July 6, 2010 by Rae

The Drunken Goat Taverna

I have a little secret: for five months now, I have been directing Dawson City visitors to one of the best restaurants in Dawson, the Drunken Goat Taverna… without having actually stepped foot inside. Oh, I have had their food; wonderful people have shared their take out with me, but that’s not really the same.

Since I wasn’t working this evening I decided it was time to go to the Goat.

The menu is rather small, featuring the typical Greek appetizers as well as platters of roasted meat with rice, potatoes, and salad. The average price of a dinner is $30, but there is a ‘platter for two or more’ option that offers very good value as it includes spanokopita, cheesy phyllo thingies, shrimp, pita with tzaziki, rice, potatoes, salad, and a HUGE skewer of meat (lamb, beef, or chicken) per person.

Being alone, I decided to go for the chicken breast dinner with Greek salad, which would have come to about $31 with the tip. I made my decision while standing in a corner with a glass of water waiting for a table to open up. When one did it was a four seater and there were three solo diners waiting for a seat. The restaurant is quite small and very busy, so we were fine with dining together. As the fellows perused the menu, I suggested we split a platter for three. I can’t believe how bold I’ve become! They estimated the quantity of food and cost per person and realised that my suggestion was very good one. We didn’t regret it! There was so much food that we wound up giving some to a fourth person who joined us just as we were finishing up the appetizers! The cost per person was only $31, including taxes and tip.

The food was delicious and very fresh. I even liked the potatoes (very sweet and flavourful) and spanokopita (spinach isn’t my favourite thing in the universe). The phyllo cheese things are addictive (I had some this week from a friend’s takeout) and the chicken was so moist and flavourful. Add sweet shrimps, chewy rice, and perfectly dressed Greek-style salad! The service was okay and the atmosphere quite cozy. I doubt I’d go back to the Goat alone, it’s just not as good value when solo, but I’d happily join a group!

July 6, 2010 by Rae

Living in Her Car

The other night, I had the chance to meet an incredible fellow blogger. She’s a gal who just a few short months ago was dreaming of a more connected and less materialistic life, of driving an RV to the Arctic even though she’d never RVed before. She downsized, took a crash course in mechanics and RVing, and finally quit Texas, with the Arctic in her sights. She pushed on through fear and the sometimes impassable muddy stretches of the Dempster highway and emerged triumphant at the very edge of the world where a photo was taken of her frolicking in the Arctic Ocean. Her name is Jennifer and she is living in her car.

Our meeting was much too brief, as such meetings are, but how incredible to have met here, in Dawson City! I had a chance to show her a few sights and we talked a little. Meeting her in person was like welcoming home an old friend and a true kindred spirit. It was the kind of meeting where you are grateful for the time you had instead of bemoaning how short it was. Here was the only logical place for our paths to intersect, and they did.

Thank you for coming out on Saturday, Jennifer. I wish you many happy miles!

July 4, 2010 by Rae

Two Kinds of Northern Travelers

There are two kinds of travelers to Yukon, Alaska, and the Northwest Territories.

The first type are those like myself who consider the northern roads like the Dempster and Top of the World as being part of the adventure. Sure, it can suck to drive in thick mud or have a rock ding your windshield, but you at worst accept it and at best consider the experience the adventure of a lifetime. Those folks are prepared for the worst, respectful of the roads, and flexible. If the road is bad today, they will go tomorrow. If the roads are in good condition, they know that means they still cannot drive like they were on a highway in the south. These folks come off these roads with mud an inch thick on their rigs and a huge smile on their face, accepting any vehicle damage as a badge of honour.

The second type are those who become angry that they have to be inconvenienced by such road conditions in order to visit the north. They resent the mud, the dust, the slow pace. They have many more damaging incidents than the first group; broken hitches, flat tires, and other issues because they refuse to slow down and drive for the conditions. They are on a schedule and the road is in their way. They will go today even if locals tell them to wait, and they will curse every rutty mile.

That’s it. The only distinction between northern travelers is how they handle the road conditions up here. The size, age, or shape of their rig has no bearing. I saw two people pull into today in huge several hundred thousand dollar motorhomes. The first guy’s rig had about an inch of mud on it and he was so proud that he’d ‘conquered’ the Top of the World Highway. And he had the cracked windshield to prove it! The second guy’s rig also had an inch of mud on it and he was so angry that his beautiful rig was so sullied and that he’d have to waste an hour washing it. He was only staying in Dawson a night because he was ‘sick of the roads’ and scowled when I told him there are a few gravel patches and frost heaves on the way to Whitehorse.

