WWTBAM Bored

This was one of two stops on our trip where we had two days to spend. Fortunately we had an excursion planned for the second day in Whitehorse because, although it is an interesting town, there's only so much sightseeing one can do. Our excursion was to Lake Kathleen, part of Kluane National Park, where we were to take a boat trip across the lake to look for wildlife. The trip to Kluane took several hours and when we arrived we walked to the dock to board the boat, which turned out to be a cabin cruiser suitable for about 10 people, of which we had 8. The weather was a little breezy and the water choppy; one of our fellow excursioneers had some problems with motion sickness.

Our guide was a First Nations man whose family had provided the names for several of the lakes in the area. As he described the area he also told us some of his personal story - he had been a park ranger for a number of years and had also been in a documentary film about the Yukon gold rush, having an "extra's" role as one of the native porters who helped the stampeders carry their goods over the pass from Skagway. He also told us about finding a dead brown (grizzly) bear a few years ago. He informed the authorities and they performed a necropsy to find out what caused the bear's death. They discovered moose remains in the bear's stomach and surmised that it had managed to kill a moose calf and devour part of it before the mama moose did enough damage to kill the bear (it died from "blunt force trauma"). Although we saw no moose or bear while on the boat we did see some mountain goats on the side of one of the mountains framing the lake, as well as a "rock glacier", which is very much like an ice glacier except made of rock (duh!). Apparently the rock glacier forms when rain falls on loose rock, percolates down and freezes, creating a smooth surface for the rocks to slide on.

Back in Whitehorse I did a check of my inventory and realized that I would run out of reading material and crossword puzzles sooner than I had anticipated, so I made a quick trip to the "Fireweed Book Store" a couple blocks from the hotel. It was adjacent to a Starbucks which had posted a sign indicating that, due to staffing problems, it was closed. The bookstore was heavy on regional fare but I managed to find a copy of JRR Tolkien's "The Children of Hurin" (as edited by his son Christopher). I had avoided purchasing this in the past because the story is found in The Silmarillion, but I needed something, so I purchased it. I also got a Dell crossword puzzle book. Our dinner that night came from a Subway restaurant. Unfortunately the Subways in Canada and Alaska don't have the "$5 footlong" promotion going.

That night elwing took advantage of her inability to sleep to take photos from the hotel window at various times of night, so we have pictures taken at 10PM, 11PM, 1AM, 3AM and 5AM, and it's practically impossible to distinguish among them based on the ambient light.

I'm glad you were able to find a copy of Tolkien up there in the wilds of the Yukon. Imagine if you'd been a prospector and that hadn't been among your one ton of supplies!

earendel wrote:Our dinner that night came from a Subway restaurant.

You went all out while on vacation, huh?

MarleysGh0st wrote:I'm glad you were able to find a copy of Tolkien up there in the wilds of the Yukon. Imagine if you'd been a prospector and that hadn't been among your one ton of supplies!

earendel wrote:Our dinner that night came from a Subway restaurant.

You went all out while on vacation, huh?

Well, they couldn't find any wild moose or bear to roast.

MarleysGh0st wrote:I'm glad you were able to find a copy of Tolkien up there in the wilds of the Yukon. Imagine if you'd been a prospector and that hadn't been among your one ton of supplies!

earendel wrote:Our dinner that night came from a Subway restaurant.

You went all out while on vacation, huh?

Meals was one of the areas where we had to be careful - everything else was prepaid but elwing chose not to get a meal plan, so we alternated between eating at (relatively) inexpensive places (plus it's nice to have something familiar once in a while) and stuff we would purchase at grocery stores, plus cans of tuna that elwing had packed.

earendel wrote:

MarleysGh0st wrote:I'm glad you were able to find a copy of Tolkien up there in the wilds of the Yukon. Imagine if you'd been a prospector and that hadn't been among your one ton of supplies!

earendel wrote:Our dinner that night came from a Subway restaurant.

You went all out while on vacation, huh?

Meals was one of the areas where we had to be careful - everything else was prepaid but elwing chose not to get a meal plan, so we alternated between eating at (relatively) inexpensive places (plus it's nice to have something familiar once in a while) and stuff we would purchase at grocery stores, plus cans of tuna that elwing had packed.

Didn't they have that Scottish restaurant in the Yukon? Mac something...

There should be a rule about fast food places and vacations.

There really oughta be.

Maybe a law - that's better than a rule.

I'll hold my tiny hand grenades for something else though.

