Monday night we were invited to “Cocktails on the Lawn”. We brought cream cheese with apricot-habanero jelly that we bought at the farmer’s market. It was delicious! We met more interesting people, and the weather couldn’t have been lovelier!
We got to babysit on Tuesday, while Dacotah went to play softball. The rest of the week was spent working and organizing.
Our 39th anniversary was June 23rd and we decided to go to Whitehorse, Canada which is in the Yukon. The issue was, we now can’t find our passports!!!! We looked high and low, even did a “girl look” (which means moving things so you can see what’s under them or behind them) and couldn’t find them. Dacotah and Travis looked, we combed the car…. nothing. We had them a few weeks ago when we got our driver’s licenses but can’t for the life of us figure out where they are. Luckily, we have Global Entry cards and we had our birth certificates, so we could get in and out of Canada.
We left on Friday about 4pm and I was SO EXCITED for this get-away. We drove to the border and got into Canada no problem. The drive was SO BEAUTIFUL along the Alaskan Highway. The road was lined with some sort of fuchsia wildflowers for miles. (see picture) We stopped in Haines Junction to see a “Pow Wow”. (I’m not sure they call it that, but I don’t know what they call it). The native Alaskans have a beautiful new cultural center up there. They were dancing and singing and in native regalia. They wear these blankets that are lined all the way around the edges with buttons. They are called, “button blankets” and they used to get the buttons from soldiers’ uniforms or trade with white men. They thought they were so beautiful as they had never seen anything like it before. It was very interesting, but we couldn’t stay long because we still had a few hours to go to get to Whitehorse.
There were a few rest stops along the way….pretty much outhouses. Made us very appreciative for the wonderful rest stops in the lower 48!!! Check out\ .
Steve had booked the “Presidential Suite” at a hotel and when we got there it was 84 degrees in the room and the air conditioning wasn’t working. We had to move to a standard room. That was only the first of many “strike outs” we had in Whitehorse. Next, we went looking for a bar that was open to have a cocktail and celebrate our anniversary. They only one we could find that was open had loud music pouring into the streets and a line of very young people waiting to get in. Strike two!
The next morning, we went to a restaurant for brunch. All the streets are metered, and we didn’t have any Canadian coin to put in the meter. There was an app you could download to pay for the meter with your credit card. Steve tried to do that but apparently didn’t succeed as when we returned to the car, we found a parking ticket! We are going to call on Monday and tell them we thought we paid, and we were just visiting. We’ve been assured that they will remove it. Strike Three! Then we walked around downtown and found an AWESOME cheese shop and some beautiful gift shops. We had reservations for the Hot Springs so had to leave.
We got to the Nordic Spa and Hot Springs at 2:30 pm and it was beautiful!!! They had hot tubs, four different pools all with beautiful rock work surrounding them. They had an “illumination room”, “hibernation room” (which had zero gravity recliners), saunas, steam rooms, showers etc. You are supposed to first relax, then go sit in the Hot Springs, then take a cold shower and rest again until your body gets back to temperature and do it all over again. I told Steve that I hadn’t been that relaxed since February-LOL! They had a little café, and we got a little cheese plate and a glass of wine to sit and have on the deck overlooking the springs-HIGHLY RECOMMEND! We met a nice couple from Anchorage while there. We went back to the hotel, changed, and went downstairs to the Indian restaurant that is attached to it. When we walked in, we saw Alexa, our dental assistant, and her husband Chase. She introduced us and we asked if they wanted to join us for dinner. We had a great time. The food was excellent. They are in their early thirties and have traveled all over the world. They were also rafting guides in Montana for several seasons, and we got to hear some great adventures.
Sunday, we planned on going to this great looking bakery and café that makes all their own croissants etc. We got there only to find out they were closed on Sundays! Strike Four! We ended up at Tim Horton’s which is famous in Canada. It’s donuts and bagel sandwiches, nothing to write home about in our opinion. We went back to a gallery and bought a print from a local artist that we fell in love with and decided it was our 39th anniversary present to each other.
On to Canadian Tire, Canada’s answer to Menard’s. We loaded up on some items that were needed and then on to Real Canadian Superstore, which is a huge grocery store. I’m not gonna lie, it was pretty tough to resist all of the beautiful fruits and veggies that we aren’t allowed to bring back, but we managed to stock up on a few staples that are so much cheaper with the exchange rate. We ran into the couple from Anchorage (it’s a small world after all playing in the background) and had a nice chat with them. When we first tried to get a cart, we realized it was one of those where you had to put $ in to unlock them like Aldi. We didn’t have any Canadian change (you needed a dollar that is one coin) and a kind young lady told us that the head of key would work also, so we proceeded to take keys off the key chain and try to shove them in the slot with no luck. The lady was waiting for us to come through with a cart and when we didn’t, she came back around the corner and gave us a Canadian $1 dollar coin! We couldn’t catch her to pay her back with a US dollar. The couple from Anchorage said they had the exact same experience, and a nice person gave them a dollar. Canadians are nice but don’t like to work on Sundays-LOL! We decided to exchange names and phone #’s and keep in touch.
Now it’s time for lunch and Steve has his heart set on poutine. We look for restaurants that have it and they are all closed until 5pm! Strike Five! We found one on the way out of town about 10 miles, so we headed there. When we got there, the liquor store attached to it was open, but the restaurant was closed. Strike Six! So, we drive to Haines Junction (a two hour drive and I’m HANGRY by now) and stop at 1016, which is how many miles on the Alaska Highway you’ve been driving since the American border. We ordered poutine, not sure it’s for us? Also ordered a donair sandwich. They told us donair was like gyros??? It might have been similar, but it was very thin and the way they served it was with a “donair sauce” which seemed to be mayonnaise with sugar. We didn’t enjoy the sauce but if it had tzatziki sauce, it might have been a good sandwich. We got through the border with no issues and put everything away within an hour. I just have to say how AMAZING I am at organizing and finding places to put things away, when you don’t have any room! Organizing is my super power!!!
It’s nice to be “home”!!!
We miss y’all in the lower 48!
Kiss, Kiss,
Stephanie
Haines Happenings 