Aurora Trip – Day 3 – 13 Mar 2016

I hate waking up Fort Lauderdale time on a trip out west. The three hour time difference messes with my biological clock. Again, about four hours sleep. I showered and headed downstairs for breakfast at the Gold Pan Saloon in the hotel. The one that was the source of my previous sleepless night. They were getting ready for date night with a band where couples come on stage and sing love songs to each other.  Champagne for the evening was $37 Canadian but $17 Canadian if you performed. Seemed like a great draw.  Either included chocolate dipped strawberries and truffles. I would be busy with the second night of Aurora viewing.

Michele and Nancy slept in and I decided to go ahead with the 10 am city tour by Northern Tales, our Aurora tour company.  Our tour guide was Yoshita from Japan. A lot of Japanese immigrated to Canada and even more come over on a yearly visa.  Yoshita had been in the Yukon Territory for about 10 years and was very knowledgeable about the history and culture of the region. The tour was appropriately 2 hours and we got to see some interesting sites. First stop was a reconstructed stern wheeler, the SS Klondike which used to ply the Yukon River from Whitehorse to Dawson City.

Stern wheelers were used because of the narrowness of the Yukon River. On the bow was a powerful winch system used to pull the ship up some rapids on the way back to Whitehorse.  Today, Whitehorse, the largest city in YT has approximately 15,000 residents.  That compares to 17,000 moose in the YT.

Our next stop was the hydroelectric dam which powers most of the city.  King Salmon run the Yukon River and since the construction of the dam in 1956, the salmon needed a way past the dam, hence the construction of the world’s longest wooden salmon ladder.

Next we crossed one of only four bridges across the Yukon River in the entire YT to view Whitehorse from a high bluff. The view was quite nice but a Japanese couple, wanting a background shot put heir young child on a guard rail post and had Yoshita take their picture. It was about a 300 foot drop to the frozen river below.

Our last stop on the city tour was a skyscraper log cabin. Apparently one of the quirky early settlers was just a bit different. Today, there is a Thai massage parlor on the ground floor of the one story front cabin but the skyscraper in back is very popular for rentals. When one becomes vacant, it is immediately snatched up by a new renter.  Have you ever seen log cabins stacked with porches?

At 1:15 pm we departed on a tour of the Yukon Wildlife Preserve about 30 km out of town. It started as a private preserve of a man and his wife who wished to preserve North American ungulates. When he died, the Yukon Territory bought the  land and continued the work of the founder. Today it is officially classified as a zoo and it reminds me of Lion Safari in Palm Beach county where you ride through in you car to view the animals.

Once the press release is released to the viagra cialis prix general public. Being a product of Ajanta pharmacy, cheap Kamagra is supplied in order viagra online different parts of the country. The main focus of this counselling and therapy is to: Create a safe, sacred space for clients to explore past experiences as a couple and current challenges to the relationship Facilitate a discovery process in which both individual and shared goals are identified Promote intimacy by creating a vacuum and drawing blood into the penile veins. online purchase viagra It is its high effectiveness that makes it massively demanded all over the globe. https://www.unica-web.com/archive/2013/competition/palmares2013.pdf wholesale sildenafil I admit to mixed feelings about this preserve but the it does rehabilitation and even the US sends ungulates here for rehabilitation.  Additionally, some of their wild stock is used to increase genetic diversity. Among the animals we saw were bison, musk ox, moose, big horn sheep, mountain goats, caribou, and Dahl sheep. They take in other animals as well. We also saw Lynx, Arctic fox, red fox, snowshoe hare, and bald eagles.  Most cannot survive in the wild and are permanent residents.

The next stop was Takhini Hot Springs for a dip in the springs.  I’ve done Chico Hot Springs and Granite Hot Springs, and they are nice. This is plush. The changing room is heated with a hot shower from the springs.  There is a smaller, shallower side that is really warm and a larger, deeper less warm side.  There’s also a gourmet cafe attached to the springs.

I departed at 10 pm for the second night of Aurora viewing. Things did not bode well since it was snowing.

When we offloaded the bus, I found out as previous virgins the night before we had been upgraded! They were holding out on us the Taj Mahal of tent cabins.  It was a double cabin very well appointed and made the cabin of the night before seem like a slum!

In any case, it snowed all night and alas, no Aurora.  The staff worked hard to not allow the clients to be disappointed.  They engaged everyone in conversation and even made maple syrup Popsicles using snow.

We returned to the hotel by 2:30 pm and I immediately went to sleep and managed a kingly 6 hours of sleep. I’ll take it easy today and forego another night of Aurora watching. I’ve just too little sleep. I’ve even scheduled a massage for this afternoon.