My Mom and sister Julie are visiting!

Mom and Julie are up for half of July. Here’s some highlights so far!

I drove down to Whitehorse early last Thursday to pick Mom and Julie up at the Whitehorse airport. It was pretty smokey for a bit, but I had a really nice drive down. Saw a moose, a few thousand ground squirrels, hundreds of rabbits, red squirrels, a fox, and a lynx.

We stayed in a nice Airbnb in Whitehorse for a couple nights so they could recoup from their travel up to the Yukon, I could show them a few sights, and so I could get some dental work done that I’ve been delaying for awhile (no dentist in Dawson City).

They loved the colour of the water at Miles Canyon.

They were even brave enough to  walk over the suspension bridge!

I showed them some of the Whitehorse shops.Fed them at the Klondike Rib and Salmon. On Friday morning, I made sure they had a hearty breakfast and their morning coffees. Then we went for a tour at the Yukon Wildlife Preserve, followed by a stop at Bean North where Mom made herself at home on this porch:That afternoon, I spent some quality time with the dentist while the ladies chilled. After my face regained feeling, we went to Earl’s where Mom ordered all the drinks:Julie and I shared a pull out couch, like we were kids again. On Saturday morning, we loaded up the car with their luggage, all the supplies I bought in Whitehorse, and then we stopped at Tim Horton’s for the best donut in the world, the “Dutchie”. When they discontinued the Dutchie, my uncle Bernie got his picket signs ready to express his dissatisfaction, but his daughter, who worked there, shut him down 🙂

So we waited until it stopped raining, up in Pelly, half way to Dawson, and took a picture of our Dutchie enjoyment for Uncle Bernie.
Once we got to Dawson, the forest fire smoke got so freaky thick for awhile, we delayed wandered the streets until the wind changed directions. Once the air was better, we showed them sights, and ended up at the Drunken Goat for a good Greek feast.Of course Mom ordered all the drinks again.I’m (mostly) kidding 😉

The next day, Jeff took us for a drive through the goldfields, showing them how gold mining is done here. We even took a little hike:We showed them an old roadhouse. I think I love old buildings more than them, but they humoured me. There are fires burning everywhere. By the time we got close to Eureka dome, we could see small plumes of smoke all over the hills looking towards the Black hills. I texted with my Dad that morning and he said to be sure to show them “my truck”. Here’s me from two years ago when Dad visited:

Here’s Julie at the same truck:

We took them up to the top of King Solomon’s Dome too to see all the smoke around.
After a day of exploring, we had a mandatory ice cream stop. Julie looked pretty comfy there. She was even chatting to the fellow beside her from South Carolina.That night we made it to Diamond Tooth Gertie’s 8:30 pm show. It was pretty busy, so we had to sit in the upper level. I promised them we’d be back again soon to see a later show, and I’ll be sure they get a better seat. It’s been really overcast and rainy. They didn’t even get up to the Midnight Dome until the third day they were here, and even then the clouds were blocking some of the view.We’ll go back up though once the sun shines!

The cold and damp and breeze has our southern visitors all bundled up:

Another reason to be glad their visit will be long enough they’ll see the return of the sunshine!

Last night we played a serious game of Dominos – that train game.

And afterwards we took our Fitbits for a walk, a good wet walk! Here we are about 11pm last night after we all hit our Fitbit goals.Tomorrow I return to work for a few days, but this weekend we’ve got a trip planned up the Dempster to Eagle Plains, and next week, if it isn’t as rainy, we’ll head over to Chicken, Alaska.