Whitehorse sightseeing, June 18, 2010

First this morning we were off to the Beringia Interpretive Center. Beringia is the area of land that was not ever covered by the Ice Age ice, this info was new to me, must have missed that in school. This wooly mammoth skeleton inside the center was well, mammoth.

Another piece of information that I picked up today was the fact that during the Ice Age so much of the ocean was froze up in the glaciers and ice fields that the sea level dropped by about 300 feet. Thus the Bering Strait being only between 90-160’ deep became land and allowed for the migration of animals and people.

Here Bob is trying to shake hands with a Giant Sloth.

This woolly mammoth tusk was found in Gold Run Creek near Dawson City. With all the mining in the Dawson City area, many fossils are being found in addition to the gold. We will be in Dawson City in a few days. Will definitely keep my eyes open for some goodies.

Next we were off for the Yukon Brewing Company for their 2 pm tour.

They claim to be a ‘green’ company, even use recycled glass beer bottles from other breweries. We saw one fellow (in red) filling cans, two at a time then another guy (yellow apron) sealing each, one at a time.

After the tour they provided a free beer tasting. While we were there, several folks came in to buy and/or have these 1/2 gallon jugs called growlers filled. Cost $11.25 CND for the fill, $10.00 CND for the growler.

Next off to the SS Klondike, a sternwheeler that navigated the Yukon River from Whitehorse and Dawson City carrying supplies and mail along the way. The first trip up to Dawson City after the ice broke up contained liquor as well as the last trip in the fall. Eggs which sold for $1 each were locked up during the trip.

We took a wonderful guided tour.

Don’t you love the colors of the Captain’s Pilot House. The guide said they were the original colors?!

Today we met our first what we would call rude checkout clerk. Went to a store called the Superstore, bought groceries for about two weeks, then I thought we were asked by the clerk, “did we bring bags” I answered “no”, so when Bob went to pack up our groceries, he was loading them in the hand basket we used to buy the groceries. The clerk then said “you can’t pack your groceries in that basket, you can’t take it out of the store”, so, we asked how can we get them out, she then said that she had asked us originally “did we need bags”. I had not heard her correctly. Evidently you need to buy each plastic bag for five cents, but by that time we had already paid, so she just sort of threw us three bags, we both packed up quickly and we were out of there. She must have been having a bad day. The heck of it all, we had all kinds of bags in the car we could have brought in to use.

This sculpture is called “Where Legends Meet” . The First Nations believe the Crow brought light into the world. The image of the crow is on the top of the circle.