Alaska and the Yukon - Vancouver, To Whitehorse, Yukon

Wednesday, July 9

Vancouver, BC to Whitehorse, Yukon

Our luggage had to be ready to be picked up by 8:00 AM so even though our flight didn’t leave until 11:15 AM, we were up early.  The bellman picked up our luggage right on time, and soon it was time to go down and claim our luggage and check-in for our flight.  We were flying Air North to Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory, and  check-in and security went smoothly.  We left right on time and we had an easy two hour flight to Whitehorse.  Amazingly we were served a  complimentary lunch and beverages on the plane, which seems to be pretty unusual these days particularly for a short flight.  Val hates to fly, but she did really well and she was able to take her mind off the flight with an interesting conversation with a helicopter pilot who sat beside her.

When we arrived in Whitehorse we were met by our Holland America Journey Host, Anita, who gave us directions on claiming and tagging our luggage.  It all was very easy.  We were given room keys at the airport so when we arrived at the hotel we just went straight to our room and our luggage was delivered shortly after that.

We arrive in Whitehorse.

Whitehorse has a population of about 27,000 and is the capitol of the Yukon Territory.  The Yukon has a total population of only 34,000 so you can see that Whitehorse is by far the largest city. 

We had a free evening in Whitehorse so after cleaning up and settling in we set out to explore the area.  The hotel is in the center of town so we walked around, explored, browsed in some shops, bought some water and cinnamon rolls for our breakfast tomorrow.  After a while we looked for a place to eat dinner and just down the street from the hotel was a place called Klondike Rib and Salmon that looked good so we decided to go there. It was a popular place and we had about a forty-five minute wait, but the time went by quickly as we met another couple from our tour and passed the time chatting with them.  The wait was worth it as we had a very good dinner. Val and I both had fish and chips made with fresh halibut which were very tasty.

Val at the Klondike Rib and Salmon.

After dinner we had tickets to the Frantic Follies, which was a show that recreated entertainment from the gold rush days.  The show was pretty good and well done, but not really our cup of tea.  After the show it was off to bed as we had an excursion to a wildlife preserve in the morning.