Day 94 - Sunday August 20/17 (Written on Tuesday September 5th; formatted with photos, and published on Wednesday September 6th; at Prince Albert, SK)

Our first morning in Yellowknife! The warm welcome continued with Lance’s mom Shirley making pancakes (from scratch) with bacon! We had breakfast with Shirley, and Kari and Lance, and with their two children Kaitlin and Tanner - whom we had only met briefly on Saturday night. We all lingered over breakfast, visiting until about 11am.

Lancer and Kari

Lance and his mom Shirley

We then went to meet Nancy’s cousin Emily at the Old Town Glassworks where she works.

Old Town Glassworks is an eco-friendly cooperative whose members use recycled glass containers to create art! (Anecdotally interesting is that Old Town Glassworks is housed in the very same old historic cabin where Emily’s brother (Nancy’s cousin) Nick lived when he first moved to Yellowknife some 32 years ago!). Emily had arranged for us to be part of a 2-hour workshop, to learn the art of sand-etching the recycled glass. What a great learning experience, and a lot of fun! We got to choose our own pre-cut glassware and stencils, and made our own sand-etched pieces - a pair of water glasses for our table at home. Nancy chose fireweed, and Michael chose many of the wild animals we have seen on our travels (photos of us doing sand etching!)

While we were at the Glassworks, cousin Nick dropped by for a brief visit as well(photo)

The cousins - Nick, Nancy and Emily

After our workshop we went to the historic Wildcat Café, housed in an old log cabin (that was one of the earliest buildings in Yellowknife) that has been fully dismantled, refurbished and reconstructed on a new foundation We shared a whitefish and chips lunch, and had a great chat with a couple from Rocky Mountain House, Alberta who had been on a fly-in fishing trip.(photos)

After lunch we went up to the the lookout on “The Rock”, where there is a memorial to bush aviators. The weather had cleared, and we had great views of the city and Great Slave Lake (photos)

We then went back to the Glassworks - which also operates Old Town Bike Works, where they recycle and refurbish old bicycles as well as do bicycle repairs. We borrowed two electric-assist bicycles and went for a tour around Old Town and the island connected to it by a short bridge. Unfortunately, the batteries on the bikes were not very well-charged, and the electric assists disn’t work too well, so we were pooped out after a half hour or so of riding up and down hills on the craggy island.

We went back to Kari & Lance’s with Emily for an hour or so, and then went over to Nick’s son Jeremy’s and his wife Hailey’s house for a pre-arranged BBQ supper of steak and grilled corn-on-the-cob. Many members of the family were there, including Jeremy and Hailey and their 6-month old daughter Eliza Jane, Nick’s daughter Nicole, ‘big’ Nick, ‘little’ Nick Jackson (Emily's son) and his fiancée Stephanie, Emily, and us. In part the supper was a birthday celebration for ‘big’ Nick, and we all had cupcakes and ice cream. What a great ‘getting to know you’ time!(photos)

Nancy with Eliza Jane

(l to r) Nicole, Emily, little Nick, Stephanie

Jeremy (left) and 'little' Nick (right)

Nicole

Hailey

Stephanie

Big Nick

After supper, Nicole and Nick led us back to Kari and Lance’s. We had showers, started laundry, visited for a short while, and fell into bed around 11pm after a very full day!