To the first group I say “Welcome!” To the second “Why did you bother coming?”

July 1, 2010 by Rae

Sam ‘N’ Andy’s Restaurant, Whitehorse

Tuesday night in Whitehorse, I had dinner at Sam ‘N’ Andy’s, a Tex-Mex restaurant. The food and service were ho-hum, but much, much better than at the ‘authentic’ Sanchez Cantina.

My chicken enchilada was flavourful, but the sides of rice with vegetables and a boring garden salad were uninspired, which was a shame. Why bother with a good main course and neglect the sides?

The server was brusque, but attentive. I didn’t have to wait long for service even though the place was busy, and my drink and food came promptly.

If I’m ever desperate for Mexican or Tex-Mex in Whitehorse, I’d definitely go back to Sam ‘N’ Andy’s… if only for their giant delicious two-ounce mojitos!

June 30, 2010 by Rae

Mammoths, Atlatls, and Plane Crashes

I touched a real honest to goodness fossilized mammoth bone on Tuesday. It was about 25,000 years old. And that was after seeing a mostly real honest to goodness, fully reconstructed, mammoth skeleton. I know I’m getting ahead of myself, but have you ever seen a mammoth skeleton???

So, ahem, one of the biggest and most visible attractions in Whitehorse, because it’s right off the Alaska Highway, is the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre. I had no idea what Beringia is/was and thought the place was a tourist trap, so I never really thought about visiting it. But after so much time in the Yukon I’d begun to hear things about the place and it started to work at me. So, after I got in from my Kluane Country jaunt, I decided to go find out just what was this thing called Beringia.

Beringia is a lost continent, a landmass that joined Siberia and present-day Alaska during the last ice age. It was a fertile grassland known as the ‘Mammoth Steppe’ in which giant animals roamed the land.

Stories of those days have been passed down through the ages to the present native peoples of the Yukon. One archaeologist studied those legends to see if there was any realistic basis to them and was lead to the confluence of the Old Crow and Porcupine rivers where there had been a legend of a giant monster slain on those banks. That legend is now a true story, as the skeleton of the ‘giant monster’ was found thanks to this orally passed down story–it was a woolly mammoth! Talk about myth coming to life!

After watching a fifteen minute movie about Beringia we were invited to step outside to try our hand using an atlatl, commonly known as a spear thrower. I’m quite good with a bow and arrow, so I was eager to try this other ancient weapon. I did three throws and the teacher informed me that I was one of the best he’d ever seen! While the others aimed to throw their spears as far as they could, with their first throw failing miserably, I focused on my technique and struck the same target three times, each time with more force. If I’d been hunting for the first time, I would have probably made a kill with at least one of those throws. It’s no wonder I didn’t last as a vegetarian–I’m a natural born hunter! 😀

My tour of Beringia filled me with such awe and wonder. Until yesterday afternoon, the Yukon was the Klondike. Anytime that happened before was of no interest. It was like discovering that an old friend has been hiding a wonderful secret from me.

The centre isn’t very big; there are a couple of exhibits outside and in, but it’s an excellent way to spend an hour or two. You can get a combo pass for the Transportation Museum next door for $9. That’s right, $9 can get you at least two hours of entertainment in excellent museums in Whitehorse. That’s less than the cost of a movie ticket!

The transportation museum was very good; with interesting displays. My favourites were those devoted to the Chilkoot Trail and to the Helen Klaben plane crash. She and a pilot crashed in the frigid Yukon wilderness in the 1960s and though badly wounded, lived to tell the tale. She wrote a book about the ordeal called Hey, I’m Alive, which was made into a movie.

between the Alaska Highway and the parking lot, a family of mammoths plays (dad shown)

this giant beaver apparently existed once upon a time. He was as tall as I am–5’6″!

The Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre

a mammoth skeleton

a giant sloth!

this statue represents the journey from life to death

(about the statue)

explanation of why glaciers are blue

explanation of ‘Beringia’

the displays at both Beringia and the Transporation Museum were excellent and very detailed

as I said, very detailed!

I had no idea that horses were RE-introduced to North America!

the Yukon Horse

Legends of Beringia

close up of the statue

touching a real mammoth fossil!

“please touch” is one of my favourite phrases

these are darts or spears

an atlatl

the dart rests against this rock and then you hold the two almost like chop sticks

plaque about the plane flying outside the Transporation Museum

explanation of the pivoting mount…

this plane always points into the wind

mural showing the different themes of the Yukon–native history, gold minining, the building of the Alaska Highway

kind of fuzzy, but this plaque says that it was on the site of the present day transportation museum that the US Army gave the Alaska Highway to Canada