Confirmed beyond any doubt

Yesterday marked our two-week anniversary of living here, and boy, is it ever clear that we came to the right place! We took a trip down to Mt Lorne after work to visit Deb the musher and have a meal together, and left with our hearts bursting with joy from the happiness that comes from being with sled dogs. Her dogs are Alaskans, and the ones we met are the best leaners ever! As in, when you pet and hug one, they lean into you to get even more into the love. At one point, I (Lauren) was at maximum happiness levels and having a good pet with a leaner, and another dog came along and started leaning into the side of the dog I was petting!

Deb took me out on a trip, and I had my own sled with 4 dogs- Tina, Willow, Cookie and another really cute grey and white one. We went out through the forest, me and my girls following Deb and hers, and travelled along a narrow path through a black spruce forest. After about 20 minutes, we came out into a meadow, and there were huge mountains all around and a beautiful sunny blue sky. Just writing about it a day later makes me feel all excited and emotional! Compared to my only other dogsledding experience in Haliburton, this was much faster and bumpier, with more air time and way more concentration required. At first, I was only watching the dogs and the trail ahead of us so that I could stay on the sled, but after a little practice I was able to enjoy the surroundings a little :)

As we headed home along the Klondike Highway, we were marvelling at how light it was still at 10pm (sorry that this comes up so much, but it's just soooo cool!), and then we noticed that there were 3 caribou on the road ahead of us! An oncoming truck had already slowed down and the caribou were making their way to the side, and as we drive past them we saw them join another one. Then we headed home with happy hearts and mentally high-fived ourselves for coming to this incredible place.

:) Lauren

We have a very busy weekend planned. Tonight Lauren is taking me out for our first meal out (other then the one Jennifer treated us to at Chocolate Claim and our first day lunch at Pickapepper) I think the plan to is to check out a restaurant called Fusion. The place comes highly recommended - most restaurants here have very good reputations - and it has a unique story too, evidently the owner is also the cook who is also the only server, i think we are in for a fun meal. After our meal we are headed back to the Alpine Bakery for a Friday night documentary, I also have Skype date with Evelyn tonight.

Friday night is only the beginning. We are going to meet up with the Yukon Outdoors Club for the first time for a all day hike Saturday morning (that reminds me I need to visit them today to sign us up as members and sign some waivers). Saturday night we are headed back to Mount Lorne for a Open Mic and Thai dinner put on by the community centre. Now let me explain why this is so cool. 1. Mount Lorne is beautiful, 2. it seems to be the dog sledding capital of Canada  "The Hamlet of Lorne Mountain, home to 150 children and 300 sled dogs"(http://www.southernlakesyukon.com/mountlorne.html) - but i think the website has it wrong, that there are way more dogs then that, it might just be out of date :) 3. Thai food is hard to find here, and the lady who is cooking is famous for her Thai meals, she runs thee community centre but used to own a popular cafe in downtown Whitehorse, 4. We heard about a house that will be available for rent in another month or two, and we might be able to get a tour of the house while we are in the neighbourhood (some of may not know, houses and apartments are very hard to find up here - it is the main election issue we are hearing about) - [oh by the way, sorry to all of you who we tricked with our April 1st blog post, we have heard a few hilarious stories about people who didn't realize we didn't buy that run down cabin we found downtown - i'm sure that the people who own have big plans to fix'er up and turn it in a business, there are lots of very old log cabins downtown, this place is so authentic]. And 5. we will get to hang out with Deb again and meet some of her Mount Lorne friends, Saturday is shaping up to be a brilliant day.


On Sunday we (well I am) really looking forward to an introduction to the Yukon Film Society. These guys have a great story too, there are two types of memberships, one is 5 buck and you get all their newsletters, and discounts on all the film festivals in town (this is the membership we are looking for), the other membership is 40 bucks and it gets you access to video equipment, editing equipment and all the experts of the club to help you make your own films. I am still floored by how cool of an idea this is. There are four films being screened on Sunday at the Yukon Arts Centre (a beautiful and somewhat large community theater). Now that is too many films for a beautiful weekend day, so we will have to pick carefully, while we are there, we will also take in some of the exhibits that are on right now at the arts centre. There is a lady who has just finished a residency at the centre, she is an embroider who has taken inspiration from mosses and likens. There is another gallery we heard about on the local cbc 1 yesterday about a 6 year old kid who had a exhibit with his photos, it sounded really intriguing and his interview was hilarious.  


So you might not hear from us for a few days, but now you know how much fun we are having. And maybe you can start thinking about when your Yukon visit will happen.


Have a great weekend,
Colin