Nunavut Newbie v.2.0: Iqaluit Newbie: Vacation Rituals

Where did I leave off? Oh yes, my twin. No sign of her, my appearance must have gone back to obscurity. Even when Happy Birthday was sung to me in the midst of wing night at the Storehouse, nobody came up to me and said, "Hey Molly, happy birthday!" Phew! Maybe I really do have my own identity here.

Well, it's 11pm and for the past week or so, I've been having to force myself to go to sleep. Right now it is a bit dark, but light enough that I can make out buildings across town (I have quite the view). This is my normal reaction to the prolonged sunlight. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to affect me much in the morning after a night of sub-par sleep; I just have so much energy to go around.

In one day less of a month, I will be on vacation. Yay! My sister and I are going out west to Edmonton and Jasper and I can't wait! My sister has never been to any provinces outside of Ontario and has never been on an airplane. I'm pretty excited about just seeing her reaction to such a different atmosphere. I have a full week booked for our trip which includes the West Edmonton Mall and outdoor day adventures in Jasper National Park.

Upon my arrival back to Ontario in early July, I have nearly 3 solid weeks to relax and visit. Let me tell you, this blogger needs a tan badly. There will be days of nothing but sunshine, patio chairs, trashy novels, and fresh fruit.

This will be my 4th visit back to Ontario since moving to Nunavut in August 2006. I don't think I'm alone in saying that we develop rituals on our vacations. My Sarnia rituals are:

1. Going to Sunripe. This is a small store in Sarnia that sells primarily produce, but also has delicious baked goods, dips, seafood, and other organic and healthy foods. I LOVE this store. I always stock up there within 24 hours of being in Sarnia so that for the rest of my vacation I can hoard cheese sticks (with their amazing eggplant dip), chocolate-covered pretzels, homemade cookies, and fresh cherries. I always buy those same 6 things, a stay in Sarnia just wouldn't be right without one of those.

2. Ordering a cake from William's Pastry. It is shameful how much sugar I ingest while in Sarnia, but if I had to choose just one ritual, it would be ordering my plain white cake from William's. I don't even know how to write in words just how good their cake is. Oh yes, and I always buy some of their famous oatmeal cookies. Man, it's sad just how much I look forward to food.

3. Many drives through Canatara Park. If time permits, I will always take the long way to go anywhere so that I can drive through the park. It's not hard to understand why when the north is so barren.

4. A drive up the lake. I was fortunate enough to be raised about 600 metres from the shore of Lake Huron. I love that lake and always miss it when I'm away.

5. Weather-permitting (I've been to Sarnia once in the winter), at least one bike ride can be expected of my holidays. I love biking through Sarnia on summer nights and hope some day I live somewhere that I can take summer night bike rides under the trees.

6. Of course, visiting the fam. That's a given!

Of all the things I love about holidays, I think the following picture sums up quite nicely why sometimes it's nice to get away for awhile.