August 21 and 22, 2012
My favorite part of Dawson City has to be the fact we didn’t have to be up and at the bus by a certain time. The whole day was at leisure. Roy decided we needed to get a wakeup call in the middle of the night if the Northern Lights were out so our phone jolted me from sleep at 2:15am and we layered on sweats over our pajamas and trekked outside in hopes of getting a glimpse of the Northern Lights. Thankfully we were not the only crazies wandering the dirt roads in the middle of the night. We recognized a lot of people from our group shivering with their cameras in hand and staring up at the sky. The Northern Lights were dim but we did see streaks of light green. I can only imagine how vibrant the colors will be in a few weeks. We were told that we would have a good chance to see the lights again in Fairbanks too.
My favorite part of Dawson City has to be the fact we didn’t have to be up and at the bus by a certain time. The whole day was at leisure. Roy decided we needed to get a wakeup call in the middle of the night if the Northern Lights were out so our phone jolted me from sleep at 2:15am and we layered on sweats over our pajamas and trekked outside in hopes of getting a glimpse of the Northern Lights. Thankfully we were not the only crazies wandering the dirt roads in the middle of the night. We recognized a lot of people from our group shivering with their cameras in hand and staring up at the sky. The Northern Lights were dim but we did see streaks of light green. I can only imagine how vibrant the colors will be in a few weeks. We were told that we would have a good chance to see the lights again in Fairbanks too.
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| Westmark Hotel - The Rainbow Row of Dawson City |
Since
we were awake for a while during the night, we each slept in and then went our
separate ways for the day. Roy went to Belinda’s, the Westmark’s restaurant,
for breakfast then set off to explore the town of Dawson City. I move a little
slower so I eventually set off for the only full service coffee house in town
on Front Street. I sipped my chai latte as I walked along the Yukon River to
the end of town. I then decided to walk every street of Dawson City and go in
every store along the way. Dawson City had a great Visitor’s Center that told
the history of the area through films and local workers. I signed the guest
book and grabbed some useful pamphlets to take home. Dawson City is full of
unique shops…they have everything from jewelry stores, a video rental store,
cheesy gift shops, clothing stores, and an outdoor supply store. There are only
2 grocery markets in town and they were incredibly expensive compared to home! Dawson
even had a mortuary! Would you like to know how long it took me to go in every
store and walk every street in Dawson City? Two hours. Yes, two hours to slowly
wander and shop. That should tell you what a metropolis Dawson City is!
I spent
most of the afternoon walking the town (again) and along the Klondike Millennium
Trail by the Yukon River. Roy let his adventurous spirit take over and he
followed the phone lines up and over a mountain and wandered in the woods until
he found the Dempster Highway and walked back to Dawson City. We reconvened for
dinner at Sourdough Joes, famous for their (you guessed it) Fish & Chips.
You would think we were in the UK as much as we have had fish and chips on this
trip!
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