One full day in Whitehorse

We found out today that you can have just as full of a day in one place as you can driving across the country. Although there were no hotels to check out/in from, no roadside cafes to stop at and write postcards, or bison to squeal over and photograph, we sure were out and about.



This morning I walked over to my new workplace (30 second commute!) and got an ID, met some physio colleagues, and then because they were nice and friendly and invited me, I joined them for a coffee break! Not just any coffee break- the WGH's caf brews locally roasted coffee, and has a view of the mountains :) I start work on Monday, and it sounds like they have given me inpatients in the morning and outpatients in the afternoons. The therapies department looks well-equipped and a nice place to work.

So, there are mountains in Whitehorse! Not exactly Rocky Mountains, but still snow-capped, towering-above-the-four-storey-buildings mountains. We saw them from the parking lot of the grocery store:

Argh, they didn't really show up in this photo. But they're there!

Aside from Colin:
Now Lauren wrote that the there are no big mountains here. I think that maybe there are.  The largest mountain around Whitehorse is called Mount Arkell it is 2209 meters above sea level (for comparison the largest mountain around Banff is Mount Assiniboine at 3618 meters. But here is the big news. Not far from here (little over a two hour drive SW, you will find a National Park called Kluane. Kluane gets to host Canada's largest mountain-  5959 meters or 3.7 miles above sea level you can find Mount Logan.


This has got me thinking about what a two hour drive from TO would offer in term of wilderness adventure. Don't get me wrong  I'm not going to abandon my love for Ontario camping, but two hours of driving from Toronto will get you to Presqu'ile Provincial Park. I've been to Presqu'ile lots of times, they have great migratory birds and fun rock beaches and even are really beautiful marsh, but i have never seen a mountain there. I think I am falling in love with mountains.

inside Pickapeppa

Since we're technically still on vacation, we went to Pickapeppa Caribbean Soul Food for lunch rotis, and were very delighted with them. After that, we walked around a bit for some errands- the bank, Banff Mountain Film Festival tickets for tomorrow, and tried to find a thrift store, with no luck. Something cool about this place is that there's only one of many things, like each bank has one location, there's even one Tim Hortons! We were sucked into a coffee shop that was located in a two-storey log cabin downtown, and were not delighted with the Reishi coffee that they sold exclusively. First of all, it was just instant coffee! And the magical Reishi mushroom that was in the coffee, that was supposed to make us smarter and heal faster, just tasted too much like wet cardboard. Although we really enjoyed seeing the inside of this cabin, we will not be in there again, at least as long as it is a instant coffee house. The architecture here is something else. There is a real feel of frontier or even wild west- but it's not just for the tourists- many of these buildings are legitimately old.  We will have to elaborate on this more another night because it's getting late here and it is a big topic.

Whitehorse Caribbean rotis

The grocery store was full of surprises, including one giant surprise. Salmon are sold whole (faces included) for cheap, and some things, like granola bars, seem expensive. The giant surprise, though- mangoes were on sale, $5.99 for a box of 9! That impressed even us Danforth Fruit Market shoppers.We did a big shop today stocked our shelves and filled our fridge (pictures tomorrow of our place we promise), with selection at it's best we had a delious home cooked meal, spinch salad with mango chicken, we are both on the stunned side that we were eating such fresh food at the end of March, which included Mexican mangos and Manitobin chicken.

homemade dinner- at last fresh food from our kitchen

This afternoon we went for a little walk up the hill across the street from our place to see what we could see. We got to find out that the snow is still deep (over the knee), there are a few dog walkers that use that trail (signs but no sightings) and there are more amazing hills to venture out to when the snow is gone (that walk will be further then the average dog walk, and therefore, will have no snow pack to walk on. We have "corn snow" which is the hard icy crystal looking snow, which we found out in the sign post forest, makes for poor snow shoeing). We also got to see Whitehorse from a elevated vantage point for the first time. It's is kinda big, it curtanly feels  like there is a lot for our senses to absorb while we were walking and driving around the parts of town we have seen so far.

Here are a comparison for you to ponder:
Toronto:

Length of day		Solar noon
Date	Sunrise	Sunset	This day	Difference	Time	Altitude	Distance
							(106 km)
Mar 31, 2011	7:01 AM	7:43 PM	12h 41m 21s	+ 2m 59s	1:22 PM	50.6°	149.443

Whitehorse:

Length of day		Solar noon
Date	Sunrise	Sunset	This day	Difference	Time	Altitude	Distance
							(106 km)
Mar 31, 2011	7:28 AM	8:43 PM	13h 14m 48s	+ 5m 37s	2:05 PM	33.6°	149.451

Lastly before we go to bed (truth be known Lauren's head has already hit the pillow) there are new photos posted on March 29 and 30th's postings.

Have a great day everyone, thanks for all the messages and support, this place is already starting to feel a little bit like home.

Lauren and Colin