Despite all my worries, I got to the airport in plenty of time. The first event of the day was to drop off my poor cat at the vet's for the weekend -- she needs medication and obviously I can't do that if I'm not there. I arranged to drop her off at 9AM, just when he opened, which was pushing it a bit for my 11AM flight but feasible. However, the vet was delayed by an accident blocking the road, so I was still sitting there at 9:15 when he finally arrived. Said goodbye to my cat and took off with my tail on fire. After parking at a lot near the airport and getting a shuttle, actually entered the airport at 9:51, getting kinda tight.
There were no lines worthy of the name. In ten minutes that I spent waiting at the ticketing counter, they went through probably fifty people in front of me. It doesn't count as a line when it moves that fast. The security check wasn't backed up either, and I arrived at my gate half an hour after arriving at the airport. Wow.
When you are using high tech in public, you get questions. Since I actually had some time to wait at the gate, I dug out my cell phone and the keyboard for it and hopped onto AIM to see who was around. I wasn't exactly pestered, but I did get some looks and one lady asked me what it was.
Upon arriving at Vancouver, we went through the same five-minute march through the Deserted Zone as last time. I was a bit concered about having only a bit more than an hour to reach my next plane, after my experience with lines at Customs from last time, but the lines were short. I guess we beat the jumbo jet from Japan this time.
Vancouver once again demonstrates that it actually has security. While we're standing, waiting for Customs, they're running a sniffer dog up and down the lines. Not making a fuss about it, just leadng him up and down the lines while we're standing there anyway. The dog is interested in one guy's bag, but the handler pulls him away after a moment and continues down the line. I thought that was the end of it, but when I looked back just seconds later, a Customs officer had quietly materialized out of thin air next to said guy and was having a little chat. They took his papers and went away for a minute, then came back and returned them. I guess they decided that he was OK. He and his female companion spent longer than usual at the Customs desk, but he got through.
As you may have guessed, I managed to acquire a little keyboard for my PDA since last trip, or I wouldn't be writing this much. Not only that, but I have a lot more electronics with me in general: PDA and cradle and keyboard (it needs the cradle to connect to the keyboard -- I have an old PDA, no fancy fold-up cradle/keyboard for it, just a universal serial one), cell phone and keyboard, and my digital camera. They're all stuffed into my largest backpack, which is somewhat smaller than the bag I took last time.
I'm worried that it may spontaneously develop intelligence.
My new Nextel cell phone works as a phone in Vancouver, via a reciprocal agreement with Telus, but I have no Net access. That's what I expected, but still a bummer.
Possible oops: the research I did indicated that Whitehorse typically had daytime highs of 50+ degrees at this time of year. If I heard correctly at the start of the flight, the current temperature is in the low twenties. I do not have anything warmer than my heavy sweatjacket with me. This could be a bit of a problem because I'm not renting a car this time; I expect to be walking to the bookstore and such. We'll see what happens.
By coming here in May, I'd hoped to see Whitehorse when it was green and springlike. No such luck -- it's still winter. The tail end of winter, and there's no snow on the ground down in the city, but the plants are all still dormant.
The shuttle took the back way into the city, which makes sense because otherwise you have to drive the full length of the city right through the center to reach the hotel. Not that that means as much here as it does in a normal city.
You know the lightpole banners that so many cities and malls have? Especially cities that nobody would know existed if they didn't promote themselves, because except for borders on the map they're really just
part of one continuous urbanization? Whitehorse has those too. It's a bit eerie to see "Welcome to Whitehorse" banners on a lightpole... and there's nothing around except pine trees.
At the same hotel. Even on the same floor, three. I'm in a different room, though, tucked away on a little side corridor that I didn't even know existed. This one seems to be just as awkwardly laid out as the other one, but different. The bathroom is all one piece. There's a gap between the head of the bed and the wall, due to the heater (although that section doesn't have radiator in it, which is good because I don't want my head in a updraft all night), and there's a painting hung on the wall which may make it even more difficult to sit in bed and read. I may temporarily remove the painting. We'll see.
As expected, my cell phone doesn't work here. If my old phone, a tri-mode, couldn't find a digital signal and didn't work with the analog signal that it found, I didn't expect my shiny new GSM-only digital phone to have any chance.
Meanwhile, I'm starving, so I'm going to head downstairs and get something to eat!
Had a big burger at the hotel restaurant, then put on my sweatshirt undert my sweatjacket and hiked down to the drugstore for postcards so I can mail them tomorrow when I go out for books. It's cold, no doubt about it, but the wind is the bad part. It's really not bad at all when the wind isn't blowing, but the wind has a real bite to it.