MarleysGh0st wrote:

earendel wrote:

MarleysGh0st wrote:I'm glad you were able to find a copy of Tolkien up there in the wilds of the Yukon. Imagine if you'd been a prospector and that hadn't been among your one ton of supplies!
You went all out while on vacation, huh?

Meals was one of the areas where we had to be careful - everything else was prepaid but elwing chose not to get a meal plan, so we alternated between eating at (relatively) inexpensive places (plus it's nice to have something familiar once in a while) and stuff we would purchase at grocery stores, plus cans of tuna that elwing had packed.

Didn't they have that Scottish restaurant in the Yukon? Mac something...

Either there wasn't one in Whitehorse or else it was too far to get to. Probably the former since Whitehorse isn't that large.

peacock2121 wrote:There should be a rule about fast food places and vacations.

There really oughta be.

Maybe a law - that's better than a rule.

I'll hold my tiny hand grenades for something else though.

Sometimes you just want something familiar. After being 17 days aboard a cruise ship last year and dining on all that fine cuisine, I was dying for some fried chicken or a Big Mac.

And possibly this all stems from our early vacation days, when we had little money and several small children. We would make do with tuna and stuff, but occasionally we just had to do a fast food thing, for our own sakes as well as that of the kids.

I wasn't sure before, but I am now. Sign me up for the next Alaskan cruise. I can't wait to have dinner at Subway and get to pay full price for a footlong to boot.

earendel wrote:Sometimes you just want something familiar. After being 17 days aboard a cruise ship last year and dining on all that fine cuisine, I was dying for some fried chicken or a Big Mac.

On our cruises, we've usually gotten on board fairly early (since we drive up the night before, we can get towards the front of the line) and we hit the lunch buffet first thing.

They usually have a good assortment of salads, entrees, a carved meat, veggies, etc., but what I've noticed is that about half the people who go through the buffet line only get a hamburger and French fries.....

silverscreenselect wrote:I wasn't sure before, but I am now. Sign me up for the next Alaskan cruise. I can't wait to have dinner at Subway and get to pay full price for a footlong to boot.

LOL

This cracks me up.

What is smaller than a tiny hand grenade?

Mebbe I missed something, ear. Did these critics pay for your vacation? If not, then they can STFU. I don't know who peed in their cornflakes this a.m., but, I'll bet it wasn't you.

Glad you had a great time.

ne1410s wrote:Mebbe I missed something, ear. Did these critics pay for your vacation? If not, then they can STFU. I don't know who peed in their cornflakes this a.m., but, I'll bet it wasn't you.

Glad you had a great time.

This also cracks me up, as I believe he did not pay for it either.

peacock2121 wrote:

ne1410s wrote:Mebbe I missed something, ear. Did these critics pay for your vacation? If not, then they can STFU. I don't know who peed in their cornflakes this a.m., but, I'll bet it wasn't you.

Glad you had a great time.

This also cracks me up, as I believe he did not pay for it either.

Well, technically I suppose elwing did, but it was our money.

ne1410s wrote:Mebbe I missed something, ear. Did these critics pay for your vacation? If not, then they can STFU. I don't know who peed in their cornflakes this a.m., but, I'll bet it wasn't you.

Glad you had a great time.

It's no big deal. As I said, sometimes one gets tired of all the fancy meals and stuff and just wants some "down home" food. And Subway was certainly cheaper than our other options.

ne1410s wrote:Mebbe I missed something, ear. Did these critics pay for your vacation? If not, then they can STFU. I don't know who peed in their cornflakes this a.m., but, I'll bet it wasn't you.

Lighten up. We're not tossing hand grenades or jabbing at ear with pointy sticks--just a little lighthearted teasing. When was that outlawed?

For the record, I loved my Alaska cruise (even, in retrospect, the part that might have made it my last vacation) and I'd very much like to have been on this one.

earendel wrote:

ne1410s wrote:Mebbe I missed something, ear. Did these critics pay for your vacation? If not, then they can STFU. I don't know who peed in their cornflakes this a.m., but, I'll bet it wasn't you.

Glad you had a great time.

It's no big deal. As I said, sometimes one gets tired of all the fancy meals and stuff and just wants some "down home" food. And Subway was certainly cheaper than our other options.

not this one lol. I was on a mission to not eat anything that I could have made myself at home. (easily done though, as I am not that adventurous in the kitchen) I really did not think there was such a thing as an optional meal plan.

Sounds like you ended up having a good time overall though, and that is what counts.

a1mamacat wrote: I really did not think there was such a thing as an optional meal plan.

Well, I think all his meals on the ship were included; this was for the land tour portion of the trip, in places where meals would otherwise be on one's own.