Journeying to Iqaluit - An Adventure of Airplanes and Cats
Good day silly creatures! So, Christine and I have made it to Iqaluit, and have been busy adjusting to our new home, but I will get to the details of that shortly.
The moving company we hired came to pick up our household goods on May 27th (a Thursday). That was the point at which we could breathe a sigh of relief, as that meant all we had left to do was clean the house, and move our little family to Iqaluit. Cleaning and some visiting took up the next couple of days, and then on Sunday May 30 I ran in the Saskatchewan Marathon.
I decided that since I had failed to finish a marathon by the time I was 20 (due to injury), I would strive to finish one before I turned 30. I was shooting for a time of 3 hours 10 minutes, but really just wanted to finish. The marathon went fairly well, I went out too quickly for the first several kilometres, and was on pace for my goal time through the first 14 km, but then began tightening up in the cool weather. I ended up finishing in 3 hours, 30 minutes and 14 seconds, in something like 38th or 39th place out of roughly 200 participants. It was satisfying to finish, although I'm not sure I'm likely to do another full marathon. I had an excellent support team and cheering section, consisting of Christine, my mother, my sister Jen, and our good friends Joel and Sherie.
The next day is when the fun (using the term loosely) began. We had decided to fly out of Regina rather than Saskatoon for two reasons:
So, Monday morning we loaded the cats into their new soft-sided carriers for flying carry-on, and drove down to Regina. This did not make Mirri happy, as she proceeded to chew a small hole in the screen on one side of her carrier. Once we reached Regina, we spent a frantic couple of hours driving around to pet stores to see if they had any recommendations for repair, before finally picking up some aluminum screen and 25 lb. test braided fishing line from Canadian Tire, and using those materials to reinforce the existing mesh sections in her carrier.
While in Regina, we got to visit with my family and a little bit with friends before going to bed early in preparation for our early morning (4:00 am wake up time) the next day.
On Tuesday, June 1, we got, got the cats into their carriers, and then my parents drove us the short distance from their house to the airport. After checking in, the first hurdle of the day was getting through security. Since the cats were flying as carry-on baggage, their carrier needed to go through the security screening. When we were told that we would have to take the cats our of their carriers and the walk through the security door-frame with them, a vision flashed through my head of Mirri running full tilt around the airport. Christine is not a morning person at the best of times, and was already stressed about the move, so she asked whether I could take both cats through, one at a time, and the security personnel were nice enough to allow this, so I took Mirri out of her carrier and with a tight grip on her brought her through. I then went around, got Alice, and brought her through. On this second time, I was tagged for random screening, so they patted me down, but fortunately allowed me to put Alice back in her carrier first. Although earlier in the day it was somewhat of a struggle to put the cats in their carriers, they sure went in quick enough after carrying them through security - it turns out that the world is a big, scary place, and the carriers seem a whole lot safer than the unknown.
The next fun part was the flight. When booking the flights, I made sure I selected our seats so that Christine and I would be together, and that we wouldn't be in an exit row or anything like that so we could have the cats under the seats in front of us. We got on the plane all right and got the cats settled as best we could (Yay advance boarding!), and then tried to relax. The cats weren't happy, but once we got in the air, we got them settled down a bit and they had fallen asleep when we were informed by one of the stewardesses that we would have to move. Apparently the woman two rows in front of us had raised a stink about having pets on the airplane, and gave the airline personnel a hard time about it. So, we gathered our belongings and the cats, and moved further back in the aircraft. Our new seats were directly behind another woman with pet allergies, although this one was very calm about it, and simply asked whether she could move up a few rows so as not to chance an allergic reaction.
After these incidents, we got through the flight all right (I got to watch Alice in Wonderland), and ended up sharing an airport shuttle to our hotel with another couple from our flight, who were very nice and understanding about the cats.
We stayed at the Les Suites Hotel in downtown Ottawa, and it was very nice. The suite was big, with two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchenette and a dining room. It was a on a very high floor (the 20th, if I recall correctly), and Alice settled in on a window sill and was perfectly content to sit there watching the city. I think she had decided this was her new home, so we knew it would be hard getting her back in her carrier the next day.
