from Oct 18 newsletter:
Right now as this newsletter goes out, we are having our farewell dinner at the Fort Garry historic hotel in Winnipeg, at the end of our weeklong Polar Bear Tour. We had quilters come from all over the US, plus one husband and one local Winnipeg quilter! The time went too fast, and now it is time to go back to our daily lives with dreams of polar bears dancing in our heads.
Last night at dinner we were joined by an arctic researcher who is also a quilter! She invited us to have a quilt retreat at their research center, when I mentioned that I would like to come back to see the Beluga Whales in the summer, so you never know…
Thursday night we had dinner at Gypsy's Cafe, and a Canadian quilter approached me from another table. She had decided to come to Churchill on her own this last week, because she knew our group would be there. Too bad we didn't meet her until the end of our trip. She didn't have a good polar bear experience like we did, because our tour company booked us with the best Polar Rovers in town. Cathy I hope you can join us next time!
We saw Ptarmigan, Arctic Fox, Arctic Hare, Snowy Owl, Bald Eagles, and of course the Polar Bears. I had a solo face-to-face encounter on the back deck of the Polar Rover, with a young female bear. She had ambled over to the back of our vehicle and hung out there for so long that everyone else went inside for lunch. So I sang "Amazing Grace" to her just for the heck of it. We had long moments of eye-to-eye contact and that was absolutely magical.
My fellow travelers were all entranced by the experience, and we bonded over those once-in-a-lifetime moments with the bears… a very special group of Nature Lovers.
Tomorrow I will be giving a power point presentation on "International Quilt Trends", at 1-2 pm:
Best Western Plus Winnipeg Airport Hotel, 1715 Wellington Ave, Winnipeg, MB R3H 0G1, Canada
This is a conference center next to the Winnipeg Airport, and the event has been organized by the Manitoba Prairie Quilters guild. Then I'll be flying home for several days before Quilt Market in Houston next weekend.
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