Sunday, November 1, 2009

Hay-loween


Here are some photographic highlights from the last week...not in chronological order.

A sunday drive in the territories.


Me, making "light" of Meaghan's lite-brite pumpkin endeavor.

Meaghan, with her guts spilled.


Meaghan, myself, and Rosie ready for the dance.


the highway between Hay River and Fort Resolution at dusk


the highway between Hay River and Fort Resolution, a bit before dusk



Fort Resolution


Fort Resolution
Fort Resolution


Rosie Reflected in the Slave.


land of the silver birch, home of the beaver.



some cool looking wood on the beach.


My office.


me. with a camera for a nose.


So, that's this week in pictures. Now, to explain them!

So, last sunday we went for our first outing outside of Hay River since we arrived. Meaghan brought Rosie and I to see Fort Resolution, which is about 2 hours from here. It was a beautiful drive (as you can tell from the pictures above), but, aside from the company, also fairly monotonous. Something wasn't quite right, but I couldn't put my finger on it at first. And then, it hit me: we were on a road that went to one place only. After the first half hour, when the road turns off to head to Fort Smith and Fort Providence, there is no other turn off, no other intersection, no other point of interest until you reach the end of the road an hour and a half later, in Fort Resolution, population 500. It seems so odd to have a community so removed from other communities, with absolutely nothing on the way, with a very long (mostly gravel) road that is the only way in and the only way out. 

Fort Resolution is what I would have imagined a tiny, remote northern town to be. It is also right on Great Slave Lake, due east of Hay River. But a very different...vibe. It was quiet as we drove in, and Meaghan gave us the tour in her SUV while I shot some pics out the passenger window. There is one grocery store, and one convenience store/gas station, a band office, a government building, an RCMP compound, a school, a couple of churches, and a small huddle of houses and mobile homes. A lot of  houses looked to be either abandoned or condemned, and some were no bigger than a single room. But there was still something charming about the place, and we were to be charmed all the more moments later when Meaghan took us to visit some people she knew (she had spent of lot of time visiting the town from Edmonton, working with the youth, in the last few years. She lived there a while, too.). We walked out of the cold, dreary, and quiet world outside... and stepped into a microcosm of warmth, life, and celebration inside the home of these people. The family was just about to have dinner, and had a million visitors and family strewn about the house. They invited us to stay, but unfortunately we had to get back on the road towards Hay River (because it's the only place it goes!!) before it got too dark.  Hopefully there will be a next time. I'm not done with Fort Resolution yet.

This week in general went well. We made some more friends, hung out with lots of people, carved pumpkins (well, I gutted the pumpkins and then watched Meaghan decorate them with her cop-out pumpkin kit...which turns the pumpkin into a lite-brite. Cool effect....but totally a cop out from knife-wielding). We even went to a Halloween dance at....the LEGION! we are officially small-towners. For those of you who are small towners, you will appreciate the charm and centrality of a Legion. Seeing as how we have nothing here to make costumes with (I have a sweet tickle trunk, but it didn't make the packing cut to come here), we turned our normal clothes into "costumes" (which are not REALLY costumes, because they are our legitimate clothes...but hey, I feel like I do that a lot). I was clad in plaid, and Rosie was a gypsy. woohoo, real crazy. 

Bah!
It's 6:30. Rosie and I were invited to dinner at our new-new friends' place tonight (someone other than Meaghan!), and we're supposed to be there now! So, enjoy the pictures for now, and I'll elaborate more...soon.

Happy November 1st.


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