Traffic is much like I remembered it: not much. I took more time to look around and there really are a good number of businesses in downtown Whitehorse. It is a real city, just a small one.
There is a Suburban in the hotel parking lot with U.S. Goverment license plates.
Marked down a pasta restaurant that I may try tomorrow, and thought about where I might take some pictures too.
Flipped on the TV again. I'd left it on the live camera from the center of town. Down one channel...
Whoa.
Oily naked female body.
It's a francophone channel. I have no idea what the show is about, but it's a bunch of people sitting around on couches talking, and it keeps switching to pictures from Penthouse and Playboy.
FULL female nudity. BLATANT female nudity. Not even a pretense of censorship. I mean, I know you can get that on the porn channels (although I don't think they have any porn channels here), but this is just an ordinary channel. Not something I expected to see, here or anywhere else.
Whoa. :)
The backlight on my PDA buzzes faintly, it turns out, if you're someplace quiet enough to be able to hear it. Another surprise.
9PM - still direct sunlight down here in the valley
9:30 - sunlight on the mountains to the east only. Went down to the restaurant for a bowl of ice cream before they close.
10 - the sun has finally set, but that doesn't mean it's dark, of course
11 - it's definitely dim now, well into twilight, although there's still a lot of light in the sky and you could still walk around without artificial light.
Interesting fact about the shower: it's a shower stall, but it doesn't have a door, just a shower curtain. Another interesting fact: if I dropped the soap, I'm not sure I could bend over to pick it up except that it doesn't have a door, just a curtain that you can push aside. In other words, it's cramped. The range of motion of the high-set shower head is limited, too. There is noplace you can point it where it won't spray on you. It is very difficult not to scream when the cold water sprays all over you, but I managed to keep it down to a loud squeak. I must find a better way of dealing with this shower.
There are no fewer than two channels currently showing bikini porn. An embarrassment of riches. Hm, one of them has gone to something else, but here's some actual nudity on another channel. Canadian cable never ceases to amaze me.
12 - it's definitely dark now, but there's STILL some light in the sky!
It's at least as bright now as it was at 10 last night, although I can't tell whether the sun has actually risen yet or not.
I left the restaurant at 10 last night. I go down to breakfast at not quite 10 this morning, and the same waitress is on duty. Jeez. I give her a really fat tip.
The restaurant is mediocre or marginal at a lot of things, but they make a very good waffle. I've been looking forward to more waffles since I left here in the fall.
I survived the long march. Hit the Post Office under the drug store and mailed the postcards, then hiked down to the other end of the city where the bookstore is. The trip out was miserable, the wind in my face was really unpleasant.
I stand corrected, Whitehorse has TWO movie theaters, for a total of four screens. However, of the four, the only movie I might want to see is Scorpion King, which I've already seen. It was OK, but not enough to get me to hike out and see it again -- as gorgeous as Kelly Hu is, I can turn on the TV in my hotel room and see more, thanks to Canadian cable TV.
Took a few photos on my wanderings. The hike back was much nicer. The wind seemed to have settled down and was at my back anyway, so I was much warmer.
The same waitress was still on duty when I went down for dinner. Gave her another fat tip.
True to form, I spent all day in bed reading. Finally got showered and dressed in time for a late dinner. The restaurant makes a good grilled cheese.
No bikini porn on Sunday nights.
Sitting in the airport at Whitehorse. Got up too late for breakfast at the hotel, but there's a restaurant at the airport, on the upper floor.
Like Vancouver, security here made me turn all my electronics on.
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This is the front of the terminal building. There's only one, and this is 90% of its frontage. |
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The High Country Inn. |
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From any intersection, you can see both sides to the city -- it's long and very narrow. It actually looks wider in the photos than it is. In the photo on the left, the complex of buildings in the far center, just left of the streetlight, is the hospital, which is actually on the other side of a river. The city grid ends only four blocks away. In the photo on the right, the rise marks the end of the city grid. |  |
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Looking toward the center of the city from two sides, at about noon on Saturday. This is the city's main artery. Note the wide open spaces of pavement. |  |
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I didn't eat here, but I may try it the next time I'm up there. It's in the middle of downtown and I photographed it primarily because of it's anthro husky mascot. |
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The Bookstore: Well-Read Books. |
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As mentioned in my previous Yukon Diary. |
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Some views of scenery around the city, captured from the bus on my way back to the airport. |
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This is the entire ticket counter at the Whitehorse airport. |