Category: Around Town

The Tulita Fitness Room

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Our now-SAO (Senior Administrative Officer, aka guy who runs the municipality) is a young guy who proved his chops by (among other things, I’m sure) setting up a pretty awesome fitness room in the hockey arena building.

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I gotta admit, I was really not expecting to have access to so much fitness equipment in such a remote and tiny town. I guess I really have no excuse for not being in great shape these days…

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(Probably incomplete) List of Equipment:

  • Mismatched weights of various styles and sizes
  • 2 Bench press stations
  • Shoulder press up station
  • Leg press station
  • Chin up bars
  • Small dips station (like mini parallel bars)
  • Gymnastics rings (I brought these up myself)
  • Isolation machine station
  • Treadmills and exercise bikes
  • Punching bags
  • Long heavy ropes
  • Those giant ball things
  • Medicine ball
  • Platforms of various heights with grippy top surface (I use these for practicing jumping up)
  • Ab roller
  • Yoga mats

The Snow King’s Castle

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I was in Yellowknife recently and had a chance to pop in to the Snow King’s Castle.

The snow king's castle, built entirely from ice blocks. (Not my photo)
The snow king’s castle, built entirely from ice blocks. (Not my photo)

Each year a local Santa-Claus-esque guy, his small team of expert craftsmen and their horde of eager but inexpert helpers build a castle out of ice out on the frozen lake. It costs $5 to go in and have a look.

The castle includes a stage for performances on some evenings, and a slide for kids to enjoy. Alas, I was too busy to catch a show while I was in town (“Brrrrr-leseque” was on) and there were too many kids using the slide for me to have a go.

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The Ice Theater inside the castle, stage on the right.

For $5, I’d say it’s worth a look.

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The National Ballet Of Canada had a ballet slipper built in to the castle this year, on to a leg of ice.

Gambling

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Gambling is a major pastime up here. Every week, there are a variety of games going on in town: Bingo, Nevadas, Chase the Ace, Poker, Cribbage… even the ever-popular Hand Games are a form of gambling. Sometimes people will even fly out of town if the Chase the Ace jackpot gets big enough in another community, such as this saga a few months ago in Hay River that resulted in an almost half-million dollar jackpot. All this gambling is organized by the hamlet’s recreation department.

bingo nevadas chasetheace casinonight