Adventures with Dad: Tombstone, Northern Lights, Beer, and Shelves

Tombstone

Dad, Jeff, and I went up to Tombstone about 10 days ago. Jeff went fishing, Dad and I went sightseeing.

It was a cloudy day, which meant it was a miserable day for fall photography. However Tombstone is gorgeous even without the sun on its fall colours. Here are some untouched photos from Tombstone Territorial Park:

Dad went back up the Dempster a few days later and it was still cloudy and rainy. He still got some great photos, which I’d link to here, if he had a blog, but he doesn’t, yet.

Northern Lights

Every day while Dad was here was cold, wet, and cloudy. And so many days we were receiving aurora alerts for great northern light viewing!

After calling our watch over and going to bed one night, we found people posting terrific aurora pictures online the next day that happened after we fell asleep. Time to get serious!

On Friday night as the full moon lit up the sky, we could make out a few stars and knew we had a chance. Long after Jeff went to bed, Dad and I drove up to the dome overlooking the town. It was -1C and windy and freezing and I was way under dressed.

Dawson City from the Midnight Dome, after midnight

A group of Japanese were there too, filming and taking photos and waiting…. Finally when the first light beam started to grow, I knew right away they had never seen them before. They were ooo’ing and ahhhhh’ing!

I still find every aurora show unique. This one had one big band that went from the southern horizon, up over our heads, and down to the northern horizon. Really amazing, despite the full moon and clouds (and bone chilling temperature despite wearing a toque) 🙂

Here is one of Dad’s photos showing the start of the light band, beside the moon.

Beer

Finally after spending almost 2 weeks with us, the weather forecast cleared for Alaska, signalling Dad that it was time to mosey on to Alaska to see what Denali looks like in fall.

We decided to take a little beer tour through town on his last night, drinking nothing but Yukon Gold beer at each stop, because it is simply awesome.

Bombay Peggy’s

Showing Dad an app at Bombay Peggy’s

Sourdough Saloon at the Downtown Hotel

The Japanese visitors were also at the saloon filming some interviews, and one of them came over to our table, mistaking Dad for Terry, the toe captain!

Diamond Tooth Gertie’s

We finished the night with Gertie’s midnight show, which is my favourite of the 3 nightly shows. I think I could watch it every night. We happened to hit a happy hour, so we took advantage, and Dad even bought a souvenir glass to remember his adventures.

The stumble home from Gertie’s.

Shelves

Yesterday Dad left for Alaska. (He had to start his van a few minutes early to melt all the frost off the windshield!)

It was so nice having him here for many days. It seems like his trips are normally rushed more, but this time he had so much time to explore. He was in every shop, met a bunch of people, and had so many adventures. We even explored the thrift store and visited the garbage dump!

And even better, he was here long enough to make his homemade pizza TWICE!

And as a forever helpful father, he built us a shelving unit to handle all the canned food we brought from our last house. We used to go to Costco a couple times a year and buy a lot of supplies. They will come in handy here with the higher food prices. And as we consume them, the shelves are designed to hold two Rubbermaids on each shelf so we can keep our storage orderly, until the day comes that we have a garage or shed again.

Can’t wait to hear about Alaska Dad! Come back again soon!