Attack from the 3rd dimension:
I was in Newfoundland and Labrador on July 4th weekend of 1998, and there were definitely icebergs in the Strait of Belle Isle, just off the Labrador coast. I’m pretty sure I saw a whale’s tail fin while on the ferry to Labrador - as a native (albeit of the other side of the province) do you think that was likely, or was I probably just imagining that some piece of flotsam was a whale?
Yes, they really do. I’ve eaten it myself, in Yellowknife. Apparently, regional variation exists, some call it Flipper pie, some call it Fipper pie. And they’re all nutso for liking that oily, fishy, nasty stuff.
Saskatchewan, when the flax is blooming, is quite beautiful. And Manitoba is gorgeous, Riding Mountain Provincial Park in particular. Lake of the Woods, Ontario, is one of the lovliest places I’ve seen. For me, though, nothing can ever hold a candle to the natural beauty of Alberta. I cry when I get my first glimpse of the wide open spaces and crops dancing with the winds. I miss being able to look out of my windows onto the Rockies. I miss the gently rolling parkland and the silver willow and the Saskatoon bushes and the black soil.
Here, these links should help Phlosphr and Phlosphy find their way across Canada:
Maps: http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/topo/map
How to take a bearing on a map and then follow it: HOW TO USE A MAP AND COMPASS
On-line exercise for using a compass to take a bearing on a map: Compass Reading Test | How to use a Compass Online
Latitude and Longitude: Latitude and Longitude
Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) Grid: http://erg.usgs.gov/isb/pubs/factsheets/fs07701.html
Declination: http://folk.uio.no/kjetikj/compass/lesson3.html
Animated chart of declination changing over years: http://www.usgs.gov/faq/list_faq_by_category/get_answer.asp?id=476
On-line declination calculator: http://geomag.nrcan.gc.ca/apps/mdcal_e.php
Latitude and longitude of places in Canada: http://gnss.nrcan.gc.ca/gnss-srt/advancedSearch.jsp
Use of trigonometry and clinometer or compass to calculate distance (what you should know is that the tangent of the angle = opposite line / adjacent line, so the opposite line = adjacent line * tangent): http://au.oup.com/Images/Maths/OMV/OMV9Ch2.pdf
Trigonometric tables (always check to see if they are in Radians or Degrees; Radians = Degrees * Pi / 180): http://www.industrialpress.com/en/tabid/63/default.aspx
On-line trigonometric calculator (most spreadsheets can also do this): http://www.nga.mil/MSISiteContent/StaticFiles/Calculators/trig.html
Explanation of vectors: http://www.physics.uoguelph.ca/tutorials/vectors/vectors.html
On-line exercise for plotting of addition and subtraction of vectors: http://surendranath.org/Applets/Math/VectorAddition/VectorAdditionApplet.html
Tides: http://www.waterlevels.gc.ca/cgi-bin/tide-shc.cgi?queryType=showIndex&language=english
Moon phase: http://www.almanac.com/astronomy/moon/
Weather: Thunder Bay, ON - 7 Day Forecast - Environment Canada
Living on the west coast my suggestion is
Don’t spend too much time in Banff. Its beauitiful yes, but I don’t spend a lot of time looking at pictures either.
Head north from Banff on #93 and visit the Columbia Icefields, a glacier. (if its still there) and continue on to #16 through Prince George and onto Prince Rupert, our second west coast terminal. Two days and you’re not that far from Alaska. Spend about $670.00 and ride the ferry from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy from 7:30 a.m. to 10;30 p.m. You’ll be observing our rugged coastline watching fishermen, grizzly bears eagles sea lions otters seals,maybe killer whales and porpoises etc. Stay overnight in Port Hardy and travel the east coast of Vancouver Island for 7 hours all the way to Victoria our second quaintest city after Quebec. Lots of touristy stuff there. You can take another ferry from Victoria to Vancouver, about $70.
:: reads through thread again ::
Welcome to the Beautiful Land. 
Could have been. Lots of whales around. I was living in a small rural community for the past couple of years. I whale beached itself on shore last July just by my house. It was sad. They had to tow it out and it died.
