Hump day, April 7th

The most important thing first: Colin's semi-retirement and Lauren's new job are both headed in the right direction. Colin's spending his late-mornings/afternoons out and about in town and in the forest, and has been preparing delicious meals and generally being an excellent house-husband. Lauren is enjoying her split between seeing inpatients in the morning and outpatients in the afternoon, and has found that physio in Whitehorse and Toronto are not that different. 



We have been on hiking trails that lead four different directions, and most of the trailheads' entrances were just seconds from our front door. Our dreams have been realized while we have been walking. The scenery is absolutely stunning, and yesterday's sunset was the kind that a movie studio would paint for a closing scene of a feel-good family movie (Lauren suggested the movie Beethoven's Second; the one with the big dog). Hiking in this kind of terrain is different then back home, and we are going to need some hill training to get into better shape! Our leisurely hikes up the Beare Hill, Hog's Back and the Finch Meander sure did not prepare us for this (but if you haven't experienced these spots in Toronto, you should look them up for a sunny spring day).

Spring is not in our vocabulary yet. Although the weather is beautiful, and the winds have been from the south (a good thing for Whitehorse- northern arctic air brings storms), it is still very much winter here. The best way to describe it is that we are having the Toronto equivalent to a late January, early February thaw. There is still a few feet of snow in the bush and the shaded slopes it gets deeper then that. 

We're becoming regulars at Whitehorse's book spots- the library, Mac's Fireweed Books, and the used books shop. There are lots of new things to learn about, and birds are high up on the list. We will be meeting up with a friend of a friend who has a dogsledding team this weekend, and have some nice plans for Friday evening- happy hour drinks and a meal at the Chocolate Claim (thanks for the housewarming, Jennifer!), then a film about the economy of kindness hosted by Transition Whitehorse. We're also going to have to fit in a trip to the recycling depot- there's no door service here :( And a trip to the liquor store (all we have left are empties, which will be also be going to the recycling centre)- our first visit to an off-sale shop for beers last week was sorta expensive! Tasty Yukon beer, though. Not as tasty as Ontario Beer though, but we are going to keep looking for our new favorite local brew.

Happy Sun Sets to All,

Colin and Lauren