DAY 24 - Exploring Whitehorse!

Yesterday we had a nice, cozy sleep-in and didn't have a set schedule for the day. When we were finally up and at em' we headed into town, about 5 minutes away. We figured we should explore the city and get as many passport stamps that we could. We drove around for a little bit, getting familiar with town and stopped at a couple historical places along the way. Whitehorse is a pretty small town so it was easy to get to know the streets and area quickly. We parked on one of the main strips and thought it would be nice to walk around and check out some stores. We went into a couple interesting gift shops, much like the rest of the ones we have visited elsewhere, and got our usual souvenirs! Zack has also been wanting to visit a music store since the beginning of our trip and we haven't been able to find any yet. Seeing as how Whitehorse was far more of a city than Banff or Jasper, we knew we'd have more luck. There were 2 in the city that we went to check out. The first one was clearly vacant and closed down for good, which we found out only by looking through the very dark windows lol So we headed to the next one, which online said it was open. When we arrived, the entire street was closed due to construction but you could still access the store so we kept our fingers crossed. Nope, this one was closed too. The good thing is it was just closed for "reconstruction", the bad thing is we were leaving tomorrow. With the music store being a bust, we thought we'd go back and check out the sweet pawn shop we drove by earlier. We pulled up, jumped out of the truck and what d'you know... Also closed for reconstruction!!! Even the Dollarstore down the street was closed because of a power outage! Not sure what was going on, but it appears we came at the wrong time 😂 all the interesting things we wanted to check out around town were not open. We did happen to run into a lovely local Yukoner on the streets though that was more than happy to brighten our day with tails of her upbringing here. She was in a little bit rough shape but easily one of the happiest people we've met along our way so far.

We drove around getting the rest of our stamps and learning more and more about the history of Whitehorse. These explorer's passports are such a great way of getting visitors to help support the community and learn about their culture.
When we pulled into our last stop for the day, The Yukon Berginia Interpretive Centre, we looked up into the sky and were in disbelief ... There was a faint rainbow-like halo surrounding the sun!! It was like nothing we have ever seen before. Immediately we looked it up to find it was called a "sun halo" or "sun dog" which is caused when there are ice crystals in the atmosphere and the sun hits them a certain way. It was incredible. After talking to a sweet elderly couple from Alaska we found out that this was actually a pretty normal occurrence up here! Then while we were still talking to the couple, an adorable red fox also came trotting out of the forest right up to us and explored the ground nearby. It's been the first fox we've seen on our trip so far, but it never fails. Red foxes appear to be our spirit animal and we have seen one on every special trip we've taken together. With the curious creatures that they are, they always come up to dance around our car or say hello. Seeing him definitely reassured us that this exactly right where we are meant to be.
After that we headed to the Yukon Brewing Company to check off our next brewery tour. Zack assured we head their early so we can have extra samples before we start. Now I know that he meant it about the samples, but I know this was also his nonchalant way of making sure we don't repeat our super late appearance like we did at the brewery in Canmore 😂
When we arrived, we grabbed two flights of different beers and settled in to taste away. They had a lemon-lavender radler that was very interesting, and of course a classic pumpkin beer that was a pure favourite! While we were there, we couldn't help but notice how many locals came in to buy beer like we would with a beer store back home. It's been really refreshing that each place we have been so far keeps everything so local.
Our beer flights went down nice and easy, and before we knew it the tour was ready to begin. When we first arrived we were the only 2 people there, but it soon filled up and we had a group of about 8. The extra cool part about this brewery is they also are a newer Whiskey distillery so we got to see all their barrels and learn about that process as well. This was one of our favourite breweries so far, especially because they recycle and reuse old beer bottles from all different companies across Canada! And I mean it's beer from the Yukon, so how cool is that??? After tasting all their beers from light to dark, we were thoroughly impressed with each one. Their Midnight Sun espresso stout was incredible, so much flavour to it and they use locally roasted espresso beans from down the road! Two of our favourite things together, beer and coffee. Another really awesome thing about the brewery is that they use local art for all of their labels and even the names of the paintings for the brew itself. The brewery really captured the true essence of The Yukon and that was the best part to us. We also got to try some of their famous whiskey which has won the Canadian Whiskey award, and their grappa and berry liquor. As we headed out we continued the tradition, Zack grabbed his brewery shirt and I even grabbed one for myself too!
After skipping lunch, and not having access to the kitchen in our Airbnb we decided to grab some dinner tonight instead of cooking in the parking lot lol we headed to Boston Pizza just beside the brewery for a "pizza Bella" with prosciutto, mozzarella, arugula and balsamic roasted tomatoes and a roasted beet and peach salad. Anyone who knows me knows that for some reason I have a huge obsession with beets, and can't turn down anything with them!! Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica ✌
As
 I picked through the salad, clearing eating all the beets, Zack said to me, "you know I do like a bite with a beet it in here and there" WHOOPS 😇 hahaha
After dinner it was already about 8:30pm and we were ready to hit the hay. We headed back to our Airbnb for our last night of sleep in a real bed for a long time, and rested up before our drive to Dawson City in the morning!