With regard to the dialect. Sometimes I have no idea that what I am saying is different. For example, I will often ask “Where’s that to?” instead of “where is that?” and Mainlanders (non newfoundlanders) all laugh and tell me I am so quaint. It can be frustrating when it is implied that I am stupid for speaking that way. Believe me, we are not all “stun’d bye.” (stupid, eh)
Muffin
Blink Blink
Uh. Thanks…I guess I can leave my Sextant home eh?
Where I grew up in the 'Merican South there would often be trucks pulled off on the side of the road with homemade signs for “'cukes”, watermelons, “'maters” boiled peanuts and corn. When I first moved to Newfoundland I saw a similar situation, with a truck by the side of the road … however, the signs read “carcass” and “flipper”. Can’t eat that stuff raw by the side of the road. 
Flipper pie is not uncommon, you can get it at some of the local stores, I think Belbin’s in St. John’s might sell it. Caribou can be gotten at some restaurants, I think Bianca’s on water street. Pretty expensive restaurant, it’s an expense account kind of place, but man, is caribou ever good.
Eastcoastgirl makes another good point. The linguistic differences between Newfoundland and Labrador and the rest of the world are just that, and, while such differences are part of the pleasure of visiting, they don’t make the speaker quaint or stupid or unworldly. Especially unworldly- you can find Newfoundlanders anywhere -for years the crews of Antarctic research vessels had tons of people from Newfoundland.
That said, the linguistic differences are striking, and often very cool to a visitor coming from the mainland, especially as North American English may be homogenizing. Despite my years of living here, I still notice it and enjoy it when I hear someone say “ye” or call their daughter “maid”. That said, I get odd looks when I say “y’all”, so fair is fair.
Then every once in a while I get to take Ms. Attack and the little Attacks to Hawai’i or North Carolina and interpret for them…and feed 'em boiled peanuts…or poi.
Let me know if you get here. We can have a mini dope fest. I’ll cook up a scoff. No flipper pie though, yuk.
And we won’t make you kiss the cod*. Or at least I won’t.
*the traditional welcoming ceremony, in which a visitor kisses the gaping maw of a dead fish after drinking rum and saying a ceremonial phrase in newfoundland english, usually drunkenly, imprecisely and hysterically. Theres a cod moratorium so the fish itself is tough to come by. One of the bars on the street full of bars (Trapper John’s on George Street) apparently has the victim kiss a stuffed puffin’s butt. The cod I kissed had been in a freezer, and had been hauled out for cod-kissing ceremonies multiple times. The puffin may be an improvement. YMMV
So eastcoastgirl, does this mean you’re going to join up? .
Keep with the wooing! Are there other Newfoundlanders on board?
Sorry about the hijack… We are suffering through another storm and I am kinda bored and stuck at work.
You realise, of course, that this thread is making me want to go to Newfoundland?
That is the intent. All Newfoundlanders work for the tourism industry. Come visit and bring lots of money.
I’ll be up in late June 08’ and I can’t wait. Knowing some of my wife’s relatives there will be plenty of ale and a few pipes smoked but they are not as roudy as I hear they once were. I don’t even drink anymore, but I’ll have my camera and will be taking a TON of pictures. Meeting a few Newfoundland dopers would be really cool!
Sorry. I had assumed that you would just use the clinometer on your compass for latitude, and a watch and a shadow for longitude. Dang, you Americans have all the fancy gadgets.
The GPS covers Canada too.
hehe! 
I did just purchase an Octant at a silent auction earlier this month. No clue how to use it, but I’ll give it a go…looks nice on a bookshelf at home though.
I certainly can’t wait to get into those 0 light pollution areas and look up at the stars! Very excited!
Also, I did add a couple of your links to my favorites for future use they look very useful!
I didn’t know our GPS would work up they-ah - good to know
At first is was sketchy in the far north – bad reception angles from geo-synch sats at high latitudes, but it has been greately improved. Don’t expect to always pick up as many sat fixes as you would further south. We have even officially have had full WAAS augmentation for several months now (or alt least most of us have – one of my cousins is so far up there that WAAS does not extend that far): http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ato/service_units/techops/navservices/gnss/waas/news/index.cfm
Clarification: “bad reception angles at high latitudes from geo-synch sats”
Sweet!