Christine has family in Ottawa, who were kind enough to invite us over for supper. We had a nice meal, and played some games in the evening before we were driven back to the hotel. As it was going to be another early day, we went to bed early, but not before I did some more repairs to Mirri's carrier.
The next day, after loading the kitties back into their carriers, we caught the shuttle back to the airport, went through security again (this time without incident), and boarded the First Air flight to Iqaluit. The First Air crew were very friendly, and really seemed to like our cats, so that was good. It is about a three hour flight from Ottawa to Iqaluit, and it is pretty luxurious; there is a complimentary meal on every flight, they come around passing out heated towels to wipe your face with, and the crew is very friendly. Best of all, there were no complaints from other passengers about the cats.
Our flight arrived shortly after noon, and we were met at the airport by my manager, Karen. In addition, a number of other people from my department brought a second vehicle to the airport in case we had a large amount of luggage. Since we had to wait until lunch time was over to be let into our new place, Karen brought us back to the office, and we had a nice little visit while we waited. Just after one, we were driven the short distance to our new residence, in what is creatively named 'Green Row', as it is a series of row houses with green siding. Teri, the excellent housing and relocation coordinator we dealt with, did the walk-through of the place, and gave us some paperwork to fill out, before we were left to our own devices to settle in. Karen just lives one building down from us, and she generously lent us some essentials until our own belongings arrived, and also gave us a pizza for our first supper in our new place.
Alice settled into the new place right away, as there were many window sills to perch on. Mirri was a bit out-of-sorts for a few days, but she's quite happy now. As for Christine and I, we have both settled in quite nicely.
That's all for now. I have more to write about, but I figure I should get this posted before starting on the next section.
If anyone is in need of our new address and phone number, just post a comment to that effect, or send me an e-mail.
Regards,
Uncle Traveling Matt
The moving company we hired came to pick up our household goods on May 27th (a Thursday). That was the point at which we could breathe a sigh of relief, as that meant all we had left to do was clean the house, and move our little family to Iqaluit. Cleaning and some visiting took up the next couple of days, and then on Sunday May 30 I ran in the Saskatchewan Marathon.
I decided that since I had failed to finish a marathon by the time I was 20 (due to injury), I would strive to finish one before I turned 30. I was shooting for a time of 3 hours 10 minutes, but really just wanted to finish. The marathon went fairly well, I went out too quickly for the first several kilometres, and was on pace for my goal time through the first 14 km, but then began tightening up in the cool weather. I ended up finishing in 3 hours, 30 minutes and 14 seconds, in something like 38th or 39th place out of roughly 200 participants. It was satisfying to finish, although I'm not sure I'm likely to do another full marathon. I had an excellent support team and cheering section, consisting of Christine, my mother, my sister Jen, and our good friends Joel and Sherie.
The next day is when the fun (using the term loosely) began. We had decided to fly out of Regina rather than Saskatoon for two reasons:
- We were going to be leaving Christine's car at my parents' so we would have something to use on our visits back to Saskatchewan.
- We could get a direct flight to Ottawa from there. This compares with having to fly to either Calgary or Toronto, sit there for three hours, and then fly to Ottawa. When traveling with cats especially, this becomes an important difference.
So, Monday morning we loaded the cats into their new soft-sided carriers for flying carry-on, and drove down to Regina. This did not make Mirri happy, as she proceeded to chew a small hole in the screen on one side of her carrier. Once we reached Regina, we spent a frantic couple of hours driving around to pet stores to see if they had any recommendations for repair, before finally picking up some aluminum screen and 25 lb. test braided fishing line from Canadian Tire, and using those materials to reinforce the existing mesh sections in her carrier.
While in Regina, we got to visit with my family and a little bit with friends before going to bed early in preparation for our early morning (4:00 am wake up time) the next day.
