I’ve lived all over Canada. I was born and raised in Prince Edward Island. I went to college in New Brunswick, I got my first web design job in Ottawa, Ontario and spent a small amount of time living Gatineau Quebec. I spent eight years in Halifax, Nova Scotia and I even did a short a four month stint in London, England as well.
But with all of the moving and living and traveling I’ve done in the last 13 years, I never pictured myself living in the Arctic, which is where I’m writing to you from today. Yellowknife, Northwest Territories to be specific.
Northern Lights Photo: David Watson
I try to live a very healthy and active lifestyle. I never want to be that guy in my “before” picture again, so eating well and being active are a necessity for me. When I moved to Yellowknife this past June, I didn’t realize that it was going to be as difficult as it has been to eat well, eat healthy and eat clean foods.
Because we are so north and remote, and there isn’t much in the way of farming up here, there’s an issue when it comes to getting fresh produce and sometimes even something as simple as chicken breasts. I’m not even talking organic, free range or grass fed, I’m talking about your every day fruits and vegetables and meat. If you want to go organic, if you can find it, you’re going to pay for it. Two small grass-fed steaks cost me $30 the other day. A dozen organic eggs runs about $7.
Earlier this year, I walked in to the grocery store and the produce shelves were completely empty. It was a scary sight.
The winters are pretty crazy here. I’ve seen it as low as -42 C without the wind and the coldest I’ve seen it so far with the wind was -48 C. People keep telling me this is a mild winter but I’m hoping I don’t see it dip in to the -50s this year.
A few weeks ago I wrote about how it’s hard to be motivated with the cold and then when you throw in the fact that we only get 3 hours of daylight… It can get you down. The city tries to keep us active and we have some very nice facilities in Yellowknife for sports. There’s volleyball, a great multi-plex hockey rink with an Olympic sized ice surface. We have a swimming pool. A curling club. And we even have two indoor turf fields for football and soccer. There’s lots of opportunity to be active, but who the hell wants to leave their how when it’s -40 C outside and it’s been dark all day?
Now the flip side to the cold, dark, crappy winters… We have STUNNING summers here. With 20+ hours of sunlight each day and more lakes than you can count (and I lived in the city called the “City of Lakes”) and when the temperature hits 25C, it’s a great place to be. There’s beach volleyball. Softball. Hiking. Swimming. Fishing. Boating. We even have a golf course that is all sand and you carry a mat around with you and hit off of it. It really is “God’s country” up here in the summer.
There aren’t many fancy restaurants or big name stores in Yellowknife and the closest city is a 16 hour drive away. But what Yellowknife lacks in amenities, it more than makes up for in character. If you ever get a chance to come see the Norhtern Lights, do it!