14 June - Whitehorse, Yukon

If you have to get stuck somewhere, Whitehorse is a great place for it to happen. We all enjoyed the day. Pam, Dave and Alan rode their bikes all around the many miles of bike paths. Bob and Sharon spent quite a lot of time in the transportation museum, which they said was very interesting. Gerry and I took Gypsy for a long walk along the path beside the river and through the town, and went to the Yukon Wildlife Preserve a few miles out of town.


It was yet another (knock on wood) blue sky day and the residents of Whitehorse were out to enjoy it. There were lots of walkers and children playing in a wonderful playground near the river that had all sorts of water features where they could safely get good and soaked. It was so much fun to watch them squirting one another and tipping water on their own heads.




I did a quick run to the grocery store for, among other things, packages of the best ginger snaps ever, and yes, I did sneak a photo of the Cheese Whiz. Only to look up and see one of the store employees frowning at me. “What is it with Americans and Cheese Whiz?” he wanted to know. “You’re always taking pictures of it!” So I guess I’m not the only person to be enthralled with the monster jars of Cheese Whiz.



The Yukon Wildlife Preserve was holding an open house this weekend to celebrate 5 years of operation. It has 600 acres fenced for rescue and breeding of threatened species. We got the free bus tour around the facility, and got to see several of the new babies that have been born in the past week or so. They have forest bison (smaller than their plains cousins), elk, mule deer, forest caribou, several varieties of mountain sheep and goats and musk oxen.

Most of the babies were well hidden from view, but one of the mountain goat mamaaaaa’s was co-operative and brought her twins out to view. The musk oxen were interesting. They resemble walking hay stacks. It was a fun way to spend the day.












On the way home we encountered two winged things: The first was a DC-3 that is mounted as a weather vane at the Whitehorse airport. It is a real working weather vane and is in a different position every time we go by it. It started life in 1942 as an Army Air Corps cargo plane, and after the war it was brought to Canada where it hauled freight and passengers until 1970. It's quite a story, and quite a feat to balance it to move at the will of the wind.




And the second flyer was a bald eagle, who was hanging out next to the Yukon, probably scouting for an unwary fish below.

Here it is at 10 pm and the sky is as bright as noon. We’ve put a foam core board insert into the sky light because it’s just annoying to wake up, think you’ve overslept until 9 or so, only to find that it’s 4:15.

Tomorrow we find out what the deal is with fixing Cleo, but we aren’t sorry to have yet another day to spend here.