It’s official....mosquitos CAN be the size of a small aircraft! And that’s all I will say on that matter (for now).
Learning for today.....visitors to Whitehorse can pick up a free 3 day parking pass from the Visitor Info Centre that enables them to park at no charge in the downtown area where parking meters are everywhere! What a nice touch. Too bad no one at the Visitor Centre told us this when we visited there first thing this morning. This lack of permit resulted in us overstaying our one hour meter (yes...we put money in the meter but it would only give us an hour). As a result, when we returned from feasting on a bowl of halibut chowder at the Klondike we discovered a parking ticket on the windshield of our car. Aggggghhhhh...... At first glance we thought the ticket was for $25 but upon closer inspection we discovered that if we paid it today...it would be only $10. $10 was a much better option but the challenge then was to figure out where to get an envelope to put the money in so that our ticket would actually be credited with having paid the fine. The bylaw officer who’d written us the ticket in the first place happened to be passing by (again) just as we were trying to figure out how to pay our ticket. He suggested that we go into the ATM at a nearby bank and get an envelope from there. He then proceeded to tell us that we could have gotten a free 3-day parking pass from the visitor centre. Agggghhhhh....why didn’t the dour little old lady who was volunteering there tell us that?! Sigh....Lynda wrapped her scarf around her neck, buttoned up her jacket and headed out in the cold windy weather to find an envelope at the bank across the street. She was met with a small problem though....the bank no longer uses deposit envelopes for their ATM....they just have people put their cheque right into the slot. (Not sure how one is supposed to deposit cash!). Finally one of the tellers in the bank broke down and gave Lynda an envelope. (She didn’t want to until Lynda practically begged for it!). From there Lynda was able to make her way back across the street to the front of city hall where the big blue box was located. That big blue box is where you can drop payments outside of office hours. To cut to the end of this story....what a way to start our day of exploring Whitehorse....with a ticket! Oh well, there is a reason for everything...perhaps the reason was so that we’d get the info about the free parking passes to share with others who are visiting this great little city.
I mentioned the chowder we had at the Klondike and I need to go back to that story. What a fantastic bowl of soup that was! It was also massive and the bannock that came with it was delicious. The Klondike is the oldest building in Whitehorse and it is even more interesting for the fact that it is made of canvas and wood. This was especially cool for me as that was the second time I’ve been in a building like that. The first time was when I was born. The hospital in Kitimat in 1956 was that exact style of building and I’d always known that’s what it was but couldn’t really picture it until today. Bonus! Another bonus was that there were some massive and delicious looking desserts. The only problem was that we were way too full after our chowder to order dessert so the decision was made to explore the city for a while and then go back for dessert. So that’s exactly what we did and four hours later we made our way back to the Klondike where we ordered two desserts to share (because we couldn’t decide between them) and boy were they good! The sourdough bread pudding was like nothing either of us had ever had before. It had coconut and raisins and caramel sauce and ice cream and whipped cream and well....it was memorable to say the least. And then there was the chocolate brownie that was warm and chewy and smothered in ice cream as well. It was like the dessert to our dessert. These desserts were so impressive that when they were delivered to our table even the guests at surrounding tables asked if they could take a photo of us with them. Yes....we’re now a special memory for some of the visitors to Whitehorse this season...we are the two who had the two massive desserts at the Klondike. Yummy! Honestly though...we won’t be doing that any time soon again though. Both of us were about done for the day once we were finished there. So today we officially had dessert for dinner....what a great way to kick off this adventure. :-)
Our exploration around Whitehorse today included a stop at the Yukon Brewery and Distillery where we were also able to do a tasting of seven of their beers. Even though neither of us are much for beer....they were all really quite delicious and our tour guide was very good. She was so enthusiastic about her job it was refreshing to see. She was also very knowledgeable which was impressive given that she just started there one month ago. The grains they use at the brewery come from the UK, Biggar Saskatchewan, and Armstrong BC. As well, the stainless tanks they use all come from Summerland!
We also spent some time today attending a class at the local glass blowing gallery where we learned about the process and were able to make a couple of little blown bowls for ourselves. It was both interesting and fun. It was also very HOT! We did survive the heat though and in the end we each made two little bowls. It will be interesting to see what they look like when we finally get them in a couple of weeks. They won’t be cool enough to handle until after we’ve already left tomorrow so we’ve made arrangements to get them on our way back through Whitehorse in early July.
Driving around here gave us the opportunity to really appreciate how open and spacious the region is. Even the streets are wider than usual and the mountains seem to be close but far away at the same time. Perhaps this is partly because the light here is different. It’s as though it’s diffused somehow....maybe it’s due to the greater angle that the sun is from the earth when you’re this far from the equator.
All in all we enjoyed our day in Whitehorse and even managed to pick up a few supplies for our motor home. We get our RV tomorrow morning so are feeling excited to hit the road en route to Dawson City and points north and west.
Till next time,
L & L
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