Getting there - we might as well have bought a Baby Polar Bear for the same cost.

Baby Polar Bear for sale.  No, not that one, he's not expensive enough

Now that Mom was on board, it was time to book some tickets.  I wanted to visit Winnipeg since we were going to be passing through anyway.  I have never been there so I wanted to at least be able to say I have seen the sights.  And, even more importantly,  we have some family there, Uncle Paul who we haven't seen for year and cousins I have never met and Mom hasn't seen in decades. 

We negotiated.  Mom has been there and doesn't seem to think the hub of Canada deserves more than two nights.  I tried for three but acquiesced to Mom's superior Winnipeg wisdom.  Once we had calculated the travel costs, I could hardly request higher hotel costs too. 

So, first we checked out Via Rail.  Bird Camp is June 5 to 10.  A train leaves Winnipeg on June 3rd and arrives in Churchill on the morning of June 5.  (The CNSC people meet us at the station and Bird Camp begins right then and there.)  We looked at the Via site and some YouTube videos of various sleeping accommodations on the train.  Since it is two nights and I, for one, have learned my lesson about sleeping upright in chairs on various forms of transportation, we went for a sleeper car. And for some unknown, magical reason, they have discounted fares.  Why?  Who knows.  It saves about $500 so we booked a cabin for two before the magic went away. 
Via Rail Cabin info

Cabin for two - beds down

Cabin for two - beds up

 

But, the dates for the return train don't match up with the end date for Bird Camp.  We had three choices.

1. Leave Churchill on the train on the 11th but have to stay in Thompson overnight.  So that means two more nights in hotels, one in Churchill (not cheap) and one in Thompson (also not cheap).  But I figured maybe Thompson might be worth a visit so I checked out the city tourism website to see what's going on in Thompson MB. Thompson city website.  Well, I'll tell you what's going on according to "City Highlights":  Street lights are out and there is a plastic garbage bag ban.  Hmm, sounds fun.  To be fair, they do have some stuff to do, a zoo and a golf course and a bunch of trails and a beautiful waterfall but not enough to entice us to stay, especially since all of the good stuff is beyond walking distance.

What we are missing in Thompson

2.  Stay two nights in Churchill.  When I mentioned this as a possibility to Mike, our CNSC contact, he was not encouraging.  I got the idea that we would have seen the whole city by the end of Bird Camp and there was not reason to stay longer.  Plus, we get booted from CNSC on the 10th.  So two more expensive nights in a hotel. 

3.  Fly out on the 10th on Calm Air (you just know that name is going to be the subject of a future post likely with vivid descriptions of its lack of Calm Airness but I am getting ahead of myself).  Calm Air tickets were a couple hundred more than the train but balance in the cost of hotel/food and it works out.  Mike also mentioned that people may not want to spend another 45 hours on the train if they have already experienced it on the way up.  He is very diplomatic. 

So, we booked with Calm Air, one way from Churchill to Winnipeg.  Everyone (Via, CNSC & the airlines) recommends we have at least a day leeway between train and flight since the train is sometimes not so much on time as super-late.  So, despite my travel math and my 'balancing' of costs, we have an extra night in Winnipeg (yay, I get my third night!). 



Calm Air (let's hope so, anyway)

Ok, almost there.  We are set for round trip from Winnipeg to Churchill and back again.  But we need to get to Winnipeg.  Because we always need an excuse to visit our super-awesome, always welcoming even though we never book through her, travel agent, Mary-Lyn, we went to her to see if she had any deals for Victoria -> Winnipeg.  Marylyn's contact info. Great visit, no deals.  She advised us to just book our own tickets. 

We went home, checked Air Canada (boo) and WestJet.  Same price so my legendary dislike of AC tipped the scales for WestJet tickets.  We fly out of Victoria on June 1st at 2:50pm.  Arrive back June 11th.  Same price to fly out of Victoria as Vancouver so that was a nice bonus, nobody wants to take the ferry. 

WestJet - you better be better than Air Canada.

Last piece.  Where to stay in Winnipeg.  Our good friend Google came through for us.  The Marlborough Hotel is right downtown, a few blocks from everything according to their website.  Close to the train, close to The Forks with a nice river walk right there.  Plus, it is cheaper than most and has a bit of history (centennial this year).  So, I just called them to book.  The phone conversation was not reassuring but we managed to get reservations.  Mom and I are booked for the 1st, 2nd and 10th.  .

Marlborough Hotel exterior

Marlborough Hotel interior

Whew!  This is definitely happening. 

Why Churchill?

Every time I told someone I am thinking about going to Churchill, Manitoba for my vacation this year, I get a beat or two of dead silence accompanied by a blank stare, then realization dawns and a "oh, yea, Polar Bears" comment.  This is sort of true, but mostly not.  So, here is the history of how I ended up choosing a cold week on the Hudson Bay for my summer vacay.

It actually started years ago when I was thinking I should look into volunteer vacations.  I Googled for advise on the subject and found a website (long since forgotten) that said volunteer vacations are not as altruistic as they seem.  Usually they are for profit and not very helpful to the 'receiving' organization if the 'volunteer' is only there for a week or two.  Really, they are putting up with you in order to get your payment, which they can use to do their real activities of saving children/animals/environment.  The website suggested instead to research volunteer opportunities within my own country and to just donate money to international agencies. 

So that is what I did.  Oxfam Canada gets my money now.  And I have always wanted to visit Northern Canada so I Googled volunteer opportunities in the North.  I found the Churchill Northern Studies Centre who are staffed partly with volunteers.
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Churchill Northern Studies Centre - their new building

This seemed ideal.  Lots of kitchen/scut work but I would get to participate  in the evening presentations and discussions and maybe even help with some research.  Plus, super bonus, I could take the train from Winnipeg to Churchill, something I have always wanted to do (which I realized when I discovered it existed).  So, I let that idea percolate for a couple of years.  The Centre was in the process of building their new building when I first looked into it and it seemed to be in an upheaval. Plus the minimum commitment for volunteering is three weeks (plus travel time) so that would take up my whole year's vacation allotment.  Then other trips came up for the next year or two and I couldn't convince Judy that she wanted to come with me.  Even with free accommodations and food for volunteers, it is still expensive to get there.  As Judy rightly noted, she could get to India for the same price as Churchill.

As you all know, Churchill is a major birding hotspot (what, you didn't know that!?)
(#7 on the top 50).  And the CNSC has a Birding Learning Vacation (Spring's Wings, from now on to be referred to as Bird Camp).  But, if I am there as a volunteer, I don't get to hang out with the Bird Camp nerds on their daytrips cause I will be in the kitchen making them lunch so they can eat sandwiches while they talk about all of the cool birds they saw that day.  Unbearable!  If I wanted to do my own bird watching while volunteering, I would have to rent a car (not cheap in Churchill - basically the same price as Bird Camp) and fit in jaunts between chopping veggies.  So, altruism be damned, I decided that I would just pay to go to Bird Camp.

I invited my brother (another vacation birder) and my mom (a casual backyard birder) to come with me.  Paul can't come but Mom, foolishly, agreed to join me.  (I may not have fully disclosed the costs involved but in for a penny, in for a couple of thousand pounds).  Time to book and organize - in the next post.