will have seen some Northern Lights and I will have been through the mountains on ski doo, and had a bon fire on top of a mountain and just maybe, just maybe I'll see a fucking polar bear.

👏👏Well it's a great thing I'm a slow at posting these things because we have finally captured the Northern Lights.👏👏

3:45 am alarm goes off and I spring out of bed after a restless nights sleep.  Bags packed and 60 minutes to reach the airport before I fly from Kingston to Toronto, Ontario.  I am not the greatest at organizing my time, many of my friends and especially my husband can verify that.  Not only do I have 45 minutes to make it there, I still have to stop and grab two coffees and my partner in crime JT.  I arrive at his house at 4:45 sharp coffee in hand and we speed to the airport, park the car and oh yeah I forgot to mention, my restless nights sleep was all caused by a fraud charge on my credit card that notified me minutes before I closed my eyes to fall asleep.  Spending an hour on the phone with the bank and explaining why I can't have my credit card cancelled and a new one mailed they decide to just put a hold on all tap and swipe capabilities, but hey who every use swipe when you have a chip card.  Well, sure enough at 5:00am I need to swipe my damn card and board a plane in 15 minutes.  So I have to call my bank, release the hold for 15 minutes insert my card pay for parking and dash through the airport like I just swallowed a bunch of speed.  I will say that Kingstons airport is very small and I maybe a little extreme, as well as sporadic everything my partner loves about me.

JT and I scurry through security and across the runway into the plane and as we are ready for take off we get notified Toronto is delayed and planes are in a holding pattern above Pearson. We are grounded for 45 minutes, I have no coffee, no sleep and a long day of travel.

Finally we take off and arrive in Toronto, 45 minutes behind schedule but that's okay as we have a 3 hour layover before we catch our next flight to Halifax.  There isn't much to do in a domestic terminal, we ate, we paced and we did a lot of people watching.  After killing the 3 hours we boarded our plane and flew to Halifax, did I mention domestic terminals are boring. Now we had 4 hours to kill, so we ate, we drank, we paced, we drank and yes we people watched.  However we did not board after 4 hours as our plane had technical difficulties and had to be towed to the hanger for maintenance.  So 2 hours later the plane comes back to the terminal and we board for our third flight of the day.  I  have been on the move since 3:45am and it is now 7:45pm and I still have to make it to Goosebay Newfoundland.

Finally we arrive in Goosebay, luggage comes off the terminal and we wait for a cab.  Now it has been a while since I had something to eat it's 9:15pm and we have to get to the hotel.  So I pick up my handy smart phone and try to Uber our way there.  No Uber😫.  I try my smart phone again "Hey siri call me a cab", siri "I'm sorry but I can't find a cab". Now at my wits end I politely say "F&%^ you Siri get me a taxi" she does not understand.  We find a security officer to help us get a cab, we watch it pull up and somebody jumps in it, so now I'm Hangry (I term my partner uses quite often and I know not to f*&^ with him) and we call another cab.  Finally at about 9:45 our cab shows up and I'm delighted to finally being able to eat, sleep and be merry.  A friendly conversation is had on our way to the Hotel and my Hanger settles itself down knowing there is an end to this day, or so I thought.  We arrive to the Hotel (Hotel North 2) and go to check in, but they need to swipe my F*&^ing card, well we all know by now I have to call the bank, unlock my card blah blah blah, 18 minutes later a lady answers, we go through the rigamarole and finally I pay for my room.  I turn around and the sign on the restaurant door says CLOSED.  Mother F()*&er,  missed it by 3 minutes.  Enraged I tell JT to order a pizza and that I will be in my room.  Pizza arrives 50 minutes later, I devour the $40 dollar pizza, pass out and welcome a new day.

DAY 2 NAIN BOUND

Thankful for a late am flight we are able to move at a snails pace this morning. I eat the last two slices of pizza and met JT at Jungle Jims for breakfast.  Down 2 coffees while JT eats his Fruitloops and eggs, check out and head back to the airport to catch a Twin Otter plane to Nain, Labrador.  Once again we did the airport rigamarole, but this time we had to pay for our tool bag which weighed 50 pounds at $3.00 a pound and guess what I was going to have to call the bank and ..... but this time I said F(*& that JT you're paying for this and I walked away and grabbed a coffee.  We boarded the plane and excited to get to my final destination I asked JT where my charger cable was, guess what?? JT left it in the terminal plugged into the wall 😡, did I also mention 2 hours prior he left his plugged in at the hotel.  Onboard the Twin Otter and flying below 10,000 feet I fully expected to see Polar bears, Caribou and every Arctic animal possible but Sid a local resident heading back home went and burst my bubble.  Despite my disappointment, I continued to drill Sid with every question that ran through my head, I'm pretty sure I asked him a 100 questions in 60 minutes, at one point he grabbed a magazine and I'm pretty sure he was just pretending to read it so I would shut up.  However, the views while flying at 9,000' through the mountains and along the coast where stunning despite no Caribou, Polar bears or Glaciers.

Arriving in Nain about 2 hours later on a tiny little frozen gravel runway we were greeted by out clients and given the 20 minute tour of the entire community.  My mind was blown, it was nothing I expected, but I should have known this by now.  It was a cute little town 300 kilometres North of the closest big city tucked in a mountain range on the bay of the Atlantic Ocean.  Nain is the northernmost permanent settlement in Labrador, established in 1771.  As we are driven around the community, we are passed by snow mobiles, four wheelers and the odd truck.  The only access to Nain is by Ferry or Air and come winter they stop plowing the roads and everyone gets around by walking or snowmobile.  Although there are not to many places to go with only two grocery stores, a convenience store, a hotel and bar and a beer store that is sinking into the permafrost. This little community is full of character fitting the East Coast Stereotype, with no cell service, no ipads or iphones the children fill the streets racing snow mobiles and building forts and laughter filling the air.  

A stroll to the harbour after sunset (3:30pm) we catch the full moon ripple across the bay. Hopefully this this week we will be able to capture the Northern Lights, find a seal, a whale and god dammit a F(*&^ing polar bear.