I was going to say, "Go Habs!", but now it's more like, "Montreal, pull it together!"

Tonight I'm at the KPI watching the game with the locals. Unfortunately, Montreal is about to lose 5-1. This is not good.

Here is the last bit of my Whitehorse trip.

As you know, I made it to the Wade Davis presentation. It was excellent. He is the Explorer In-residence for National Geographic and the slide show was amazing. Just a series of National Geographic quality shots. The talk was a condensed version of his newest book, the Wayfinders. I bought a copy and he signed it for me.


The next day I went to the Beringia Interpretive Centre with two of the girls I met at the hostel. It is a really well done museum all about the Ice Age in this area. The displays are all very simple and quite beautiful, really. They have all sorts of these giant quotes from local elders talking about their stories. This quote refers to the story about finding the first ancient mammal preserved under the ice.


These little guys were my favourite Ice Age mammal. They are related to antelope and have giant nose sacs to warm the air before it enters their bodies and capture moisture as the air leaves their bodies. These guys actually still exist, in Siberia, I think, but the last two groups are endangered.


This is a fossil of a giant land sloth. There were herbivores. And huge.


I really liked them too, so I took a couple pictures. I started reading Life of Pi the other day and the story starts by explaining a lot of sloth behaviour and it's really interesting.


And, of course, the woolly mammoth.


The Centre also has an ancient horse hide that was conserved at the Canadian Conservation Institute in Ottawa. Some of you may already know about this. I couldn't take pictures as it is light sensitive.

The week after I leave there will be a display about the local clothing and dolls. These mukluks were a little display to promote that upcoming event. I would have liked to see that.


This morning one of the girls and I walked all around a part of the Yukon River. It runs right through Whitehorse. The ice is just breaking up and it was a really nice hike with a lot of things to look at.


This boat, the S.S. Klondike, is a local historical site. It's not open right now, of course, but it just received a fresh paint job and looks very nice. The German girl told me that the same boat is also in Dawson City and only half of this boat is the actual boat and the rest is restored. The other half is in Dawson, restored to the same state.


The giant orange paddle wheel.


And we found this along the walk. I'm wearing my Manitoulin Sweater, now known as my Town Sweater, since I only wear it when we go into town on Fridays.



This is the Whitehorse Utilities building. It's nice because it's so blue.


They also make their power with this dam and turbines.


I'm about to head back to Squirrel Camp. Short week, only three days till I'm back in town. Wish me luck, Cass

Whitehorse town.

Today I got to meet the Stanley Cup at the Scotiabank in Whitehorse. I was one of the first 500 people in line, so they took a professional picture of me with it and will e-mail it to me in a few days. I also met a really nice family in line and they took another picture of me with The Cup in the background. They were rushing everyone through so much and the line wasn't even that long. I think they expected the event to be busier than it actually was.


After that I just strolled around town and ran some errands. As we rarely come into the city, some of my coworkers wanted me to pick up special items for them. I also had a list of touristy things to see. I’ve been taking pictures of downtown Whitehorse architecture. It’s an interesting place because there are a lot of historical cabins and false-front buildings right in the middle of the city. They are all very well maintained and painted in really nice colours. I particularly enjoy this blue one and the purple log cabin below.



This little building's claim to fame is that it is the oldest operating building in the Yukon. It's the Klondike BBQ serving northern BBQ cuisine. I think it would be a great place to eat, but it isn't open right now. Hence, it is no longer the oldest operating building. There is something going on with its completely dug-up front lawn, so I'm guessing that it's under renovation.


Right next door to the Klondike is the Cupcakery. It's pretty cute and fabulous. I ordered these little guys for a treat. The front one is a blackforest cupcake with a cherry on top and the one in the back is a lemon cupcake with lemon curd centre and a blueberry and lemon zest on top. Yum.


There’s also this giant piece of copper. The sign says it is most likely the largest piece ever found in Canada. It took them 10 days to retrieve this piece and haul it back into town over two mountain passes, the Yukon River, and countless other dangerous obstacles. But, now they have a nice possibly-record setting Big Thing for one of their corners. This is right out front of the Yukon Museum, which is also not currently in operation. These people keep strict winter hours until May. Then the town really starts to open up. I'll have a couple days to see the things I couldn't see when I come back to head down south.


After my walk downtown I drove up the hill to the Canada Games Centre to the Environmental Fair. It was really neat and I talked to so many interesting people. Everyone wants me to come live here and work. I collected a lot of business cards. I want to work in Ontario, though. I suppose that's the problem for most people. While I was at the Fair, I ran into a woman I had met the previous night at the hostel. She works for the local Native Council and I mentioned that I couldn't get a ticket to the Wade Davis talk tonight because they were all booked up. She showed me the ticket booth for people picking up tickets. They had started a waiting list. They hadn't mentioned that to me the day before when I called, and for some reason they didn't want to add me today, but I was persistent. I had to come back at 2:00 pm to see if I could have a ticket. I came back at 2:00 pm and even though I was the second last person they had allowed on the list, I got one of the tickets! I'm really excited to go to the talk. One of the other girls at the hostel here is going with me. She is currently staying at the hostel and writing her Masters about people's connections to their places and land. And she knits. We have a lot in common, so it should be a fun night!


Tomorrow I'm going out to the Beringia Interpretive Centre and the local hot springs with one of the other women who is staying here. This has been a great day off so far!