The Top of the World

Eli is, quite literally, at the top of the world.

Until the end of the month, Eli is in Alert, Nunavut, which is the northernmost permanently inhabited place on Earth by humans (and not elves). 

Alert is on Ellesmere Island, which is a little hard to imagine as an island because the ice around it is a polar ice cap.

The permanent population is 0, however, it is a military and scientific base, and so there is always some personnel up there. 

All of the Canadian territories boast of being North of latitude 60. 

Yellowknife is precisely 62°30' North, and we are about 400 kilometres from the arctic circle, that invisible line where the sun is up for exactly up for 24 hours on the summer solstice and down for exactly 24 hours on winter solstice.

Right now, Eli is above latitude 80 (and just so you know, 90 is as far as the scale goes). 

Alert is at latitude 82°30'05" north, and is 817 kilometres from the geographic North Pole and Santa Claus, although Alert is actually North of the geomagnetic North Pole, meaning that compasses would behave oddly there.

The girls are beside themselves because Eli is SO close to the North Pole!

Ice and Snow Fun

Sometimes, when I get ready to write a blog post, I'm not sure where to start.

So, I'm going to start at the beginning and go to the end, if that's alright with you.

now and ice to play with.

We finally got Nanny on the snowmobile with Eli. 

The snowmobile did not frighten her, but the idea of ELI on the snowmobile, did. 

It was the shortest trip I've seen Eli go out on. 

Nanny says it was lots long.

And, oh, so fast. 

On the morning of March 7th, this was the sight from our front deck. 

Note the snowmobile.

I don't think it's encroaching on the sheer volume of pictures of Eli's boat, but it's getting up there!

Overnight, the snow on the road in the court was scraped up and piled up for shipping out. 

I do like how it's all piled up all the way down the hill. 

Eli climbed up the hill to take a few pictures. 

Hi house!

On Saturday afternoon, the weather was fine. 

Only -14 or so with no wind and lots of sun.

Yeah, I know... I wrote ONLY in front of a negative degree temperature.

We went to Parker Park to go sliding on the hill.

Nanny and Papa got into it! 

Miss A helped to push Papa down the hill. 

Heeere he goes. 

Yee haa! 

Sometimes, they rolled down the hill. 

And, then walked back up. 

It was so bright with all that sun bouncing off the snow! 

No parka.

Just sayin'. 

Nanny made herself feel a little bit sick after all of the enthusiastic rolling down the hill with the girls. 

Papa helped to turn me into a Mommy sled to take both girls down the hill at once. 

We did it. 

Nanny and Papa had fun.

(Yes, Papa is wearing a survival suit to slide in... it was toasty!) 

The girls had a blast with Papa and Nanny. 

And, we all got some fresh Northern air. 

I got a bit of a workout pushing Papa down the hill.

Lunge! 

And, we had a few fun collisions. 

Eli took the camera for a bit so I could slide. 

When dressed in the right gear, we were very comfortable. 

I'm pretty sure Nanny is pretending the snow is sand, and that she came to visit us in Hawaii instead. 

A few last trips... 

... and soon it was time to head back home... but how? 

Well, believe it or not, we all went to the hill with Eli's snowmobile. 

One girl would sit up front with Daddy (that's Miss A). 

And the rest of us fit (?) in the sled behind the snowmobile.  

Today, it was much windier (read: colder), and we went to the Snowking's Snow Castle built on Great Slave Lake. 

Click on the link to see the Snowking's website.

There was a dog there named Buttercup who would catch snowballs in his mouth.

He lives in one of the house boats (currently frozen in the lake), so he was able to walk right over and socialize.

For the girls, he totally stole the show and was almost more entertaining than the giant Snow Castle. 

The inside of the Snowking's Snow Castle is

a-ma-zing,

with some extra zing.

So, it was amazingzing.

Nanny and Papa thought that it was pretty cool that there were actually (very cold) bathrooms in the Snow Castle. 

There's a little bistro area, with log chairs and ice tops for drinking tea, coffee or hot chocolate.

The ice used for the table tops and in the windows of the Snow Castle are from Great Slave Lake. 

Papa and Nanny even got to meet and chat with the Snowking himself.

True Northern royalty. 

Look at the snow carvings! 

Artwork was hung up all over the inside of the castle, which I think it really cool. 

Papa liked the doors. 

Outside, I had the wrong setting on the camera, so I got these bleached out pictures, which I actually think are pretty awesome.

Maybe I'll start telling people I did this on purpose.

Okay.

I did this on purpose, people. 

Here is a series starring Miss G:

And, now, a series starring Miss A:

The girls had fun careening down the hill at top speed. 

But... 

Buttercup the Dog stole attention again. 

When you can't beat the cold, join it.