Highlight
of the day: I went lap swimming. Oh, ok,
highlight for me anyway. It’s been a
week since I’ve swam, so it felt pretty good.
Many of the cities that we went through, even if they have under 800
annual residents, have recreation centers.
It has surprised me. Whitehorse
even though it only has 26,000 citizens, has a nicer pool than anywhere in all
of Oregon! Strange isn’t it.
After
swimming we headed off to Dawson City – Alaska Gold Rush Capitol! In its day, this city held anywhere from
30,000 to 40,000 people. It was the hub
of all the gold activity and the town was packed. Despite all the saloons being run, gambling
happening and gold gathering in action, not a single murder or major theft
happened in the whole summer that Dawson City was at its peak. This was due to the strict control of the
Canadian Mounties and the rules that they instituted. Just a quick side note, now to what we did:
We arrived
in DC around 3:30 and were immediately hurried to a theatrical reenactment of
three Klondike characters. This gave a
brief introduction to the lives they led and the type of people that journeyed
to DC for the gold rush. Afterwards we
all went to the Jack London (author of Call of the Wild) but found that it was
mostly photographs and decided that the gold rush museum would be a better fit
for our family. After watching a 20 min.
documentary on the gold rush, we spend the last half an hour before the museum
closed browsing through the displays.
All of
us were tired after the museum so we thought we would eat dinner and head to
the hotel for an early night, but… The
Chinese food fueled our adventuresome spirits so we did what was against the rules
and went where only local traffic was supposed to go. It turned out that the police had laid a trap
and we walked right into… No, no, no – Nothing
of the sort happened. It actually turned
out to have several large cemeteries dating back to 1897. Instead of being arrested, I played my
bagpipes around the tombstones and got some great pictures.
The
road continued up the hill that overlooked DC and so… We followed it. It led up to what they call the Midnight Dome
and the view the top of the Yukon River was breathtaking. A camera could not capture its beauty if it wanted
to. Because the cemetery and the dome
were so enthralling, we didn’t have an early evening. We did not get back to the hotel till 9:45,
but it was worth it. It is the middle of
June, and so the hours of daylight here are many. When we finally got to bed around 11:00, the
sun was just coming out after it rained.
Since Chetwynd, we have not been able to see any of these towns in the
dark – the sun just won’t set!
The
next post will contain our final trek to Anchorage, so stay tuned:)
Cool Buildings
Cemetery
Dawson City from Midnight Dome
Yukon River
Glad you finally got some swim time in, I think that calls for a Highlight! Sounds like it was a fulfilled day for everyone, especially after the food fuelled adventuresome spirits were engaged! Good Job Kaiden!! I hope all of you are starting to adjust to All Daylight...
ReplyDelete~ Shannon S
Bagpipes in the cemetery! I bet that cheered up the residents ;-) Sounds really fun, as does the swim (nothing better after hours in the car, eh?) Great pictures!
ReplyDelete