On Tuesday, June 1, we got, got the cats into their carriers, and then my parents drove us the short distance from their house to the airport. After checking in, the first hurdle of the day was getting through security. Since the cats were flying as carry-on baggage, their carrier needed to go through the security screening. When we were told that we would have to take the cats our of their carriers and the walk through the security door-frame with them, a vision flashed through my head of Mirri running full tilt around the airport. Christine is not a morning person at the best of times, and was already stressed about the move, so she asked whether I could take both cats through, one at a time, and the security personnel were nice enough to allow this, so I took Mirri out of her carrier and with a tight grip on her brought her through. I then went around, got Alice, and brought her through. On this second time, I was tagged for random screening, so they patted me down, but fortunately allowed me to put Alice back in her carrier first. Although earlier in the day it was somewhat of a struggle to put the cats in their carriers, they sure went in quick enough after carrying them through security - it turns out that the world is a big, scary place, and the carriers seem a whole lot safer than the unknown.
The next fun part was the flight. When booking the flights, I made sure I selected our seats so that Christine and I would be together, and that we wouldn't be in an exit row or anything like that so we could have the cats under the seats in front of us. We got on the plane all right and got the cats settled as best we could (Yay advance boarding!), and then tried to relax. The cats weren't happy, but once we got in the air, we got them settled down a bit and they had fallen asleep when we were informed by one of the stewardesses that we would have to move. Apparently the woman two rows in front of us had raised a stink about having pets on the airplane, and gave the airline personnel a hard time about it. So, we gathered our belongings and the cats, and moved further back in the aircraft. Our new seats were directly behind another woman with pet allergies, although this one was very calm about it, and simply asked whether she could move up a few rows so as not to chance an allergic reaction.
After these incidents, we got through the flight all right (I got to watch Alice in Wonderland), and ended up sharing an airport shuttle to our hotel with another couple from our flight, who were very nice and understanding about the cats.
We stayed at the Les Suites Hotel in downtown Ottawa, and it was very nice. The suite was big, with two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchenette and a dining room. It was a on a very high floor (the 20th, if I recall correctly), and Alice settled in on a window sill and was perfectly content to sit there watching the city. I think she had decided this was her new home, so we knew it would be hard getting her back in her carrier the next day.
Christine has family in Ottawa, who were kind enough to invite us over for supper. We had a nice meal, and played some games in the evening before we were driven back to the hotel. As it was going to be another early day, we went to bed early, but not before I did some more repairs to Mirri's carrier.
The next day, after loading the kitties back into their carriers, we caught the shuttle back to the airport, went through security again (this time without incident), and boarded the First Air flight to Iqaluit. The First Air crew were very friendly, and really seemed to like our cats, so that was good. It is about a three hour flight from Ottawa to Iqaluit, and it is pretty luxurious; there is a complimentary meal on every flight, they come around passing out heated towels to wipe your face with, and the crew is very friendly. Best of all, there were no complaints from other passengers about the cats.
Our flight arrived shortly after noon, and we were met at the airport by my manager, Karen. In addition, a number of other people from my department brought a second vehicle to the airport in case we had a large amount of luggage. Since we had to wait until lunch time was over to be let into our new place, Karen brought us back to the office, and we had a nice little visit while we waited. Just after one, we were driven the short distance to our new residence, in what is creatively named 'Green Row', as it is a series of row houses with green siding. Teri, the excellent housing and relocation coordinator we dealt with, did the walk-through of the place, and gave us some paperwork to fill out, before we were left to our own devices to settle in. Karen just lives one building down from us, and she generously lent us some essentials until our own belongings arrived, and also gave us a pizza for our first supper in our new place.
Alice settled into the new place right away, as there were many window sills to perch on. Mirri was a bit out-of-sorts for a few days, but she's quite happy now. As for Christine and I, we have both settled in quite nicely.
That's all for now. I have more to write about, but I figure I should get this posted before starting on the next section.
If anyone is in need of our new address and phone number, just post a comment to that effect, or send me an e-mail.
Regards,
Uncle Traveling Matt
posted by Matt at 2:12 p.m.
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